What is the Census?
Every 10 years since 1801, a Census has been carried out across the UK to provide a detailed picture of the entire population at one moment in time.
The information is used by national and local government, health and transport authorities and many other organisations to plan where resources are going to be needed in years to come.
Many departments around the Council use Census data to help plan their service provision.
What sort of questions did the Census ask?
The broad topics covered were:
- Household
accommodation
- Demographic
characteristics (e.g. sex, age, marital status)
- Health/long
term illness/provision of care
- Qualifications
- Household
relationships
- Cultural
characteristics (e.g. ethnic group, religion)
- Migration
- Employment
- Work
place and journey to work
In England the Census is carried out by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Every household must return a form by law, but the information collected is completely confidential and all data released by ONS is presented in an anonymous form. No individual can be identified.
The questions are designed to gather information which will enable service provision to be planned effectively, e.g. to allow Local Authorities to plan the provision of new housing, or Health Authorities to allocate resources effectively to meet any special requirements of ethnic minorities.
Back to main Census page
|
