In England and Wales the Census Returns are not available for public inspection until they are over one hundred years old.  The original returns are held at the Public Record Office on Micro-film and it is necessary to obtain a Reader's Ticket from the Enquiry Office or a day pass at the door. However, most localized public libraries have copies of their County Census records on micro-fiche for public viewing. British County Census 1841-1901 are also available to freely view at any LDS Family History Center worldwide.

A regular census of the population was not introduced until 1801 and since that date they have been held every ten years with the exception of 1941. The returns up to and including 1831 are of little use from the family historian's point of view as the names of residents were not recorded.  However, there are one or two exceptions to this rule.

The most interesting Census for the researcher are those of 1841,(limited information) 1851, 1861,1871, 1881 and 1891 with additional information, such as Schedule number, Relationship to the head of  the family, condition or matrimonial status, the age of each person, the parish and county of birth.  However, it is worth noting that information recorded in the Census Returns are subject to varying degrees of error.  False statements were made by those who had something to hide, ages were sometimes only approximate, and the usual problem as in parish records of differing spellings of surnames due to phonetic misinterpretation.

In recent years, members of County Family History Societies and various individuals have been busy Indexing such Census records, producing booklets of specific registration districts for purchase. The indexes, alphabetically sorted, contain Surname, Christian Names, Age, Where Born, and folio number/code for abode and are a most useful source, before consulting original census records to obtain the full information.

The Census Indices below are large text files which were transcribed in 1993 and have been compressed into ZIP format for quicker download times. For example, all the files when you click on the link to download them, will have the extension (filename.zip)

If you are unfamiliar with ZIP terminology, then press the following link to learn all about zipped files and to download the program to enable you to uncompress the files.

THE UNZIP WIZARD
http://www.pc-shareware.com/unzip-goto.htm

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Important Information about the Census Indices below
Please take time to read

The following Census files are not the complete 1851 Census for the Counties listed. They are a partial survey made of the Census and may not include all names, or all towns, within a specified County.

Those Census Records included below shows name, age, marital status, occupation, abode, and town and county of birth. The Census survey, while only partial, does give all the facts needed on those families listed and have provided many researchers with additional help and information about their ancestors.

As the partial Census survey is considered to be only a "guide" to tracing your ancestors, it is advised that researchers at all times consult with the original census files where possible.

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Important Information about the Census Indices below
Please take time to read

Before downloading the Census files, you may wish to check to see if your ancestors surnames appear in any given County.  A searchable text file has been made of all the surnames within the partial Census survey along with the Counties where those names can be found. Because the surname list is extremely long, it has been compressed using a ZIP format.  Again you will need the UNZIP WIZARD or NETZIP or NETZIP DOWNLOAD DEMON.

Download UK Surname Zipped File Now

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THE PARTIAL CENSUS DOWNLOADS

Please note that when unzipped some of these files are extremly large and will only be able to be loaded into a Word Processor or text reader that can take very long text files.

Census Indexes For England, Scotland and  Northern Ireland