Factsheet Two
History of the Census
What do Queen Victoria, Caesar Augustus,
William the Conqueror and Charles Dickens
have in common?
They were all involved in a census. Census taking has been going on for
much longer than you might expect.
2001: to celebrate the bicentenary of the Census
in the UK, the Office for National Statistics and the
Public Record Office created a set of exhibitions
highlighting what the Census has revealed about
local areas over the centuries.
Today, the Census ‘Hall of Fame’ displays the
Census records of Queen Victoria, Prime Minister
David Lloyd George and novelist Charles Dickens.
All Census forms stay confidential for 100 years.
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/census2001/bicentenary/bicentenary.html
Telephone
0845 603 2011
Textphone (for hearing impaired people)
0845 604 2011
Web
www.statistics.gov.uk/censustest
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Factsheet Two
History of
the Census
In about 2,000
BC, Egyptian
censuses told the
pharaohs how
many people were
available to build
the pyramids.
2,000 BC
4,000 BC
Around
4,000 BC, the
Babylonians and
Chinese held
censuses to plan
their armies and
collect taxes.
The first thorough survey
of England was done
in 1086 when William
the Conqueror ordered
a detailed list of all
land and property. Now
known as the Domesday
Book, this document
provides a remarkable
picture of life in Britain
at that time.
1086
0 BC
2,000 years later,
Mary and Joseph
travelled to
Bethlehem to take
part in the five-yearly
census ordered by
Caesar Augustus.
In 1666, Quebec
held the first
official modern
census. Iceland
followed in 1703
and Sweden in
1749.
1700
1600
In the 1500
and 1600s,
bishops had
to count the
number of
families in
their diocese.
Scared by Malthus’s
prediction,
Parliament passed
the Census Act in
1800 and the first
official Census of
England, Wales and
Scotland took place
on 10 March1801.
In Ireland, the first
modern census was
taken in 1821.
1800
In 1798, Thomas
Malthus published
his famous essay,
‘Principle of Population’.
He believed that
Britain would soon
have more people
than it was able
to feed, leading to
famine, disease and
other disasters.
In 1911, punch
cards and
mechanical
sorting and
counting
machines were
used for the
first time.
1900
1841
The 1841 Census was
the first to give each
head of household
a form to fill in on a
certain day. This still
forms the basis of the
system we use today,
although in those
days all the counting
was done by an army
of clerks using pens
and paper.
Computers
made their
entrance into
the Census
in 1961 and
have been
used ever
since.
2001
1941
The Second
World War made
it too difficult to
take the Census
in 1941, the first
interruption in
140 years.
Telephone
0845 603 2011
Textphone (for hearing impaired people)
0845 604 2011
Web
www.statistics.gov.uk/censustest
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PUB FS 02T