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Census Records 1841-1901

What Census Records are available?

Census entry featuring a young Arthur Conan Doyle, who went on to become an acclaimed writer

At the ScotlandsPeople Centre you can access the indexes and images of the Census records from 1841 to 1901. The records of Censuses taken after 1901 are still confidential and are not available to the public. In line with the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, the 1911 Census will be available in Spring 2011, once the 100-year closure period has elapsed. Very few records relating to the pre-1841 Censuses survive but there are photocopies and transcripts of some early censuses and population lists in the library.

What is the Census?

A Census is taken every 10 years by the government and records everyone who is present in a particular house on a given night. It records the population of the country as a whole and gives the government and other organisations statistics which are used to identify future planning needs.

Census records in one form or another have been taken by kings, empires and governments for thousands of years and the word 'census' originates from the Latin word 'censere' which means estimate. This word is perfect to describe the Census, especially in the early years as they were not always 100% accurate. The Romans used the census to raise taxes and this tax raising aspect may explain why some people have traditionally been suspicious of them. The very first Scottish Census was carried out by Alexander Webster in 1755 and the UK government has taken Census records every 10 years since 1801 with the exception of 1941.