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During our troubled financial times, a recentGovernment report has raised the prospect thatthe days of the census are numbered. Thereasons for this are predominantly financial –

Francis Maude MP, the minister from the Cabinet Officein charge of the census, admitted that the cost of the nextdecennial census, planned for March 2011, was likely toreach £482 million, with £300 million already expendedby the previous Government. The questions due to beasked will make the 2011 census the longest on record,tackling subjects relating not only to traditional areas suchas number of residents per house, family relationshipswithin the household, occupation, age and place of birth –familiar material to users of historic census returns from1851 – but also contemporary issues regarding the use ofenergy in our homes, for example, so that theGovernment can focus its resources on responsibleplanning to meet the environmental challenges ahead.

Yet it was also claimed that much of the data requiredto conduct effective central Government planning can befound from a variety of othersources, rendering a formal head-count redundant. Informationalready collected from the RoyalMail, credit checking agencies andlocal government databases couldbe combined with a less intrusivefive-year head count to obtain moredetailed population statistics – oneof the criticisms of the current format is that no sooner isthe census analyzed and published, it is out of date.

Another problem remains our natural suspicion of theGovernment’s intention behind all the questions concerningthe way we live our lives, and how the information wouldbe used – the fear of the Big Brother state. This has resultedin a growing reluctance to fill in the census correctly. In 2001,over 1.5 million households failed to fill in their returns, andalthough there’s a legal requirement to complete the formsunder the 1920 Census Act, carrying a £1,000 fine for non-compliance, only 38 people were prosecuted.

Equally, the system has become open to abuse, asdemonstrated in 2001 by the online campaign amongstthe younger generation that resulted in over 390,000people – or 0.79 per cent of respondents – claiming thatthey were followers of the fictional Jedi religion from thefilm Star Wars, which in turn prompted the creation of itsown census code (896) because it was such a popularresponse. By way of comparison to organized religions inBritain, 3.1 per cent of people stated they were Muslims

and 1.1 per cent said they were Hindus. The use of theinternet to fuel a campaign to manipulate an officialGovernment record for entertainment purposeshighlighted the need for a review of the type of data thatis collected, although it did show that people whopreviously may have ignored the census joined in, as wellas demonstrating the power of online data collection.

Yet when the census faces its greatest threat in its currentformat, there are already calls for the early release of the1921 census precisely because the information contained inthese decennial surveys is so vital to understanding theway our ancestors lived. Guy Etchells – the man whochampioned the cause for the premature appearance of the1911 returns – has started a petition to have the lawchanged and the 100-year closure period lifted, so 1921 canbe put into the public domain. Etchells has based his appealon the grounds that there is sufficient demand, and duringa period of economic gloom in the archive sector it wouldproduce a large injection of revenue.

Clearly, there is a thirst for historic datasets at a timewhen, paradoxically, there is agrowing reluctance to completemodern returns. The challenge is tomake the modern census relevantfor the purposes of governing thecountry today, whilst serving theneeds of future researchers andhistorians. It might be feasible toexamine a greater use of online

technology and make parts of the census optional, so thatcore questions are mandatory – the ‘traditional’ sectionsthat we are familiar with from our research using thehistoric returns – with a range of additional surveys thatare pertinent to the current situation, a snapshot of ourtimes. Additionally, ongoing analysis can be handled by agreater integration of other data that is gatheredincidentally into online reports.

The census remains important because of its antiquity,sequential nature and creation of comparative data over along period of time, and necessarily requires greatlogistical planning and cost. It took the Second World Warto prevent the 1941 census from taking place. I don’t thinkanyone would seriously suggest that our currentpredicament is as serious as that.

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 0 YO U R FA M I LY H I S TO RY

A Senseless Census?

T H E L A S T W O R D

It took the SecondWorld War toprevent the 1941census . . .

WHAT ARE YOUR VIEWS on the Government’s report and anearly release of the 1921 census? Send us your comments via theform at www.your-familyhistory.com/yourstories.

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