The 1921 census will be published on Findmypast in January 2022, it has been announced.
The census provides detailed information on the almost 38 million people living in England and Wales at the time.
The original returns, held by the Office of National Statistics, will be digitised, indexed and transcribed by Findmypast staff in partnership with The National Archives.
Tamsin Todd, CEO of Findmypast, said: “This announcement is great news not just for British family historians and those with British relatives, but for anyone with an interest in history itself, providing a fascinating snapshot of post-war Britain.”
The census is a particularly vital family history record because the 1931 census returns were destroyed in the Second World War, and no census was taken in 1941.
It cannot be released until January 2022 because it was the first census taken under the 1920 Census Act, which bans releasing the records to the public until 100 years have passed.
As well as listing basic details such as each person’s name, age, residence and relationship to head of household, the 1921 census was the first to ask individuals for their employer’s name and the address of their place of work.
It was also the first to include the option for respondents to say if they were divorced, and to allow individual householders to submit separate confidential returns.
Rosemary Collins is the staff writer of Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine
