1851 Census

The 1851 census was a survey carried out of the population of the United Kingdom and as such pertained to the people then resident in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. In the present, the 1851 census records generated from the first three countries are still accessible for public viewing and research, with those from Wales and England being stored in The National Archives and those from Scotland in The General Register Office for Scotland.

Few of the 1851 census Ireland records, on the other hand, are still extant, with the remnants being kept either in the Republic of Ireland’s National Archives of Ireland and the United Kingdom administered-Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.

The 1851 census is looked to for, in addition to the limited but nonetheless significant scope of historical information which it currently accords for historical research, its significance in the general history of census-taking, as can be found to pertain to the United States and its Census Bureau-administered system, among others.

In this respect, the 1851 census was the second to be thus carried out on the United Kingdom, after the similar survey carried out ten years before. As with the 1841 census, the 1851 census stepped forward from earlier practices in census-taking in that it looked at the make-up of various households in the country. Moreover, the 1851 census expanded on the 1841 edition by looking at, in addition the county of residence of a subject, the town or parish where she or he was born.