The 1901 Census – held on 31 March 1901

The 1901 census of the UK was an amalgam of three separate censuses governed by two separate Census Acts. The Census (Great Britain) Act 1900 covered both the census of England and Wales, and the concurrent census of Scotland. As a result, these two British censuses where virtually identical.

The Census (Ireland) Act 1900 covered the census of Ireland which differed markedly from the rest of the UK. For more information on the Ireland census, please visit our Ireland census records page. The rest of this article discusses the census of Great Britain (i.e. the census of England and Wales, and the census of Scotland).

The Occupier’s Schedule

This census form asked each occupier (‘or person in charge of the house or tenement’) to enter the personal details of every person who stayed in the dwelling on census night (i.e. 31st March), or arrived there on the morning of 1st April (unless recorded elsewhere). Only those ‘alive at midnight’ on census night were to be recorded.

What was new in the 1901 census?

There were a few modest changes to the 1901 census, although nothing on the scale of the 1911 census. Whether an individual worked ‘At Home’ was added to the ‘Profession or Occupation’ question, and the specific nationality of those born outside the British Empire was asked in the ‘Where Born’ question. ‘Feebleminded’ replaced the term ‘Idiot’ in the ‘infirmity’ question, whilst residents in the Isle of man were asked if they could speak Manx (a form of Gaelic) in the ‘language’ question.

The Second Boer War

Soldiers and their families posted overseas were not enumerated fully until the census of 1911, and this has caused frustrating gaps in pre-1911 census records over the years. The 1901 census was particularly affected by this failure to record the British Army posted overseas because it was held during the Second Boer War (1899 – 1902) which involved almost 350,000 British servicemen.

Population Recorded

Figures for both the UK and the British Empire were recorded in the 1901 census:

1901 Census – Population recorded

Country	Population	†Change(%)
†Change(%) since last census. Source: Census of England and Wales, 1921, Preliminary report. Please visit Census Records for population in other census years.
England	30,807,310	12.1%
Wales	1,720,533	13.3%
Scotland	4,472,103	11.1%
Ireland	4,458,775	-5.2%
UK population	41,458,721	9.9%
Islands of the British Seas	150,370	1.7%
Rest of Empire	344,206,869

Edwardian Britain at the time of the 1901 Census.

Monarch

King Edward VII (1901 – 1910)

Prime Minister

Lord Robert Cecil, the Marquess of Salisbury (1895 – 1902)

Government of the day

Coalition of Conservative Party and and Liberal Unionist Party (1895 – 1905)

Foreign Secretary

Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, Marquess of Lansdowne (1900 – 1905)

Chancellor of the Exchequer

Sir Michael Hicks Beach, Bt (1895 – 1902)

Historical Snapshot of the decade leading up to the 1901 Census

Here is a brief summary of what had been going on since the last census of 1891.

Domestic Affairs

For the first time since the census of 1831, the British monarch was not Queen Victoria, who had died in January 1901, but her son, Edward VII. A good natured playboy, Edward VII could not be more different to the perpetually mourning Queen Victoria. It seemed almost fitting that a very different monarch should usher in a new century and a rapidly changing world.

Domestically, the trade union movement was gathering in momentum and political power. In 1892, Keir Hardie, secretary of the Ayrshire Miners’ Union, had entered Parliament as an independent MP wearing a cloth cap (which caused a fuss). In February 1900, just a year before Queen Victoria’s death, Keir Hardie formed the modern Labour Party.

The decade leading up to the census of 1901 saw great technological and scientific advancements throughout Europe; the invention of x-rays by a German scientist (1895), the discovery of natural radioactivity by a French scientist (1896) and the discovery of the electron by a British scientist (1897). In 1896, London was the location for the first public transmission of a wireless signal (1896).

In literature, the public’s interest in science and technology was reflected in the popularity of science fiction novels such as H G Well’s Time Machine (1895) and The War of the Worlds (1898).

Foreign Affairs

British foreign policy in the 20th Century was, eventually, to be largely focused on Europe. However, in the decade leading up to 1901, British foreign affairs were dominated by events in Africa. There were two wars in Matebele Land (modern day Zimbabwe) and the conquest of the Sudan. In South Africa, the Jameson Raid (1895/96) was swiftly followed by the Second Boer War (1899 – 1902).