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The Census of 1921

Alexander Wakelam (2024)

The 1921 Census marked a significant departure from its forebears, arguably representing the first of the "modern" censuses.

Reform of the GRO and a Census for the Twentieth Century

By the late 1910s, the General Register Office (GRO) represented something of an anachronism within the British state. The Registrar General (RG) functioned, in the words of a Ministry of Health (MoH) memorandum c.1919, as 'an autonomous potentate', increasingly out of step with an era in which Ministers expected to be able to weald control over the institutions for which they were responsible.[1] The MoH was additionally dissatisfied with the quality of the GRO's output, in particular its focus on the interests of the intellectual classes and the predilections of its senior officials. The RG, Sir Bernard Mallet, and Superintendent of Statistics, T.H.C. Stevenson, who oversaw the 1911 Census were emblematic of an institution seen by the MoH as an antiquated ivory tower. Mallet in particular, though some scholars have attempted to downplay his interests, was preoccupied by the arguments of the eugenics movement which certainly influenced the GRO's projects.[2] Stevenson's personal opinion on eugenicist arguments are more difficult to discern though he certainly assisted Mallet in crafting a census in 1911 which catered to eugenicist interests. In particular the inclusion of a question on fertility which included, cruelly, how many children mothers had lost, for which he wrote up the findings and argued for its retention in 1921, suggests Stevenson was not uninterested in the debate.

In 1919 the various arms of the state concerned with the health of the nation were unified under the Ministry of Health, including the GRO. Sir Robert Morant became the permanent secretary of the new department and insisted on the appointment of Sylvanus Percival Vivian (1880-1958) as Deputy RG at the GRO. Defenders of the old GRO have dismissed Vivian as a pawn of Morant; he certainly served Morant's wishes in reforming the GRO and was mocked by some Whitehall contemporaries as 'Morant's little Sylvanus'. However, the Oxford educated son of a portrait artist was no fool. Vivian played a key role in preventing the GRO from being dissolved within the MoH entirely and would serve independently and capably at the GRO until 1945 overseeing two censuses and the 1939 population register, served on commissions to increase electoral representativeness during the war, and after retirement contributed to work on the history of Sussex.[3] He was the central figure in the design of the 1921 Census and his role as a career civil servant undeniably shaped the enumeration.

Sylvanus Percival Vivian (1921), National Portrait Gallery, Creative Commons

Mallet was increasingly sidelined within the GRO' objecting to Vivian's appointment and reform of the Office he resigned in 1920, retreating to the council of the Eugenics Society.[4] Vivian was swiftly appointed in his stead. Stevenson's position was abolished. While he was thenceforth just another statistician in the department, he continued to use his old title and became something of a thorn in the side of the smooth operation of the Office, leaking information and smearing the department until he died in 1932.[5]

The curtailment of the GRO's independence and, in the words of Emigh et al (2016), the victory of democratic institutions over upper-class intellectualism, placed the Office arguably not in a weakened state but a position to better produce vital statistics and certainly to conduct the first "modern" census.[6]

The GRO was not the only aspect of the 1921 Census to experience substantial reform, though additional reform was legislative rather than institutional. Previous censuses had been conducted almost on an ad hoc basis, the legislation enabling them being passed for each specific enumeration. Vivian pushed for a permanent Census Act, passed in 1920, which allowed the MoH to hold a census with a simple Order in Council rather than renewed legislation. It further set a frame of reference for which questions could feature on the schedule as well as penalties for failure to comply or disclosure of confidential data; this Act remains the basis upon which censuses continue to be taken with only slight moderation, most notably the insertion of a religion question in the 1990s.[7]

Crucially, the Act offered permanency to the mechanics of census-taking, allowing resources and procedures to be preserved and preventing their rushed re-creation every ten years as had previously occurred. It also gave the GRO the power to hold a Quinquennial census, a specific interest of Vivian's who questioned the accuracy and value of population data six- or seven-years post enumeration. Vivian expressed particular concern that Britain might be falling behind its European rivals in this regard, including Germany, which already held such censuses. Winston Churchill, Secretary of State for War, wrote in support of the proposal, foreseeing the possibility of rapid remobilisation: 'should any Military Service Act be passed in a future emergency it will be impossible to administer it until reasonably accurate vital statistics are available'. Ultimately, even the highly dubious Treasury were convinced with the promise that such censuses would only gather limited population data and that it could determine whether sufficient funds existed for an enumeration. As of 2024, such powers have never been used, the state having to pass an emergency National Registration Act in 1939 to compensate for the failure to take a quinquennial census.[8]

Timing of the 1921 Census

The 1921 Census was the first since 1841 held during the Summer. From early 1920, the need to delay the usual enumeration date caused consternation at the GRO. While censuses 1851-1911 occurred in late March or early April, in 1921 Easter fell at the end of March, close to the usual censal date. Delaying enumeration by at least a month was deemed urgent 'to avoid the extensive movement of the population about Eastertide'.[9] Additionally, attempts to increase the hours of daylight available to provide enumerators sufficient time to visit all households in a single day led T.H.C. Stevenson to suggest a date as late as early May.[10] Unsurprisingly, Stevenson was ignored and the 24th April was initially fixed as Census day, just over three weeks later than that of 1911.

The Census Joint Committee's careful planning was disrupted in early April. The government had made clear its desire to return the nation's mines to their pre-war owners despite mining bosses promising substantial wage cuts. In response the Triple Alliance of miners, railwaymen, and transport workers unions announced their intention to strike from the 15th April, threatening to bring the country to a halt. While the railway and transport unions backed down, failing to support the striking miners, census officials had already moved due to concern about both the delivery of schedules and 'the temper of the people'.[11] Postponement of the census was announced one day before the Alliance collapsed, with an eventual date selected of the 19th June.[12] It was hoped this would precede the 'industrial holidays' which ran from July to September though there was concern 'a certain amount of middle class holiday making' would already have begun.[13] Such fears proved to not only be warranted, but an underestimation of the issue as 'unusually fine and warm weather' prompted early movement, the eventual Preliminary Report of the 1921 Census highlighting excessive population increases in towns such as Blackpool.[14]

Scotland also delayed to June, but this did not create a completely synchronous enumeration. The drive for a professional practical census included a hope that 1921 would be a census of the whole Empire. Early suggestions for the creation of an Imperial Statistical Office which might administer a single Imperial census floundered and even a 'uniform' census of Great Britain crashed upon the intransigent rocks of the Scottish Registrar General, determined to include his own questions. Requests for dominions and colonies to conduct synchronous and comparable censuses were not unheeded, though those in new territories in the old Ottoman Empire were delayed if conducted at all.[15] The most prominent delay occurred in Ireland. Despite the raging War of Independence, as late as February 1921 Bonar-Law (then Leader of the House of Commons) indicated the government still intended to conduct a census in Ireland that year.[16] However, this optimism was short-lived, and the census was inevitably abandoned. Separate enumerations were made for Northern Ireland and the Free State in 1926 by their respective governments.

Design of the 1921 Census

Many of the questions asked in 1921 were far from novel. For the first time, the census required householders to state the sex of persons (rather than having a sex specific age column) as well as to give ages in years as well as months. Questions as to name, relationship to head, marital status, and birthplace went almost unchanged. However, the new regime at the GRO and its revised approach to the purpose of the census led to a series of substantial departures from the 1911 Census.

The question on disability, asked at each census since 1851, was abandoned in 1921 due to a general recognition that responses supplied were suspect and data could be better obtained from other sources. More controversial within the GRO was the decision to remove the fertility question which originated in 1911. Vivian, then still Deputy RG, stated clearly in a 1920 memorandum that the question 'does not need to be repeated on this occasion' as 'importance and interest is now, however, centring upon … the nature and structure of the "economic" family; and on this question it is vital to obtain statistics as to the number of dependants in each such family'.[17] This change, emphasising the shift in focus of the GRO towards practical interests of the state as well as in the balance of power at the GRO, was consistently opposed by those aligned with Mallet. Stevenson, though he was far from alone, battled to maintain the question (the 1911 results of which he was still working on). In one July meeting 'Stevenson reiterated his arguments in favour of the retention of the fertility enquiry and desired that his emphatic objection to the course decided upon should be placed on record'; however, Stevenson's battle was lost before it begun.[18] While debate as to the explicit or implicit influence of the eugenicists upon the 1911 Census is unsettled, Vivian's absolute takeover and insistence on the practical interests of the state ensured that no such discussion need be had of the 1921 Census.[19]

Rather than a question about how many infants mothers had lost, Vivian was far more interested in collecting data on the number of alive children who needed support. Householders were asked to record the number of their 'living children and step children under 16 years of age, whether enumerated on this Schedule or not' to aid assessment of the rate of dependency in the population. This question was answered poorly, householders frequently misunderstanding the instruction and listing children who were not present within the household amongst the whole family, forcing enumerators to manually delete them from schedules. Additionally, those under 15 were asked whether their parents were alive, dead, or if one had died. While concern about the impact of war losses on the social fabric of the nation were present, the primary concern of this query (as Vivian stated explicitly) was to determine the likely cost of 'schemes for Pensions to Widows and Orphans', the administration of which was already consuming vast man-hours at the GRO.[20]

The elimination of the fertility question created sufficient room on the schedule for new questions on respondents' Employers and Places of Work. Previous censuses asked for details of whether one was an employer, as well as in 1911 about the industry in which one's occupation fell. However, in 1921 householders were asked to 'state the name and business of present employer' as well as 'the address of each person's place of work'. This constituted a much broader inquiry than heretofore proposed in a British census. Concerns at how such a broad query could be tabulated were well founded and the Scots, far more concerned with determining the number entitled to support under the National Insurance Acts, refused to include it.[21] However, this question struck clearly at the new concerns of the GRO, responding to various practical needs not limited to housing, transportation, the provision of schools, and a better understanding of the practical population (or 'day population') of cities – the City of London for example being an extremely busy city during the day with a minimal enumerated population.[22]

The Scots refused to include the Place of Work question, in part out of concern over practicality but also due to their own private focus on 'the number of persons entitled to the Insurance Act Medical Benefits' given Scotland's lack of a central index on those insured.[23] Vivian was dubious, writing to Watson (the Government Actuary) of their 'vague and entirely fallacious hopes that such a question in the next and future Censuses may enable them to dispense with the medical registration system altogether'.[24] Repeated exhortations to Dr James Dunlop, the Scottish RG, to abandon the insurance question due to the low likelihood it would be useful - particular concern circulated whether the term 'entitled' might produce false negatives - and to produce a schedule in the line with the rest of the country fell on deaf ears.[25]

Publication

The reformed GRO's first publication of the data in the Preliminary Report appeared with impressive speed and Vivian was able to sign off on the report by the end of August.[26] Full tabulation and publication of the data was not as rapidly forthcoming, in part as the GRO was still producing accounts of the 1911 data.[27] Publications of the data by county appeared predominantly across 1923 and 1924, though two volumes concerning London were issued in 1922. Volumes providing the classification system for Occupations and Industries as well as indexes of places appeared in 1924 though most of the publications of the data on work and dependency waited until 1925 and the final General Report was not released until 1927.

1921 Census Publications: England and Wales; Islands in the British Seas

Census of England and Wales 1921. 10 and 11 George V. c.41. 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 19th/20th June 1921, Together with the Population Recently Enumerated of Certain Other Parts of the British Empire (London: 1921).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of London. Text (London: 1922).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of London. Tables Vol.I (London: 1922).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of London. Tables Vol.II (London: 1923).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of London. Tables Vol.III (Supplementary). Workplaces in London and Five Home Counties (London: 1923).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Chester (London: 1923).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Cornwall (London: 1923).

Census of England & Wales 1921. Counties of Cumberland and Westmorland (London: 1923).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Derby (London: 1923).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Devon (London: 1923).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Dorset (London: 1923).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Durham (London: 1923).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Essex (London: 1923).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Glamorgan (London: 1923).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Gloucester (London: 1923).

Census of England & Wales 1921. Hampshire and the Isle of Wight (London: 1923).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Hertford (London: 1923).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Kent (London: 1923).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Lancaster (London: 1923).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Leicester (London: 1923).

Census of England & Wales 1921. Counties of Lincoln and Rutland (London: 1923).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Middlesex (London: 1923).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Monmouth (London: 1923).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Norfolk (London: 1923).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Northampton including the Soke of Peterborough (London: 1923).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Northumberland (London: 1923).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Nottingham (London: 1923).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Somerset (London: 1923).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Stafford (London: 1923).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Suffolk (London: 1923).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Surrey (London: 1923).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Sussex (London: 1923).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Warwick (London: 1923).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Wilts (London: 1923).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Worcester (London: 1923).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Yorkshire (London: 1923).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Bedford (London: 1924).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Berkshire (London: 1924).

Census of England & Wales 1921. Counties of Brecknock and Radnor (London: 1924).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Buckingham (London: 1924).

Census of England & Wales 1921. Counties of Cambridge including the Isle of Ely and Huntingdon (London: 1924).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Cardigan (London: 1924).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Carmarthen (London: 1924).

Census of England & Wales 1921. Counties of Carnarvon and Anglesey (London: 1924).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Denbigh (London: 1924).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Flint (London: 1924).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Hereford (London: 1924).

Census of England & Wales 1921. Counties of Merioneth and Montgomery (London: 1924).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Oxford (London: 1924).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Pembroke (London: 1924).

Census of England & Wales 1921. County of Salop (London: 1924).

Census 1921. Isle of Man (London: 1924).

Census 1921. Jersey, Guernsey, and Adjacent Islands (London: 1924).

Census of England & Wales 1921. Ecclesiastical Areas (England) (London: 1924).

Census of England & Wales 1921. Index of Names of Places (London: 1924).

Census 1921. Classification of Industries (London: 1924).

Census 1921. Classification of Occupations (London: 1924).

Census of England & Wales 1921. Occupation Tables (London: 1924).

Census of England & Wales 1921. Dependency, Orphanhood, and Fertility (London: 1925).

Census of England & Wales 1921. General Tables comprising: Population, Housing, Institutions, Ages and Marital Conditions, Education, Birthplace and Nationality, Welsh Language (London: 1925).

Census of England & Wales 1921. Industry Tables (London: 1925).

Census of England & Wales 1921. Workplaces (London: 1925).

Census of England & Wales 1921. General Report with Appendices (London: 1927).