1881 Census Records of England and Wales
The census was taken on the night of Sunday 3 April 1881. Starting in the 1980s it was the first census to be computer indexed in its entirety. The project was the first major 'crowd-sourced' exercise in the world. It remains one of the best-indexed and most-researched censuses.
British and foreign vessels in port (arriving since 26 March) were included. British vessels engaged in the coasting and home trade who berthed between 26 March and 3 May were also enumerated.
In 1881, England and Wales were shown to have a combined population of 25,974,439.
How to Access
You can search and view digitised images of the 1841-1921 censuses (plus the 1939 Register)
for England and Wales by subscribing to Findmypast, 'The home of British and Irish family history'. Until at least 2025, it will remain the only site where you can access and search the 1921 census online - available through their 'Premium' package (3 or 12 months) or via micropayments on other packages.
An address search option is available on Findmypast. You can search by street name and town. There is a spelling variant option available for street names.
If you don't specifically need to access the 1921 census for England and Wales, you could join Ancestry - they hold the 1841-1911 censuses and the 1939 Register.
For more information read out Blog article The 1881 Census: the First UK Census to go Online.
1881 Census Headings (in bold)
No. of Schedule
ROAD, STREET, &c. and No. or NAME OF HOUSE
HOUSES [with Inhabited and Uninhabited (U.) or Building (B.) in columns below]
NAME and Surname of each Person
Initials or first letters of other Christian names may be inserted.
RELATION to Head of Family
daur. (daughter), serv. (servant).
CONDITION as to Marriage
M. (married), Unm. (unmarried), Wid. (widow), Widr. (widower).
AGE last Birthday of [with Males and Females in columns below]
mo. (months) if aged under one.
Rank, Profession, or OCCUPATION
Ag. Lab (Agricultural Labourer).
WHERE BORN
If
1. Deaf-and-Dumb
2. Blind
3. Imbecile or Idiot
4. Lunatic
Where it applied, householders were often reluctant to complete this section.
Notes on the 1881 Census of England and Wales
- Enumerators' books were organized by civil parish or township, city or municipal borough, municipal ward, parliamentary borough, town or village or hamlet, urban sanitary district (USD), rural sanitary district (RSD) and ecclesiastical parish or district.
- A single diagonal penstroke / marked the end of a household, whereas a double penstroke // marked the end of a building. This applied to the censuses from 1841 to 1901, save 1851.
- House numbers 17-22 Cunard Street, Camberwell, London are missing from 1881.
- Institutions of more than 200 'inmates' were to be returned in institutional books.
- Teetotal institutions are recorded. Also noted are homes for 'inebriates' (alcoholics) run by the Salvation Army.
- Shipping schedules are usually at the end of the household returns for the nearest census night port/place or schedule delivery point.
- On census night, a smallpox epidemic was raging amongst London's poor.
- Officials noted an alarming rise in individuals being reported as 'Deaf-and-Dumb'. On enquiry, it emerged that some enumerators had erroneously recorded non-verbal babies as such.
- Later surname mapping of the 1881 results revealed that 40% of Britons shared 500 different surnames, whilst 10% shared 30,000 surnames.
- Street indexes were created for districts containing towns with a population of around 40,000 or more, from 1841 to 1901.
- The original enumeration district books are held by The National Archives (TNA); Reference RG 11.
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