On 28 June 2022 ONS released the first results from the 2011 Census of England and Wales comprising for each local authority the estimated population at census day (21 March 2021) and the number of households. Population estimates are by five-year age band and sex. Estimates of responses rates for each local authority were also published. Read our blog post which describes how the census data relates to other population estimates and some of the pitfalls to avoid when interpreting the numbers.

Census 2021 rounded population and household estimates for local authorities in England and Wales, by sex and five-year age group.

The 2021 UK Census was the 23rd official census of the United Kingdom. The UK Census is generally conducted once every 10 years, and the 2021 censuses of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland took place on 21 March 2021. In Scotland, the decision was made to move the census to March 2022 because of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic (see SNs 9461 and 9462). The censuses were administered by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) and National Records of Scotland (NRS), respectively.

Census 2021 was the first census with a digital-first design, encouraging participants to respond online rather than on a paper questionnaire. Support was given to people who could not respond online, including paper questionnaires, telephone contact centres, field force support, and an extended collection period.

Topics covered in the 2021 UK Census included:

• demography and migration
• ethnic group, national identity, language and religion
• labour market and travel to work
• housing
• education
• health, disability, and unpaid care
• Welsh and other languages
• UK armed forces veterans
• sexual orientation and gender identity.

The 2021 Census: Public Microdata Teaching Sample (England and Wales): 1% Sample: Open Access consists of a random sample of 1% of person records from Census 2021 for England and Wales. It includes records for 604,351 persons. This dataset is suitable for teaching of statistics and social sciences and contains 18 demographic variables and a respondent ID variable.

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. The Great Britain Historical GIS Project has also produced digitised boundary data, which can be obtained from the UK Data Service Census Support service. Further information is available at census.ukdataservice.ac.uk There are five tables in this part of the Great Britain Historical Database :

Rd_pop holds population totals for all registration districts in England and Wales for each census from 1841 to 1911.

Pop_chan holds details of population changes between censuses for all registration districts in England and Wales for each inter-censal period from 1851-1861 to 1901-1911.

Age_sex holds the number of males and females in 5 year age groups for all registration districts in England and Wales for each census from 1851 to 1911, and for all local government districts for each census from 1921 to 1931.

Age_1901 holds a full transcript of the number of males and females in 5 year age groups for all registration districts in England and Wales for the 1901 census with greater detail for ages 13 to 20.

Rd_gaz converts the names of registration districts which appear in the database into the forms used in the GIS.

Rd_gis holds the names and counties of registration districts as they appear in the GIS, and is used for checking names and constructing rd_gaz.

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

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.

The census is undertaken by the Office for National Statistics every 10 years and gives us a picture of all the people and households in England and Wales. The most recent census took place in March of 2021.The census asks every household questions about the people who live there and the type of home they live in. In doing so, it helps to build a detailed snapshot of society. Information from the census helps the government and local authorities to plan and fund local services, such as education, doctors' surgeries and roads.Key census statistics for Leicester are published on the open data platform to make information accessible to local services, voluntary and community groups, and residents.Further information about the census and full datasets can be found on the ONS website - https://www.ons.gov.uk/census/aboutcensus/censusproductsMain languageThis dataset provides Census 2021 estimates that classify usual residents in England and Wales by their main language. The estimates are as at Census Day, 21 March 2021.Main language is a person's first or preferred language. They may speak other languages as well. A main language is provided only for residents age 3 and above. Residents age below 3 years will appear as ‘Does not apply’. Please note that some organisations exclude those below 3 years when calculating percentages for this variable.This dataset contains information for Leicester City and England overall.

This dataset provides Census 2021 estimates that classify usual residents aged 16 years and over in England and Wales who were not in employment on Census Day, 21 March 2021, by whether and when they were last employed.

As Census 2021 was during a unique period of rapid change, take care when using this data for planning purposes.

Read more about this quality notice.

Area type

Census 2021 statistics are published for a number of different geographies. These can be large, for example the whole of England, or small, for example an output area (OA), the lowest level of geography for which statistics are produced.

For higher levels of geography, more detailed statistics can be produced. When a lower level of geography is used, such as output areas (which have a minimum of 100 persons), the statistics produced have less detail. This is to protect the confidentiality of people and ensure that individuals or their characteristics cannot be identified.

Lower Tier Local Authorities

Lower tier local authorities provide a range of local services. In England there are 309 lower tier local authorities. These are made up of non-metropolitan districts (181), unitary authorities (59), metropolitan districts (36) and London boroughs (33, including City of London). In Wales there are 22 local authorities made up of 22 unitary authorities. Of these local authority types, only non-metropolitan districts are not additionally classified as upper tier local authorities.

Employment history (4 categories)

Classifies people who were not in employment on Census Day into:

• Not in employment: Worked in the last 12 months

• Not in employment: Not worked in the last 12 months

• Not in employment: Never worked

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.

The 2021 UK Census was the 23rd official census of the United Kingdom. The UK Census is generally conducted once every 10 years, and the 2021 censuses of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland took place on 21 March 2021. In Scotland, the decision was made to move the census to March 2022 because of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic (see SNs 9461 and 9462). The censuses were administered by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) and National Records of Scotland (NRS), respectively.

Census 2021 was the first census with a digital-first design, encouraging participants to respond online rather than on a paper questionnaire. Support was given to people who could not respond online, including paper questionnaires, telephone contact centres, field force support, and an extended collection period.

Topics covered in the 2021 UK Census included:

• demography and migration
• ethnic group, national identity, language and religion
• labour market and travel to work
• housing
• education
• health, disability, and unpaid care
• Welsh and other languages
• UK armed forces veterans
• sexual orientation and gender identity.

The 2021 Census: Safeguarded Household Microdata Sample dataset consists of a random sample of 1% of households from the 2021 Census and contains records for all individuals within these sampled households. It includes records for 263,729 households and 606,210 persons. These data cover England and Wales only. This sample allows linkage between individuals in the same household.  The lowest level of geography is Wales and regions within England. It contains 56 variables and a low level of detail. This is a new ONS product following user feedback from the 2011 Census.

Census Microdata

Microdata are small samples of individual records from a single census from which identifying information have been removed. They contain a range of individual and household characteristics and can be used to carry out analysis not possible from standard census outputs, such as:

• creating tables using bespoke variable combinations
• investigating specific combinations of variables or categories in a high level of detail
• conducting non-tabular statistical analyses on record-level data.

The microdata samples are designed to protect the confidentiality of individuals and households. This is done by applying access controls and removing information that might directly identify a person, such as names, addresses and date of birth. Record swapping is applied to the census data used to create the microdata samples. This is a statistical disclosure control (SDC) method, which makes very small changes to the data to prevent the identification of individuals. The microdata samples use further SDC methods, such as collapsing variables and restricting detail. The samples also include records that have been edited to prevent inconsistent data and contain imputed persons, households, and data values. To protect confidentiality, imputation flags are not included in any 2021 Census microdata sample.

Briefing paper on the initial results for Camden from the 2011 Census (PDF).

This package follows on from the first release of 2011 Census data. The data includes a population estimate for males and females by single-year of age for each local authority in England and Wales. The data is unrounded. <

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.

This zip file contains the Code History Database for the United Kingdom as at December 2018. To download the zip file click the Download button. The Code History Database (CHD) contains the GSS nine-character codes, where allocated, for current and new statistical geographies from 1 January 2009. The codes consist of a simple alphanumeric structure; the first three characters (ANN) represent the area entity (i.e. type; or category of geography) and the following six characters (NNNNNN) represent the specific area instance. The CHD provides multiple functionality including details of codes, relationships, hierarchies and archived data. The CHD can be used in conjunction with the Register of Geographic Codes (RGC) that summarises the range of area instances within each geographic entity. The GSS Coding and Naming policy for some statistical geographies was implemented on 1 January 2011. From this date, where new codes have been allocated they should be used in all exchanges of statistics and published outputs that normally include codes. For further information on this product, please read the user guide and version notes contained within the product zip file. (File size - 67 MB)Updated Geographies• Updates to Parishes (E04), Wards (E05), Enterprise Zones (E49), and County Electoral Divisions (E58)• Updates to Electoral Wards (S13)• New Entity for Scottish Marine Regions (S41)• Update to Community Safety Partnerships (W14)• New Entities for 1961 Census Parishes (J02), 1961 Census Wards (J03), 1961 Census LADs (J04) and 1961 Census Counties (J05)Database Changes• Updates to form design to account for December 2018 version have been made.

Economic activity status by sex by employment history Table Population: All usual residents aged 16+

First analysis of 2011 Census Key Statistics and Quick Statistics data release for Camden.

The School Census is a statutory data collection for all maintained nursery, primary, secondary, middle-deemed primary, middle-deemed secondary, local authority maintained special and non-maintained special schools, academies including free schools, studio schools and university technical colleges and city technology colleges in England. Service children’s education schools may also participate on a voluntary basis. The School Census collects information about individual pupils and information about the schools themselves, such as their educational provision. The individual pupil information collected includes free school meal eligibility, ethnicity, special educational needs, attendance and exclusions. The School Census is collected on a termly basis with 3 collections per calendar year Spring School Census in January, Summer School Census in May and Autumn School Census in October. The School Census was first collected in 2006 for secondary schools only and then for all schools from 2007 onwards. Prior to the School Census this information was collected on an annual basis in January via the Pupil Level Annual School Census.

This dataset provides Census 2021 estimates that classify usual residents aged 16 years and over in England and Wales by year last worked and by age. The estimates are as at Census Day, 21 March 2021.

As Census 2021 was during a unique period of rapid change, take care when using this data for planning purposes. Read more about this quality notice.

Estimates for single year of age between ages 90 and 100+ are less reliable than other ages. Estimation and adjustment at these ages was based on the age range 90+ rather than five-year age bands. Read more about this quality notice.

Area type

Census 2021 statistics are published for a number of different geographies. These can be large, for example the whole of England, or small, for example an output area (OA), the lowest level of geography for which statistics are produced.

For higher levels of geography, more detailed statistics can be produced. When a lower level of geography is used, such as output areas (which have a minimum of 100 persons), the statistics produced have less detail. This is to protect the confidentiality of people and ensure that individuals or their characteristics cannot be identified.

Coverage

Census 2021 statistics are published for the whole of England and Wales. Data are also available in these geographic types:

• country - for example, Wales
• region - for example, London
• local authority - for example, Cornwall
• health area – for example, Clinical Commissioning Group
• statistical area - for example, MSOA or LSOA

Employment history

Classifies people who were not in employment on Census Day into:

• Not in employment: Worked in the last 12 months
• Not in employment: Not worked in the last 12 months
• Not in employment: Never worked

Age

A person’s age on Census Day, 21 March 2021 in England and Wales. Infants aged under 1 year are classified as 0 years of age.

🇬🇧 영국 English The census is undertaken by the Office for National Statistics every 10 years and gives us a picture of all the people and households in England and Wales. The most recent census took place in March of 2021.The census asks every household questions about the people who live there and the type of home they live in. In doing so, it helps to build a detailed snapshot of society. Information from the census helps the government and local authorities to plan and fund local services, such as education, doctors' surgeries and roads.Key census statistics for Leicester are published on the open data platform to make information accessible to local services, voluntary and community groups, and residents.Further information about the census and full datasets can be found on the ONS website - https://www.ons.gov.uk/census/aboutcensus/censusproductsMain languageThis dataset provides Census 2021 estimates that classify usual residents in England and Wales by their main language. The estimates are as at Census Day, 21 March 2021.Main language is a person's first or preferred language. They may speak other languages as well. A main language is provided only for residents age 3 and above. Residents age below 3 years will appear as ‘Does not apply’. Please note that some organisations exclude those below 3 years when calculating percentages for this variable.This dataset contains information for Leicester City and England overall.

The Census@Leicester datasets include socio-demographic data from the 2001, 2011, and 2021 Leicester censuses to enable the exploration of recent historical trends. It also includes data from the 2021 census for both Nottingham and Coventry to enable comparisons with other cities.

This online resource that can be used for teaching and research purposes by staff and students and to create a legacy for the Census@Leicester Project.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The 1961 Census Microdata for Great Britain: 9% Sample: Secure Access dataset was created from existing digital records from the 1961 Census. It comprises a larger population sample than the other files available from the 1961 Census (see below) and so contains sufficient information to constitute personal data, meaning that it is only available to Accredited Researchers, under restrictive Secure Access conditions. See Access section for further details.

The file was created under a project known as Enhancing and Enriching Historic Census Microdata Samples (EEHCM), which was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council with input from the Office for National Statistics and National Records of Scotland. The project ran from 2012-2014 and was led from the UK Data Archive, University of Essex, in collaboration with the Cathie Marsh Institute for Social Research (CMIST) at the University of Manchester and the Census Offices. In addition to the 1961 data, the team worked on files from the 1971 Census and 1981 Census.

The original 1961 records preceded current data archival standards and were created before microdata sets for secondary use were anticipated. A process of data recovery and quality checking was necessary to maximise their utility for current researchers, though some imperfections remain (see the User Guide for details).

Three other 1961 Census datasets have been created; users should obtain the other datasets in the series first to see whether they are sufficient for their research needs before considering making an application for this study (SN 8275), the Secure Access version:

• SN 8272 - 1961 Census Microdata Individual File for Great Britain: 5% Sample, which contains information on individuals in larger local authorities;
• SN 8273 - 1961 Census Microdata Household File for Great Britain: 0.95% Sample, which links household members together to allow individuals to be understood within their household context. SNs 8272 and 8273 are both available to registered UK Data Service users based in the United Kingdom (see Access section for non-UK access restrictions); and
• SN 8274 - 1961 Census Microdata Teaching Dataset for Great Britain: 1% Sample: Open Access, which can be used as a taster file and is freely available for anyone to download under an Open Government Licence.

Main Topics:

The file contains information on individuals in local authorities and counties. Topics covered include demographics, for example family and household circumstances, employment and qualifications, migration, commuting, car ownership, and housing.