What to expect from the 1921 census

Work is well advanced for the release of the 1921 census records later this year and we are confident we will publish the census before the end of the year. We know customers are eagerly waiting this exciting release and we will provide a release date as soon as we can. pic.twitter.com/nxCUu5fmcw

— NatRecordsScot (@NatRecordsScot) August 31, 2022

Today the National Records of Scotland broke radio silence on the much-delayed publication of the 1921 census. I won't go into the details of the sorry saga surrounding the release of these records - suffice to say this has not been the NRS' finest hour. Indexing is about 60% complete. The contract was signed in January, and the NRS are now saying they are "confident" they will publish before the end of the year, whereas a few months ago they were saying they "will" publish in the second half of this year, it seems likely we'll have to wait a few months yet before we can finally see the first census after World War One.

It seems opportune therefore to set out what to expect when the census is eventually released. From the first census in 1801, the amount of information gathered increased regularly, making the census returns more useful for historians and genealogists alike. The 1921 census continued that process, including more information than its 1911 counterpart.

The individual household schedules are not being published - instead, what we will see are the enumeration books. It's important to understand the difference - the household schedules were filled in by the residents, usually by the head of household. The enumeration books are transcriptions of those schedules carried out by enumerators - individuals employed by the census office. So unlike the English equivalent, you won't be able to see your ancestors' handwriting.

Field	Notes
​Schedule number	As in previous census, a sequential number for the household within the Enumeration District
​Address	The address of the house or building. Standard abbreviations may be used, as may dittos
​House rooms	The number of rooms in the house as a whole
​House persons	The number of people in the house as a whole
​Holding rooms	The number of rooms in the house occupied by the individual household/family group
Holding persons	The number of people within the household/family group
Name	Full name of each person in the household. 'Ditto' or 'Do.' may be used.
Relationship to head of household	Self-explanatory. Abbreviations to be used: Head - head of household Daur - daughter Rel - relative G-son - grandson G-daur - granddaughter Vis - visitor Serv - servant Br - boarder Lr - lodger
Age	​Given in years and months
​​Marriage / orphanhood	An extension from previous census, with the following abbreviations used: S - single M - married W - widowed D - divorced BA - both parents alive FD - father dead MD - mother dead ​BD - both parents dead
Birthplace​	For people born in the UK, county followed by burgh or parish. For people born outwith the UK, country followed by province or state. (Examples given in instructions: Canada, Quebec; India, Bengal; France, Charente)
Nationality	​ For people born in the UK, no entry required For people born in the British Empire, but outwith the UK Vis for visitor, or Res for resident For people born outwith the British Empire: Vis - visitor, or Res - resident and Born Brit - British subject by birth, or Nat Brit - British subject by naturalisation, or 'French', 'United States citizen', 'Chinese', 'Pole', 'Czecho-Slovakian' etc etc as the case may be​
​Gaelic​	Left blank except for people aged 3 and upwards who can speak Gaelic. Options are: G - Gaelic only G&E - Gaelic and English
Occupation​	​Abbreviations discouraged, except for H D - Household duties
Value	Employment status. Options are: E - employer W - worker (employee) OA - own account (i.e. self-employed) Ret - retired OW - out of work People describing themselves as retired and out of work were to be recorded as retired only.
Employment	Name of the employer, if any, and a description of the business. For domestic servants (including such workers as gamekeepers), the word Private is to be recorded
​​National health insurance	If the person has national health insurance, the letter M or F to indicate that they are male or female If the person does not have national health insurance, column to be left blank
​Dependent children number	Number of dependent children
Dependent children ages	​Ages of dependent children. Boxes for each age 1-15, with an x placed in each applicable column. If there are two or more dependent children in the same age band, the xs are to be placed one above the other.

The other change in terms of what the NRS are producing, is that once the indexing has been completed and the images published on Scotland's People, a complete transcription of all the fields will be produced as part of the contract. This is something academic historians have long been pushing for, as it makes all sorts of historical research possible in a way that isn't feasible with indexed images alone. As yet, though, it's not clear if this transcription will be made publicly available when it is eventually complete.