Thecensus in the United Kingdom isdecennial, that is, held every ten years, although there is provision in theCensus Act 1920 for a census to take place at intervals of five years or more. There are actually three separate censuses in the United Kingdom – inEngland and Wales,Scotland, andNorthern Ireland – although they are often co-ordinated. From 1821 to 1911, the census included the whole ofIreland.
There have only been three occasions in Great Britain where the census has not been decennial: There was no census in 1941 owing to the Second World War; a mini-census using a ten per cent sample of the population was conducted on 24 April 1966; and the planned Scottish 2021 census was delayed to 2022 owing to the impact of theCOVID-19 pandemic.[1] No census was held in Ireland in 1921, as a consequence of theIrish War of Independence; instead, Northern Ireland carried out a census in 1926, the first there for fifteen years.[2][a] No census was carried out in Northern Ireland in 1931, but one was carried out in 1937.[4]
Under the 100-year closure rule established after the 1911 census was taken, only summary results for censuses after 1939 – though with significant statistical detail – are published in the months[b] following the enumeration dates given below; the full information (individual household entries) in later censuses will not be released until the dates stated, a century after each later census was conducted.
1926 Northern Ireland Census – Sunday, 18 April:[2] The census returns were not transferred to the Public Record Office in Northern Ireland, and are believed to have been destroyed without authorisation, possibly as part of aWorld War II waste-paper campaign.[7]
1931 United Kingdom census – Sunday, 26 April: carried out in England, Wales, and Scotland, but not Northern Ireland. The England and Wales census returns were destroyed in an accidental fire in 1942; the Scottish census returns were stored in Edinburgh, and survived.[8] The scheduled publication date for the Scottish returns is 1 January 2032
1937 Northern Ireland Census – Sunday, 28 February:[4] Unlike the 1926 Northern Ireland census, the 1937 census records survive.[7][9][10] (scheduled publication date 1 January 2038)
1941 United Kingdom Census – no census taken owing to World War II
2021–2022 United Kingdom censuses – carried out in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland only on Sunday, 21 March 2021 (scheduled publication date 1 January 2122). The census in Scotland was carried out on 20 March 2022[11] (scheduled publication date 1 January 2123).
^With larger population and more detailed questionnaires, as well as more granular results, publication dates are spread over a number of months. For the census applicable to enumeration on 21 March 2021, the first results for England and Wales were not published until 28 June 2022,[5] and the last set of results is provisionally (as of May 2023) predicted to be published in October or November 2023.[6]
