Question and content recommendations for 2011
ONS has continued its detailed preparation for the 2011 Census following the publication of its plans and proposed questions in the White Paper ‘Helping to shape tomorrow’ in December 2008. The questions to be asked in the 2009 Census Rehearsal were published at the same time.
A programme of question development and testing was undertaken to inform the decision making and recommendations about which questions should be included in the full census in 2011. This has involved thorough consultation and engagement with users to ensure that the 2011 Census meets as many of their requirements as possible. New questions have been developed for topics where there is a demand for new information, and existing questions have been redeveloped to account for increasing or changing user requirements.
Question recommendations have taken into account the many constraints that ONS must consider when developing the questionnaire for the 2011 Census. These constraints apply when deciding which questions to ask and how many tick-box response options to include for each question.
Publication of the White Paper provided the opportunity for parliamentary scrutiny and public debate. Responding to some concerns raised since the White Paper was published, ONS identified a small number of issues for further investigation and evidence gathering.
Additional development and testing of the questions about student addresses, religion and citizenship took place, along with further testing of the ethnic group question, looking at the effect of including a Kashmiri tick box. The final question recommendation papers have been updated to reflect the outcome of this testing.
Parliament will make the final decisions on the questions to be asked in the 2011 Census. The Census Order, which includes details about the questions, was laid before Parliament in October 2009. The census questionnaires form part of the Census Regulations which will be approved by Parliament in Spring 2010.
Details of the process undertaken to develop the recommended content of the 2011 Census questionnaire for England and Wales are in the report 'The 2011 Census: Final questionnaire content for England and Wales' which is available to download here.
Also downloadable from this page are updated reports on recommended questions on ethnic group, national identity, religion and migration. There are also new reports on the final recommended language questions and a report summarising the Kashmiri research project.
Reports on the final recommendations for other census questions will be posted here towards the end of 2009.
