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Census taking in the UK dates back to the Doomsday book in 1086. Things have moved on since then, and in 1800 Parliament passed the Census Act. The first of this new breed of census was taken in 1801, and then every 10 years thereafter – except for a break during wartime in 1941.

The detailed census records are published after 100 years – so you can tell who lived in your house, or where your great grandmother was living. Well before then – and usually in the year after the census – summary statistics are released covering demographic information – such as the first language of the household, the age breakdown, and the religion, amongst other things. More detailed summary information is released after this.

In April 2023, the 2021 Census summary for England and Wales was released. This data set contains that information. The data is sourced from NOMIS, who host it on behalf of the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The data has been loaded into multiple tables per subject area - each with a different geography aggregation. The naming convention means that the tables are easily distinguished, but also are not overly long to reduce transcription errors. The same is the case with the variable names - these are consistent across the various different aggregations of geography within a single subject area.

CENSUS2021_TS001_CTRY is the country level data for "Number of usual residents in households and communal establishments". Columns on this table are: TS001V001 : Residence Type Total TS001V002 : Residence Type - Lives in a household TS001V003 : Residence Type - Lives in a communal establishment The use of comments on the tables and columns throughout provides the detail around what each table and column contain. To generate a full schema list of tables, columns and comments, please see the usage examples below, or see the documentation linked on the right hand side of the listing.

For more examples of data usage, please see the examples below. Provided alongside the census data itself is a lookup. This provides a way of identifying the various geography codes that relate to a particular postcode.

ONSPD_UK table. As with the main census data, the table has comments that explain what each column holds. The geography codes are standardised across other ONS / UK Government data.

25% of postcodes in England and Wales. 7 million postcodes. The sample and the full data are structurally identical.

Once you have reviewed the sample to ensure that it meets your needs, please request the full data via the link on this page. Jaywing can offer many other data sources, along with support and advice for using the individual data. com for details of the available support.

For licencing information about this data, please review the full documentation linked to the right of the page.