Census 2011

The census has collected information about the population every 10 years since 1801 (except in 1941).

Census statistics describe the characteristics of an area, such as how many men and women there are and their ages. The statistics are used to understand similarities and differences in the populations’ characteristics locally, regionally and nationally. This information underpins the allocation of billions of pounds of public money to provide services like education, transport and health. Decisions are taken every day using census statistics. These are as local as the number of car parking spaces needed at supermarkets, to wider programmes, for example, where to target government training schemes. The numbers of school spaces, houses, care homes, or the development of traffic management systems or funding for local and unitary authorities, are all influenced by the census.

The 2011 Census achieved its overall target response rate of 94 per cent of the usually resident population of England and Wales, and over 80 per cent in all local and unitary authorities. The population estimate for England and Wales of 56.1 million is estimated with 95 per cent confidence to be accurate to within +/- 85,000 (0.15 per cent).

The 2011 Census conducted by ONS produced an estimate of the total population of England and Wales. A good response was achieved to the 2011 Census but inevitably some people were missed. The issue of under coverage in a census is one that affects census takers everywhere and ONS designed methods and processes to address this. A Census Coverage Survey was carried out to measure under coverage in a sample of areas and, based on this and rigorous estimation methods, the census population estimates represent 100 per cent of the usually resident population in all areas.

The 2011 Census provides a high quality estimate of the population that people can use with confidence.