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Resources

Resources

User guide

User guide - one-sheet poster, pointing out key parts of the user interface.

Populations Past user guide

Resources for teachers

Here you will find a selection of worksheets addressing topics which may be of interest to geography and history students working at Key Stage 3, GCSE or A Level. Those teaching, or studying, other subjects such as sociology, social studies, statistics and mathematics may also find the topics of interest.

You are welcome to download and use the worksheets provided, or to amend them to suit your own needs.

Theme Resources
Exploring urban growth
Changing places, exploring the past and change over time
Children's work in Victorian Britain
Women's work in Victorian Britain

Podcasts: Centuries of Censuses

Podcast interviews with census experts created in partnership with Year 8 students from South Wales, as part of our AHRC-ESRC funded Engaging the Public in Census 2021 project: Census taking over time – a project by schools and for schools.

1: Year 8 talk to Dr Catherine Sumnall:

2: Year 8 talk to Professor Eddy Higgs:

3: Year 8 talk to Dame Jil Matheson (former National Statistician) and Professor Kevin Schurer:

Exploring the census with Year 8

Year 8 students from Radyr Comprehensive School in Cardiff worked with us to co-produce a learning resource about exploring the census in the past and present. They explored the Populations Past and Data Shine websites to discover interesting facts about their local area and compared them with other parts of England and Wales. This learning resource tells you what they found particularly interesting and suggests similar explorations you can try with other Key Stage 3 students.

This resource was co-produced as part of the 'Engaging the Public in Census 2021 project: Census taking over time - a project by schools and for schools', funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), part of UK Research and Innovation.

Here we provide a gallery of historical photographs which illustrate the different types of places in England and Wales defined by their occupational structure and population density as shown in the PopulationsPast website. We also provide short overviews of each type of place category explaining where they were concentrated geographically.

You are welcome to download and use the photographs and slides in the image gallery for personal interest or class teaching and learning.

Articles

England and Wales RSD maps

The online map allows users to look at maps showing a variety variables for the whole of England and Wales at the Registration District level and then to zoom into see the values of the same variables for their choice of Registration Sub-Districts.

Unfortunately browser speed constraints mean that it is not possible, even in full screen mode, to see the 'national picture' made up of all the Registration Sub-Districts in this interactive mode.

Here we provide suites of 'static' maps showing the values of selected variables at the Registration Sub-District level at each available census year for the whole of England and Wales.

The maps may be used to compare 'local' details to 'the national picture'.

These maps may be reproduced as long as they retain the copyright reference.

Please note that the boundaries shown are for Registration Counties, Registration Sub-District boundaries have not been reproduced for the sake of clarity.

Population density: 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891 1901 1911
Type of place: 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891 1901 1911
Total Fertility Rate: 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891 1901 1911
Total Marital Fertility Rate: 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911
Legitimate birth rate: 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911
Illegitimate birth rate: 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911
Illegitimacy Ratio: 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891 1901 1911
Age at marriage (female): 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911
Age at marriage (male): 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911
Celibacy (women): 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911
Celibacy (men): 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911
Infant Mortality Rate: 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891 1901 1911
Early Childhood Mortality Rate: 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911
Doctors: 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911
Lone parent households: 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911
Single person households: 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911
Households with boarders: 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911
Households with kin: 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911
Households with live-in servants: 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911
Dependency ratio: 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891 1901 1911
Child dependency ratio: 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891 1901 1911
Old age dependency ratio: 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891 1901 1911
Average age: 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891 1901 1911
Average age for women: 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891 1901 1911
Average age for men: 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891 1901 1911
Irish born: 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911
Sex ratio: 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891 1901 1911
SES 1: non-manual high skilled: 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911
SES 2: non-manual low skilled: 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911
SES 3: manual high skilled: 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911
SES 4: manual low skilled: 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911
SES 5: manual unskilled: 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911
RG's class 1: professional: 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911
RG's class 2: non-manual skilled: 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911
RG's class 3: manual skilled: 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911
RG's class 4: manual semi-skilled: 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911
RG's class 5: manual unskilled: 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911
RG's class 6: textile workers: 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911
RG's class 7: miners: 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911
RG's class 8: agricultural labourers: 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911
Married women working: 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911
Single women working: 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911
Widowed women working: 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911
Domestic servants (women): 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911
Textile workers (female): 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911
Children per teacher: 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911
Girls aged 10-13 working: 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911
Boys aged 10-13 working: 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911
Girls aged 14-18 working: 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911
Boys aged 14-18 working: 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911

Maps of further variables will follow soon.

Definitions of how each variable is calculated

Definitions of how each variable is calculated are on the Overview page.

ONS Census maps An interactive tool to explore census 2021 data for England and Wales.
DataShine Census Detailed mapping of the 2011 census of England and Wales.
A Vision of Britain through Time A variety of information for particular places at different levels from the 19th century onwards.
Histpop Online access to the complete British population reports for Britain and Ireland from 1801 to 1937.
Integrated Census Microdata The census microdata on which this project is based.
An Atlas of Fertility Decline in England and Wales The website of our parent project.
The Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure The research unit which is the home of this website.
Department of Geography, University of Cambridge The Department of Geography at the University of Cambridge, where this website was created.