United Kingdom 1911 Census Online

The Story Behind the Early Release of the UK Census of 1911

Jun 29, 2009

How a complaint upheld by the UK's Information Commissioner forced The National Archives to publish the UK's 1911 household data less than 100 years after it was taken.

In 1920, the Census Act legislated that all census schedules should remain closed for 100 years because they contain sensitive information relating to individual people in Britain. However, the 1911 census was not covered by this Act. In 1966 the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain (a role now covered by the Secretary of State for Justice) decreed that the schedules of all UK ten year census returns should remain closed for 100 years

The information that was deemed so sensitive that the census records could not be published was health related information (e.g. if the resident was deaf, dumb or blind), family relationships and details of children up to three years old who were with their mother in prison. However, there is other information contained there which is not deemed sensitive and which would be extremely helpful to family historians.

Information Commissioner Rejects FoI Exemption Argument

Several genealogists tried to obtain information on their ancestors from the 1911 Census using the Freedom of Information Act as a lever. But The National Archives (the custodian of all census records) refused to disclose it saying it was exempt under the Act. Consequently a complaint was made to the Information Commissioner about this refusal, questioning the argument for exemption.

In December 2006 the Information Commissioner upheld the complaint saying that although personally sensitive data should remain secret for 100 years, researchers should be given access to the other information. The National Archives, aware that this would open the floodgates for requests, decided that providing access to the details of 35 million or so people was best achieved by digitising the information and placing it online.

The National Archives had originally planned to launch the 1911 census online in January 2012 but now had to bring that date forward. So began the immense task of digitising and indexing the information as well as redacting (or obscuring) the personally sensitive information. In December 2008 a beta version containing information from just a couple of English counties was made available for testing by a select group from the genealogical community.

In January 2009, the site was officially launched, much to the delight of the eagerly waiting pedigree hunting public. The counties available on launch were mainly concentrated in the southern and midland areas of England. In March 2009, Yorkshire and Durham counties were added. At the beginning of June, Wales was added and, on 18th June 2009, The National Archives announced that the online version of the 1911 census was finally complete.

Description of Information Contained in the 1911 UK Census

The 1911 Census data includes records for Royal Naval ship crews, details of soldiers posted at military bases abroad as well as all households in all counties of England and Wales, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. The enumerator summaries have also been digitised and include a description of each district which will be of great interest to anyone wanting to know how and where their ancestors lived.

The online database can be found at the UK 1911 Census website. It is free to search the archive but there is a charge for viewing either the transcript of a particular search result or the actual digitised image of the household. Information available on the cheaper transcript version is not as comprehensive as that on the more expensive original page image.

The copyright of the article United Kingdom 1911 Census Online in Genealogy is owned by Elaine Findlay. Permission to republish United Kingdom 1911 Census Online in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.