2011 Census: Updated view on content for England and Wales, March 2007

The 2011 Census: Updated view on content for England and Wales

The ONS held a series of open meetings in London, Sheffield and Cardiff to further develop views on the content of the 2011 Census in England and Wales. In the morning session, ONS gave its latest views on the likely content of the 2011 Census questionnaire, and the afternoon focused on the ethnicity and identity questions in particular.

Please note that a separate meeting was set up jointly with the Local Government Association for local government users of census data. This was held on Monday 12 March 2007 at Local Government House, Smith Square, London SW1P 3HZ and registration was through the Local Government Analysis and Research (LGAR) website .

Background

Between May and August 2005 the ONS ran a public consultation on the content of the 2011 questionnaire for England and Wales. The consultation exercise supported the need for almost all the information collected in the 2001 Census. However, strong cases were also made for new topics such as income, language and second residences.

To meet all the needs of users would require six pages of questions for individuals. However the current working assumption is that there be just three pages of questions for individuals (as in 2001).