List of United Kingdom censuses


The census in the United Kingdom is decennial, that is, held every ten years, although there is provision in the Census 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 – in England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland – although they are often co-ordinated. From 1821 to 1911, the census included the whole of Ireland.
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 the COVID-19 pandemic. No census was held in Ireland in 1921, as a consequence of the Irish War of Independence; instead, Northern Ireland carried out a census in 1926, the first there for fifteen years. No census was carried out in Northern Ireland in 1931, but one was carried out in 1937.

Past censuses

Published censuses

The census records which have been published relate to the occupants of each household, as enumerated for the dates given below:

Unpublished censuses

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 following the enumeration dates given below; the full information in later censuses will not be released until the dates stated, a century after each later census was conducted.