1. About the Census 2021 general report
A general report has been published after each census of England and Wales for over 150 years. The general report for Census 2021, available to download on this page, provides an account from the decision in 2014 to hold an online-first census, through the preparations, data collection period and processing, to the release of census outputs from 2022. It provides information for the public, parliamentarians and other statistics agencies, of how the census was planned and delivered, including lessons learned.
Following the UK Statistics Authority's recommendation on the future of population and migration statistics in England and Wales, planning has begun for a proposed census in 2031, drawing on lessons from Census 2021 and other recent censuses across the UK and elsewhere.
Census 2021 achieved a high response rate, with 97% of households responding – 89% of them doing so online in the first digital-first census – exceeding our response rate targets. The resulting statistics were published quicker than ever before, with the first population estimate released in June 2022 and most other census statistics by the end of 2023. People were able to explore Census 2021 data in innovative and exciting ways, including through our innovative Create a Custom dataset flexible table builder, pre-built tables, and a range of interactive content, data visualisation, storytelling and games that brought the data to life for users.
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