Image: extract from the census return from the village of Winwick in Lancashire, 1801
There are rumblings that today's national census might be the last. The Office of National Statistics 'Beyond 2011 Project' is looking at different options for producing more frequent population data that are better suited to the needs of public and commercial users. Meanwhile critics of the census want to see it abolished on the grounds that it is intrusive and expensive. If these arguments win the day, we will say farewell to one of the most enduring data collection exercises in British history that has been carried out every ten years since 1801, with the exception of 1941, making this year's the 21st. Cambridge historian, Dr Stephen Thompson has spent much of the past six years studying the history of the early British census. He says: "Studying the 19th-century census can give us important insights into how statistics came to dominate modern political debate. The census was the most ambitious data gathering exercise ever undertaken by the British government and its results were used to inform a wide range of policy discussions including taxation, welfare reform, and the re-drawing of parliamentary constituency boundaries in 1832." It is expected that 25 per cent of the 60 million or so people taking part in the 2011 census will complete their return online.
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