How to access the census
Find out how to access the censuses taken in:
England and Wales
Census records online
You can access the 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891 and 1901 censuses for England and Wales online at The National Archives
. The censuses have been fully transcribed.
Family Search has a facility for searching the 1881 census.
You can also purchase CD-Roms with a name index to the 1881 census.
Microfilm/microfiche
Census returns from 1841 to 1901 are held at the The National Archives on microfilm/microfiche. The National Archives has street indexes to help you use the censuses to find your ancestors.
The National Library of Wales has copies of the census from 1841 to 1891 for the whole of Wales.
If you are outside of the UK, you should find copies of censuses at your nearest Family History Centre, run by the Mormon church.
Scotland
Census returns for 1841 to 1901 are held by the General Register Office of Scotland. Consultation of most of the census records themselves is from roll microfilm, though the 1891 and 1901 census records can be viewed as digital images linked electronic name indexes. For the other censuses, visitors to New Register House will find street indexes for certain urban areas and a growing collection of privately produced census name indexes are available for consultation.
Indexes to the 1841 to 1901 censuses along with images of the original census pages are available on the ScotlandsPeople website. This is a pay-per-view website which includes indexed digital images of the statutory registers of births (1855-1906), marriages (1855-1931) and deaths (1855-1956) for Scotland, Wills and Testaments (1513-1901) and the Old Parish Registers of baptisms and marriages (1553 to 1854).
Ireland
Census returns for 1841-1891 do not survive on the whole. For details of surviving records see Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.
Census returns for 1901 are available on microfilm at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. The original returns are held by The National Archives of Ireland. The 1911 census is also available at the National Archives of Ireland.
