In 1991, the estimated coverage and total overall response of the census in England and Wales was 98 per cent. This was the proportion of the population accounted for in the census results. It included some 2 per cent estimated by enumerators to be resident in identified households but from whom no completed census form was collected. Census response in 1991, defined as the proportion of the population counted on returned census forms, was 96 per cent in England and Wales.

Census response in 2001 for England and Wales was estimated to be 94 per cent, 2 per cent lower than in 1991. This decline in response rates is in line with changes that have been observed for large-scale Government Surveys and censuses conducted in other countries in recent years.

Underenumeration in the 2001 census did not occur uniformly across all areas or age-sex groups. The patterns of census response were as expected, that is response rates were lowest for persons in their twenties, particularly men, and for inner city areas where characteristics known to be related to census non-response are most prevalent - multi-occupancy, language difficulty, etc. 2001 census response by age-sex group for England and Wales as a whole varied from 98 per cent for females aged 75-79 to 87 per cent for males aged 20-24.

This page last revised: 01 November 2005