This computerised transcription of the census enumerators' books for the 1881 Census for England, Scotland and Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man is a by-product of a project to create a microfiche index of the population of Great Britain for genealogists. Covering the entire enumerated population of England, Scotland and Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man in 1881, it is the largest collection of historical source material to be made available in computerised form. The data consists of the name, address, relationship to the head of household, marital status, age, occupation and birthplace of some 26 million individuals, together with information about disabilities.
In 1999 the Genealogical Society of Utah published a version of this computerised transcription as a CD-ROM product suitable for genealogical research (Genealogical Society of Utah (1999) 1881 British census and national index. [25 CDs]. Salt Lake City, Utah: GSU). This study is an enriched version of these data. The sample is a 5 per cent random sample of the parishes of Great Britain. The sample was chosen in the simplest manner possible. A list of all the parishes in England, Wales, Scotland and the Islands in the British Seas was created; using a random number generator in Microsoft Excel, a random number between zero and one was allocated to each parish. All those less than or equal to 0.05 were selected for the sample. The records relating to the individuals in each of these parishes were then extracted from the data and combined in a database.

Tables B1 and B3 in Appendix B of the documentation list the 716 parishes in the sample.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

This project aimed to extend knowledge of late nineteenth century Scottish, and hence British, demography, by producing four parallel longitudinal data sets by linking individuals in the decennial censuses of 1861-1901 with the births, deaths and marriages from civil registers for the lowland town of Kilmarnock, the Hebridean Island of Skye, and the rural parishes of Torthorwald and Rothiemay, places with contrasting economic and social structures and physical environments. The resulting data source is rich in information relating to the social, occupational, household, and demographic characteristics of individuals, who can also be situated within their physical environment. The relatively large scale of the data-sets allows greater accuracy and detail in the multivariate analysis of mortality, fertility, nuptiality and migration. Special permission was granted by the General Register Office, Edinburgh, for access to the civil registers of births, marriages and deaths, and these have been linked to the census entries for the same individuals, allowing the creation of full or partial life histories. Linkage has been carried out using a sets of related individuals approach in a relational data-base system using computer algorithms and hand-finishing (see Reid, Davies and Garrett (2006) 'Nineteenth century Scottish demography from linked censuses and civil registers: a sets of related individuals approach', History and Computing, 14(1+2), 2002 (publ. 2006), pp. 61-86).

The terms of our agreement with the General Register Office for Scotland do not allow us to deposit the births, marriages and deaths for archiving, which prevents deposit of the linked material. However we can deposit the census material annotated to include the years of birth, death and marriage of an individual (but no other details of these events). Two separate census deposits are being made. This is a version of the raw data, with no standardisation or enhancement apart from corrections or changes to ensure consistency, notes made by data entry personnel, and household and individual identifiers.



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The data consist of transcriptions of the census enumerators' books for Skye, Kilmarnock, Rothiemay and Torthorwald, for the years 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891 and 1901. The following information on all individuals within all households on census night is provided: address (three fields); forename(s), surname(s); relationship to head of household; marital status; age; sex; occupation; other occupational information such as employment status, where available; county or birth, parish of birth; language; and number of rooms in the household. The data collection also contains details of where each individual appears in the census returns by giving the name of the registration district, the number of the enumeration district, the schedule number as indicated on the census enumerators' books, and household and person identification codes created by the project. Some variables are not available for all years or places: see project documentation for more details.

The Integrated Census Microdata (I-CeM) project has produced a standardised, integrated dataset of most of the censuses of Great Britain for the period 1851 to 1921: England and Wales for 1851-1861, 1881-1921 and Scotland for 1851-1901 and 1921, making available to academic researchers, detailed information at parish level about everyone resident in Great Britain collected at most of the decennial censuses between 1851-1921. Users should note that the 1871 England and Wales census data and 1911 Scottish census data are not available via I-CeM.

The original digital data has been coded and standardised. In addition, the original text and numerical strings have always been preserved in separate variables, so that researchers can go back to the original transcription. However, users should note that name and address details for individuals are not currently included in the database; for reasons of commercial sensitivity, these are held under Special Licence access conditions under SN 7856 for data relating to England, Wales and Scotland, 1851-1911 and SN 9281 for data relating to England and Wales, 1921.

This study (7481) relates to the available anonymised data for 1851-1911, i.e. all available years except 1921. Data for England and Wales 1921 are available under SN 9280. The data are available via an online system at https://icem.ukdataservice.ac.uk/

Latest edition information

For the second edition (June 2024), the 1851-1911 data have been redeposited with amended and enhanced data values.

Further information about I-CeM can be found on the "https://www.campop.geog.cam.ac.uk/research/projects/icem/" target="_blank"> I-CeM Integrated Microdata Project webpages.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The Great Britain Historical Database has been assembled as part of the ongoing Great Britain Historical GIS Project. The project aims to trace the emergence of the north-south divide in Britain and to provide a synoptic view of the human geography of Britain at sub-county scales. Further information about the project is available on A Vision of Britain webpages, where users can browse the database's documentation system online.

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Parish level statistics for England, Wales and Scotland taken from the 1801, 1811, 1851, 1891, 1911, 1931 and 1951 censuses.

Parish level statistics for England and Wales taken from the 1831 and 1871 censuses.

Parish level statistics for England taken from the 1821 and 1841 censuses.

Parish level statistics for Scotland taken from the 1881 census.

Please note: this study does not include information on named individuals and would therefore not be useful for personal family history research.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The Great Britain Historical Database has been assembled as part of the ongoing Great Britain Historical GIS Project. The project aims to trace the emergence of the north-south divide in Britain and to provide a synoptic view of the human geography of Britain at sub-county scales. Further information about the project is available on A Vision of Britain webpages, where users can browse the database's documentation system online.

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Birthplace statistics from the 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901 and 1911 censuses for residents of England and Wales arranged by age and sex.

Birth-Places of the Inhabitants of the Counties of Scotland in 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901, 1911, 1921, 1931 and 1951 arranged by age.

Birthplace statistics from the 1951 census for residents of England and Wales arranged by sex and districts/counties/countries.

Please note: this study does not include information on named individuals and would therefore not be useful for personal family history research.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The Integrated Census Microdata (I-CeM), England and Wales, 1921 study contains the standardised England and Wales data for 1921.

The Integrated Census Microdata (I-CeM) project has produced a standardised, integrated dataset of most of the censuses of Great Britain for the period 1851 to 1911: England and Wales for 1851-1861, 1881-1921 and Scotland for 1851-1901, and 1921 making available to academic researchers, detailed information at parish level about everyone resident in Great Britain collected at most of the decennial censuses between 1851-1921.

The name and address details for individuals are not currently included in the database; for reasons of commercial sensitivity, these are held under Special Licence access conditions under SN 9281 Integrated Census Microdata (I-CeM) Names and Addresses, England and Wales, 1921: Special Licence Access. See the catalogue record for 9281 for instructions on how to apply for those data.

These data are available via an online system at https://icem.ukdataservice.ac.uk/

Further information about I-CeM can be found on the I-CeM Integrated Microdata Project webpages.

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The data contain information on age, gender, household structure and composition, occupation, employer, place of work, education, marital status, birthplace and nationality. Further details are also available for those enumerated in institutions (including vessels and barracks).

This Special Licence access dataset contains names and addresses from the Integrated Census Microdata (I-CeM) dataset of the censuses of Great Britain for the period 1851 to 1911. These data are made available under Special Licence (SL) access conditions due to commercial sensitivity.

The anonymised main I-CeM database that complements these names and addresses is available under SN 7481. It comprises the Censuses of Great Britain for the period 1851-1911; data are available for England and Wales for 1851-1861 and 1881-1911 (1871 is not currently available for England and Wales) and for Scotland for 1851-1901 (1911 is not currently available for Scotland). The database contains over 180 million individual census records and was digitised and harmonised from the original census enumeration books. It details characteristics for all individuals resident in Great Britain at each of the included Censuses. The original digital data has been coded and standardised; the I-CeM database has consistent geography over time and standardised coding schemes for many census variables.

This dataset of names and addresses for individual census records is organised per country (England and Wales; Scotland) and per census year. Within each data file each census record contains first and last name, street address and an individual identification code (RecID) that allows linking with the corresponding anonymised I-CeM record. The data cannot be used for true linking of individual census records across census years for commercial genealogy purposes nor for any other commercial purposes. The SL arrangements are required to ensure that commercial sensitivity is protected. For information on making an application, see the Access section.

The data were updated in February 2020, with some files redeposited with longer field length limits. Users should note that some name and address fields are truncated due to the limits set by the LDS project that transcribed the original data. No more than 10,000 records out of some 210 million across the study should be affected. Examples include:

• England and Wales:
  • 1851 - truncated at the 24th character (maximum I-CeM field length 95 characters)
  • 1881 - truncated at the 16th character (maximum I-CeM field length 50 characters).
• Scotland: for 1851‐71, truncations affect less than 0.01% of all addresses and for 1851 around 1% at most
  • 1851 - truncated at the 70th character
  • 1861 - truncated at the 76th character
  • 1871 - truncated at the 82th character
  • 1881 - truncated at the 50th character.

Further information about I-CeM can be found on the I-CeM Integrated Microdata Project and I-CeM Guide webpages.