Census contradiction?

[Roj47]

Morning,

I am currently tidying up a branch relating to my family, but am finding information that contradicts itself.

I have a william littlefair b 1805 and christen Satley, Durham as confirmed by familysearch.org, and two websites.

I get information that he was born 1811 from the 1841 census (married to marjorie)-

http://www.durhamrecordsonline.com/searchresults.php

I have him born 1805 in the 1851 census of Durham.

How possible is it that old records are misread or interpretted please?
A small issue, but one that is playing on my mind as I want as near to 100% accuracy as I can get.

Many thanks

[stanmapstone]

The recording of ages in the census returns is without doubt one of the most problematic. The ages reported in the census must be regarded as only a rough approximations of fact, although in very general terms the majority of the ages stated will be consistent from census to census. Most discrepancies will be in the order of one or two years, but larger differences are by no means uncommon.'Making Sense of the Census' by Edward Higgs.
Also for the 1841 Census.
0-14 had the correct age listed
15-19 were listed as 15
20-24 were listed as 20
25-29 were listed as 25
30-34 were listed as 30
and so on, but some enumerators entered the correct ages.
Stan

[Roj47]

Many thanks for the fast response, and yes.... Given that method thnigs tie in accurately.

Thank you for helping remove confusion from a novice