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The 2021 census may very well be the final one ever to be carried out, the UK’s nationwide statistician has revealed.
Prof Sir Ian Diamond stated he was inspecting cheaper alternate options to the 10-yearly obligatory questionnaire delivered to each UK family.
The census, which has been carried out for nearly 200 years, offers invaluable inhabitants data to assist councils and the federal government plan providers.
However Sir Ian stated he was “hopeful” knowledge from different sources might substitute it.
“The census is frankly pretty much as good as it’s doable to get,” he stated.
“Let’s have a look at if we are able to get to an analogous place, extra shortly, utilizing totally different methods.”
Though the roots of census-taking in Britain might be traced again to the Domesday E book in 1086, it was not till 1801 that an official census was carried out, when the inhabitants of England, Scotland and Wales was recorded to be 9 million.
Nevertheless, statisticians regard the 1841 census, when every head of the family was required to fill in a kind on behalf of everybody dwelling on the tackle on a selected day, as the primary trendy census.
The tactic has stood the check of time – with extra questions in regards to the traits of every family member added over time – however prices have ballooned.
The Workplace for Nationwide Statistics, which has accountability for the census in England and Wales, stated an estimated £906m can be spent subsequent time – practically double the determine for 2011.
The censuses for Scotland and Northern Eire, that are carried out on the identical time, are administered individually.
‘Higher and extra granular’
Sir Ian acknowledged that prices had been rising, although he identified {that a} drive to get most individuals to finish subsequent yr’s census on-line would permit assets to be focused at those that had been much less prone to reply.
The previous College of Aberdeen vice-chancellor stated his officers would undertake analysis, alongside the census, to seek out out if correct data may very well be obtained through different means, such because the Ordnance Survey, GP lists, council tax information and driving licence particulars.
He stated such “administrative knowledge” – mixed with common, large-scale inhabitants surveys – might present “higher and extra granular” data in a “cheaper” and “extra well timed” method, although he stated no selections had been taken.
“We would solely transfer away from [the census] if we are able to replicate that richness of knowledge,” he stated, including that the federal government would have the ultimate say after the census outcomes and analysis had been evaluated, in 2023.
In a 2018 white paper, the federal government stated its “ambition” was that “different sources of knowledge” can be used after 2021, although it didn’t explicitly say that the census itself must be scrapped.