UK Census Day is Sunday 21 March 2021 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland has decided to postpone until March 2022 because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Whether they will have a question for those who filled in the 2021 census I’m not sure, but given the mobility of people outside of a pandemic, one would hope so. It would give another perspective on the effects of Covid -19.
I find the tales to be found within the documents quite fascinating. And whilst I appreciate you may not be quite so entranced with the detail, I thought you might be interested in a brisk walk through the ‘history’ of census in other countries and times.
Census in the UK 19th century onwards
2021 is the first time where filling in the census is actively encouraged to be carried out online rather than paper form. However, a national census has taken place every 10 years since 1801, with the exception of 1941.
Census came about from a need to understand how the population was changing. The rapid pace of Agrarian and Industrial Revolutions caused population movements and population growth on a scale never seen before – and authorities wanted to know what exactly was happening. The Census Act 1800, also known as the Population Act 1800, enabled the first census in England, Wales and Scotland to take place. Northern Ireland was included form 1921.
The 1801-1831 were predominantly head counts, taken by Overseers of the Poor and the records which remain are scattered around the country.
Some think that the first census was also a means of discovering how many able bodied men of fighting age there were. The country had more or less been at war with France since c 1792 and the overthrow of the French monarchy
Census Ancient and Modern – “Fun facts”
- In the 1841 census, JMW Turner, artist, rowed a boat into the Thames so he that he wasn’t at any property at all.
- Emily Davison, suffragette, hid in a cupboard in the House of Commons on 1911 census night, so that’s what her address was recorded as.
- The 1931 census records were destroyed in a fire.
- From 1951 until 1991, households were asked if they had an outside toilet.
- In 2001 was notable for two things –
- it took place during the peak of the foot and mouth disease outbreak
- religious belief was included in the census for the first time since 1851. There were 390,000 Jedi believers.
- Questions on civil partnerships, second homes and recent migration appeared for the first time in 2011.
Of course whilst 1841 is regarded as the first modern census, it certainly wasn’t the first time that the ruling authority had collected data on the population.
Census Ancient and Modern – how ancient?!
There is a clay tile in the British Museum dating back 4000 BCE. It is a record of the Babylonians needing to know how many people they had so they could work out how much food they needed to feed them.
Around 2,500 BCE when the Egyptian pharaohs were having the pyramids built, they used census to work out the size of the labour force available.
In China, in the Han Dynasty 2 CE, 57.67 million people were recorded as living in 12.36 million households.
And of course the Romans conducted censuses every five years, roughly form the 6th century BCE. Every man and his family had to return to his place of birth to be counted. This allowed them to keep track of the number of arms-bearing citizens as well as the general population. These days it forms part of the familiar Christian Christmas story which is familiar to many non-Christians too. It’s why Jesus was born in Bethlehem and not in Nazareth!
And back to the British Isles
We have had a good few census prior to 1801. But the one you probably have all heard of is the Domesday Book.
Domesday Book
One of the most famous of the Census Ancient and Modern is the 11th century Domesday Book. This ‘Great Survey’ covered much of England and parts of Wales and was carried out during 1086, twenty years after William had gained the throne of England by conquest at the Battle of Hastings.
The main reason this survey, or census, was taken was to assess the taxable value of individuals, their land, property and other assets. The information contains details of the taxes paid on these assets during the reign of Edward the Confessor (1002 -1066) so that comparisons could be made with the current day. And taxes demanded accordingly.
The Domesday Book is actually composed of two independent works.
Little Domesday, describing Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk
Great Domesday which covers the remaining part of England, except the northern areas that correspond to the more modern Westmorland, Cumberland, Northumberland, and the Palatine County of Durham. The survey does not cover London and Winchester. Only the parts of Wales along the border with England are included.
It wasn’t until c1179 that Richard FitzNigel defined the book with the term “Doomsday”, or “[book] of the Day of Judgment” because it appeared as a rigorous trial that no one could avoid.
Medieval England
In March 1279, King Edward I commissioned a great inquiry into landholding in England. The surviving returns were arranged by hundred, hence their name, the Hundred Rolls. A Hundred was the term used to denote a division of an English shire consisting of 100 hides (unit of land).
Although Hundred Rolls returns only survive for a handful of counties across the Midlands and East Anglia they paint a much more detailed picture of rural society than the Domesday Book and have been invaluable for historical research. (been there, done that!)
And from the 16th Century
What other census ancient and modern have there been? Well, Quebec held its first official census in 1666, Iceland in 1703 and Sweden in 1749.
But in Britain, it was the Bishops who were responsible for counting the number of families in their diocese, as they had been since Tudor times in the 16th century.
Census Ancient and Modern – back to March 2021
This census is a snapshot of ‘life’ or to quote the government website “a unique source of detailed socio- demographic statistics” and is used to inform decisions on housing, social services, education and so on.
I have to say it doesn’t feel like a true reflection of my current existence. In March 2020 it would have done. But I did not expect to be taking photos of my existing garden at the Vernal Equinox or filling in the 2021 census for this current address. We should have been carrying these in relation to our new home. But the saga of our move is for elsewhere – delays caused by others in the chain, we’ve been ready since early January!
So for me this census has a somewhat surreal feel to it.
If you fancy finding out more about the various English census over the centuries, check out the National Archives. They have a lot of online information. As do the Census pages on the Government website. It is only possible to find personal information up to 1911; the most recent 100 years is not available as people may still be alive!
