Census 2021 – Sunday 21st March

Understanding the needs of the nation helps everyone from central government to local organisations, such as councils and health authorities, plan and fund public services across England and Wales. Census outputs inform where public funding is spent on services like transport, education and health.

Information from the Census makes a difference to the life of every single person in Warwickshire as Census data is used to plan things as diverse as maternity services, apprenticeship schemes, new bike lanes and nursery spaces.

Privacy is also respected throughout the process. All data is made anonymous and personal information is locked away for 100 years, so it cannot be seen by government officials dealing with individual applications for support or influence the payments or services someone receives. The anonymised census results are available 12 months after the census takes place.

Households will begin receiving letters with online codes in March explaining how they can complete their online census. People can also request a paper questionnaire if they’d prefer to complete the census that way. In areas where lower online completion is expected, around 10% of households will receive a traditional paper form through the post.

There is plenty of help available, with people also able to complete the census over the phone with assistance from trained staff via the ONS’ freephone contact centre. The ONS also aims to provide in-person support to complete the census online through Census Support Centres where it is safe to do so.

Census 2021 will include questions about sex, age, work, health, education, household size and ethnicity. For the first time, there will be a question asking people whether they have served in the armed forces, as well as voluntary questions for those aged 16 and over on sexual orientation and gender identity.

For more information and advice on how to answer the questions, visit census.gov.uk.