There has been a census every ten years since 1801, excluding 1941. However, only those that date from 1841 are of real value to the UK family historian. The administration of the early census returns 1801-1831 was the responsibility of the Overseers of the Poor and the clergy.
Most of these early returns were unfortunately destroyed, although in some isolated instances they have been preserved. The census returns for 1841 were the first to be kept and, as far as the general public is concerned, the information is released by the Public Record Office after a hundred years. For example, the public were given access to the 1891 census returns on 1 January 1992.
The census was taken on the following dates: ………..
The census was taken on the following dates:
10 Mar 1801 No longer exists, with a few exceptions
27 May 1811 No longer exists, with a few exceptions
28 May 1821 No longer exists, with a few exceptions
30 May 1831 No longer exists, with a few exceptions
7 June 1841 Few local indexes exist – see GENUKI county pages
30 March 1851 Many local indexes exist – see GENUKI county pages
7 April 1861 Few local indexes exist – see GENUKI county pages
2 April 1871 Few local indexes exist – see GENUKI county pages
3 April 1881 National index available online at LDS FamilySearch
5 April 1891 Few local indexes exist – see GENUKI county pages
The FreeCEN Project is a volunteer effort to provide a free online searchable database of detailed transcriptions of the 19th century UK census returns, initially concentrating mainly on those for 1891.
31 March 1901 National index available online
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2 April 1911 100 year closure – will be opened 1st January 2012 – If you want to help to obtain early release of the 1911 – Go here to help
19 June 1921 100 year closure
26 April 1931 Destroyed during WW2
29 September 1939 WW2 National Registration – 100 year closure
8 April 1951 100 year closure
23 April 1961 100 year closure
25 April 1971 100 year closure
5 April 1981 100 year closure
21 April 1991 100 year closure
29 April 2001 100 year closure
