Information about citizens’ places of residence and living conditions is currently available in the registers of many different administrative branches.
In Britain, the population has been counted every ten years since 1801. The calculation was not completed only in the war year 1941.
Now in the United Kingdom, there is a debate about whether to abandon the census, as information about citizens exists in several administrative registers and databases.
The necessity of the census has been discussed by many British media. Publishing expert opinions and analyses The Conversation media website writesthat the information collected in the previous calculation, carried out in 2021, will continue to be processed and published.
The next census is scheduled to be held in 2031.
Databanks instead of calculations?
There is information about the numbers and whereabouts of people in many areas of administration. In an open letter in October 2023, a group of experts in the field of statistics demanded that the government tell us whether they intend to abandon the calculation completely. The census has been a comprehensive way of finding out where citizens live and their conditions.
In 2021, the census was carried out in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and a year later in Scotland. Scotland’s exceptional schedule was due to the pandemic.
Data about the living conditions and places of residence of the entire population are used by many companies, organizations and educational institutions. The census is an expensive operation, around £900 million. The cost per person is about 1.5 pounds, or about 1.75 euros.
Over the decades, the calculation questions have been changed to better suit modern times. The 2021 census included a question about ethnic background and religion. There are several options for declaring your gender.