1881 Census of Great Britain
An 1881 census of the UK was taken on 3 April. As with all the UK decennial censuses, it comprised three censuses; of England and Wales, of Scotland, and of Ireland. This article only focuses on the 1881 census of Great Britain (i.e. England and Wales, and Scotland) because the 1881 census records of Ireland were pulped during World War I.
1881 census records online
- FindMyPast.co.uk
- Ancestry.com
- National Archives
- ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk (Scotland only).
Improvements since the census of 1871
In England and Wales, the questions remained unchanged from the previous decennial 1871 census. The Scotland census continued to record the number of windowed rooms – but stopped recording the number of children at school. However, the Scotland census introduced a new ‘language’ question.
Introduction of Gaelic language question in the Scotland census
Following lobbying by groups such as the Gaelic Society of Inverness, the householder’s schedule in Scotland asked householders to write ‘Gaelic’ in the ‘where born’ column of any person who spoke Gaelic ‘habitually’. This question did not have its own dedicated column so can be easily missed by family historians.
The number of Gaelic speakers was put at 231,594 (6.2%)[1] but this was considered to be on the low side; ‘habitual’ being open to interpretation.
1881 census questions
Full address of property.
Householder/head of family to provide personal details of those who stayed overnight on 3 April, or who returned the next morning:
- Name
- Relation to head of family
- Marital status
- Age and sex
- Rank, profession or occupation (including unemployed)
- where born (parish).
- Whether a person was blind/deaf/unable to speak/imbecile or lunatic.
Scotland only:
- Whether a person spoke Gaelic habitually. [NEW]
- Number of windowed rooms.
Procedure
The same method used for census collection was adopted throughout Great Britain. Enumerators were employed to collect householder’s schedules from each householder who listed all the personal details of all their occupants. Once again, the enumerators noted the contents in their ‘census enumerator’s books’; these are the census records that are available for family history research – the original householder’s schedules were destroyed.
| Country | Population |
|---|---|
| England & Wales | 25,974,439 |
| Scotland | 3,735,573 |
| Ireland | 5,174,836 |
| Total UK population | 34,884,848 |
| Channel Islands & Isle of Man | 141,260 |
Sources
[1]1911 Census of Scotland, Population, Ages and Conjugal Condition, Occupations, Birthplaces, Housing, Gaelic-speaking, 1913 lxxx [Cd.6896] 45
[2]Census of England and Wales, 1921, Preliminary report including tables of the population enumerated in England and Wales (administrative and parliamentary areas) and in Scotland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands on 19-20th June 1921 BPP 1921 XVI [Cmd.1485] p.62 & 63.