1921 UK Census NEWS

[Lostris]

 

The ruling by the Information Commissioner that resulted in the 1911 Census for England and Wales being opened early does not apply to the 1921 Census because, unlike the 1911 Census, the 1921 Census was conducted under the 1920 Census Act, which is still in force and which contains a statutory prohibition on disclosure.

The stated government position from the ONS is "its intention to release the entirety of the 1921 Census returns in 2022, in accordance with the non-statutory '100 year rule' which was adopted to reflect this undertaking of confidentiality".

Despite numerous protestations and challenges, the Government seems to be firmly sticking to the 100 year rule. One reason could of course be that if a census does go ahead in 2021 then there would have to be strong promises of confidentiality and that would not sit easily alongside the government suddenly releasing the 1921 census early when the promise was made at the time that the information on individuals would never be made public.

Also found this set of comments .....

It had been originally planned that the census for England, Wales and Scotland (and the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man as well) would be taken on the night of 24th April 1921 but was postponed by almost two months in the wake of the Black Friday strike by coal miners, railwaymen and transport workers. There was concern that the new date could mean that results would be affected by holiday-making but the date chosen did avoid the "big industrial holidays of the North" although it did clash with the Macclesfield industrial holiday. It turned out that the census did show very striking increases in population for certain seaside towns, for example a 64% increase in Blackpool and a 50% increase in Southend-on-Sea, although both towns had been growing and Southend-on-Sea had showed the highest growth between 1901 and 1911.

This holiday-making affect does mean that when genealogists finally get to see the details of their families in the 1921 Census, they may not be where they expected them to be and families may also be fragmented.

The 1921 Census showed Great Britain had a population of 42,767,530 in 1921, an increase of 4.7% over 1911, with 20,430,623 males and 22,336,907 females.

and this note about new questions ....

New questions asked over the 1911 Census included whether a marriage has been dissolved by divorce - it was felt that as divorces had greatly increased in the years up to 1921, it was important to know exactly how many there were. In the event, 16682 people were said to be divorced on the returns, however there was considerable doubt post-census on the reliability of these numbers.

Another new question was where each person worked, in particular to obtain information about the travelling involved in getting to work.

For Wales and Monmouthshire, there was an extra question for each person (over three years) on whether they spoke English and Welsh, English only or Welsh only and for Scotland there were extra questions about whether each person (over three years) spoke Gaelic only and also whether they were entitled to benefits under the National Insurance (Health) Acts.

The so called "fertility" question introduced in 1911 about the number of years of the marriage and the number of children was dropped, the reason given was that the results from the previous census had not yet been tabulated. Also the question about blindness, deafness or dumbness were removed on the grounds that the parents had objected to giving this information about their children with the result that answers given in the previous census were unreliable.

[Romilly]

Many thanks Lostris, for all the info.

Romilly.

[jaybelnz]

While I can happily wait for the 1921 census, sadly we Kiwis don't get any access to past census' At All!  Although it's a very comprehensive questionnaire, after the Govt. has used it for their National topographical stats etc, the census documents are apparently destroyed (if that's truely the case, as we're led to believe)

 Thank goodness we can get electoral rolls, at least that's something!  I'm fortunate in that my two families didn't come to NZ until the mid 1920's , and I have plenty of census info from UK and elsewhere, but I feel for those whose families came earlier.

[louisa maud]

I certainly will be pleased to be still her for the 1921 census, I have one particular person who has completely disappeared from 1911, I am hoping he will show up, poor man disappeared after his wife and 2 of his children died prior to 1911,  also his son, on 1911 then never sighted again till 1945 in Yorkshire, I have no idea what he did in between, so roll on 1921

Louisa Maud

[dowdstree]

There are a few people I am looking for in the 1921 register. Seeing my dad's name on a census for the first time. Also I will be intrigued to see how my mum's relationship is recorded. She was born in 1918 and fostered a year later. Never legally adopted and her birth mother stayed in contact.

We did not have the same 1939 Register here in Scotland but a National Identity Register instead. This has to date not been made public but you can order an extract for a specific person who has since died at a cost of £15 plus postage. Details shown will be name, address, marital status, age and occupation. If the person died outwith Scotland you must send prof of death.

Dorrie

[melba_schmelba]

Anyone have any idea whether the 1921 census gives dates of birth instead of ages as the 1939 register did?

[rosie99]

It should be very useful as as well as the usual questions it also asked:

age - this was now required as years and completed months, rather than just years as in previous censuses

if under age 15, whether parents are living, "both alive", "father dead", "mother dead" or "both dead"

birthplace, county and town or parish (or country plus state, province or district for persons born abroad)

if born abroad, nationality

trade
employer
place of work

number and ages of living children or stepchildren under 16

[melba_schmelba]

It should be very useful as as well as the usual questions it also asked:

age - this was now required as years and completed months, rather than just years as in previous censuses

if under age 15, whether parents are living, "both alive", "father dead", "mother dead" or "both dead"

birthplace, county and town or parish (or country plus state, province or district for persons born abroad)

if born abroad, nationality

trade
employer
place of work

number and ages of living children or stepchildren under 16

Thanks Rosie. It seems odd that they chose to ask that, instead of asking the birthdate, people seem more likely to get the former wrong than the latter.

[stevemiller]

This is just a personal impression, but I don't think people were asked for or used full date of birth in day-to-day life, until the Welfare State got into its stride after 1945.

The number of people I have come across in 1939 register who were out by one year suggests that people readily knew their birth day and month and how old they were in years, but not the birth year. A few couldn't do the maths correctly from "1939".

1921 seems to have fitted the common usages?