The UK Government has decided a census should be taken through the UK on Sunday 27th March 2011 (subject to approval). The Census will be the twenty-first in a series carried out every 10 years in England and Wales since 1801, except in 1941. The last was carried out on 29 April 2001.
There a few minor changes to the question on religion, which remain voluntary. The only change made from the question used in England and Wales in 2001 is that the first box now reads ‘No religion’ rather than ‘none’. Although the possibility of including additional tick boxes for other religions than those listed has been discussed with the Office of National Statistics, they were unable to do so because of space constraints.
For the Census in Scotland there is a proposal is that a question should be asked about current religion, but with no question on religion of upbringing, which was asked in 2001.
The White Paper describing the proposed arrangements for the Census in Northern Ireland has yet to be published. |
