Ensuring all communities fill in the 2021 census

“I’ll be very proud this year to fill in my census, my partner and I were married on the first day same-sex marriage was made legal in 2014,” says Mary Milton, project coordinator of Sea Mills 100 and community reporter at Bristol24/7.

“This the first year that gay people like me will have their married status recorded as part of the census.”

The 2021 census, which takes place on Sunday, March 21, will not only be the first to record LGBTQ+ marriages, but is also the first digital census, first to record gender identity and first to ask about renewable energy.

The census is a UK-wide survey that happens every ten years helps create a realistic picture of the population.

Answers to questions help local authorities make decisions related to issues such as transport, education and healthcare. It also influences how funding is spent in different areas; Bristol City Council used data from the 2011 census to fund local housing improvements.

“A successful census will ensure everyone from local government to charities can put services and funding in the places where they are most needed; this could mean things like doctors’ surgeries, schools and new transport routes,” says Ian Bell, deputy national statistician at the Office for National Statistics, the organisation which collects the data from the census.

“That’s why it is so important everyone takes part.”

Detailed information recorded in the census, which is compulsory, is made available 100 years after it is taken.

“The census is important to family historians because it’s one of the few registers in which all of the population should appear. Households are listed together, with the relationships between them made clear,” says Mary.

“It’s a treasure trove of information for those interested in tracing their family tree.”

Mary also used the census to research local history for Sea Mills 100 project, saying “”The census and the 1939 register were key sources for us when we researched the history of Sea Mills and the people who were the first residents in the 1920s and 30s.”

The 1921 census will be made available in early 2022. While information will be used from 2021 as soon as it takes place, it will be made completely available to the public in 2121.

Organisations in Bristol are ensuring that all communities can access the survey. 13 per cent of households will receive a paper copy and Mowleed Farah, a Somali community advisor, has recorded a video outlining the importance of filling the census in; anyone who doesn’t complete it faces a fine of £1,000.

The 2021 census is also the first time that transgender people will have the chance to record that their gender identity is different to the sex they were assigned at birth.

This question, although voluntary, will ensure that the number of trans people in the UK will be accurately recorded for the first time.

“It is really important, particularly in the light of the way the Government has recently responded to trans rights, rolling back certain laws, certain rights and protections and promises they have made,” says Kit Million Ross, co-host of the Bristol24/7 Queer Catch-Up podcast.

Kit, who is themself non-binary, adds: “Having a really accurate number of trans people, where it’s impossible for them to deny the amount of trans people in this country is a very valuable thing.”

Because census data is used to fund local projects and LGBTQ+ organisations, it’s especially important that queer and trans people fill the census in.

For anyone aged over 16 and living at home, a separate access code can be requested. This means that those who aren’t “out” to their family can overwrite the data filled in about their gender and sexual identity after the household has filled the census out. No one in the household will be alerted to this.

“Despite the unusual circumstances we find ourselves in with the pandemic, let’s make the census 2021 a real success with the maximum response rate that we can,” says Jason John, census engagement manager for inner Bristol.

“The census benefits everyone and everyone counts!”

Main photo: Harbour Nights

Read more: Fears a failure to engage communities in 2021 census will worsen inequalities