The first official census in Britain was conducted at a time of great national insecurity. Amid failing harvests and a war with France, MPs were concerned that the country could run out of bread to feed its population. The problem was, nobody knew how big that population actually was.
And so, on 10 March 1801, the first census of England and Wales was held (it counted 8.9 million people, roughly equivalent to the current population of London). Census questions may have changed somewhat in the interim – no longer are respondents asked if they are a “lunatic, imbecile or idiot”, as was the case in 1871 – but every 10 years since, with only one wartime interruption in 1941, a similar survey has been conducted to take a snapshot of the nation.
