RSSeNEWS to be determined...

Following a series of meetings and conference sessions organised by the census study group, a meeting was held in October under the auspices of the General Applications Section aimed at a very broad audience. Beyond 2011 reviewed the history, current use and possibly future conduct of the UK census. 

David Martin opened the meeting with an account of the recent history of the census as well as giving some comparisons with the way such information is collated in other countries. Constraints on the future development of the census, such as the importance of legacy in designing and implementing the census and the desire for comparisons over time, were made clear. The historic links between the geography of collection and the geography of dissemination and the move towards targeting more intensive manual enumeration efforts at quantities more difficult to measure were outlined. 

Neil Storer gave many informative examples of the way a census can be exploited by local government to profile a local area. There is large demand for information from local residents and many requests were addressed by providing information from the census. He also demonstrated the value of different output geography by illustrating the very large area from which commuters travel to Camden and the somewhat smaller area to which Camden residents travel to work. 

Jil Matheson considered possibilities for the census beyond 2011 and made clear the imperative to identify the information need and then step back to decide how to best meet that need. Whether or not it will be possible to replace the census with administrative data by 2021 was a source of speculation among many participants and she expressed her personal views on the matter. 

Finally, Tim Holt chaired an extensive discussion session in which matters such as the desired geography of outputs, potential administrative sources and specific census requirements were discussed. It was clear that consideration needs to be given to the extent to which the census can be expected to provide information beyond a population count, the ways to obtain that count in an optimal manner, the level of geographical and domain detail that is required in the outputs, and the periodicity with which such information can be provided. 

Report by Paul Hewson