Census products: Issues and corrections

Details of where ONS have discovered and issue with or correction to 2011 Census data, with links where to find the updated and original information.

Last updated:
15 January 2016

2011 Census data are published through a range of channels, principally the ONS website, the Neighbourhood Statistics Service (NeSS), and Nomis. Some data are also available on DVD and via websites and tools offered by third parties.

Any issues with the data are reported separately on these websites, and this page summarises all Census issues and corrections for easy reference. For further information please contact Census Customer Services.

27 April 2016

The 2011 Census for England and Wales produces a large number of detailed tables at a very local level of geography. Inconsistencies in between postcodes and Output Areas resulted in some inaccuracies in the allocation of some geographical information for a very small number of addresses. See this quality note for more information.

ONS apologises for any inconvenience caused.

11 March 2015

Households and individuals estimated to have been missed from the 2011 Census were added onto the census database as part of the coverage assessment and adjustment process. Individual records added onto the database were given values for their age, but not for specific day, month and year of birth variables. When tables CT0249, CT0250, CT0251 and CT0272 were built, using the day, month and year of birth variables, they did not therefore include counts of estimated non-respondents. These data may not, therefore, be comparable with our other published figures and may represent an undercount of the true population. These tables have now been corrected to account for this omission and can be accessed on the census adhoc data and analysis pages.

ONS apologises for any inconvenience caused.

26 February 2015

Due to an error in the processing of census data, the number of usual residents in the 'Religion not stated' category has been overestimated by a total of 62,000 for three local authorities: Camden, Islington and Tower Hamlets. Correcting the figures will result in approximately 14% (Camden), 9% (Islington), 10% (Tower Hamlets) more usual residents in every stated religion category. The total numbers of usual residents in each local authority are not affected, just the distribution of usual residents across religion categories within these three local authorities, with a subsequent small knock-on effect to England and Wales as a whole.

The error occurred during the estimation of people who didn't respond to the census. The error only affected religion in these three areas, and does not affect any other area or variable.

Due to the complexity of process and relationships with other output variables, it is not possible to correct the underlying data. We have produced a correction factor file (282.5 Kb Excel sheet) . This file contains a summary and correction factors for age/sex groups for each of these local authorities. It is not practicable to produce correction factors below this geographic level or for other variables.

ONS apologises for any inconvenience caused.

11 August 2014

ONS has published corrections to the following release originally published on 25 July 2014:

2011 Census: Origin-Destination statistics on second residence and workplace for merged local authorities and middle layer super output areas (MSOAs) in England and Wales

A production error was discovered that affected a number of MSOAs (and higher geographical areas) in the workplace tables WU01EW, WU02EW and WU03EW. The six tables in this release relating to second residences were not affected by this error.

For the affected areas, the tables were under-counting the flows from usual residence to workplace. The error in each of the affected MSOAs was very small, but correcting the figures for these areas has resulted in an additional 8,599 people being included in the tables overall.

This error has now been corrected in the tables published on the Nomis website

No other published releases or tables were affected.

ONS apologies for any inconvenience caused.

11 August 2014

ONS has published a correction to a single bulk data format table originally originally published on 27 May 2014 in the following release:

2011 Census: Workday Population Statistics for Middle Layer Super Output Areas (MSOAs) and Output Areas in England and Wales (Part 2)

Only the bulk CSV data version of the file was affected - the data as published on Nomis was correct, and users of the Nomis website are not affected by this error.

A production error was discovered in table WD1101EW. The workday populations for eight Output Areas were incorrect - with some cells containing inconsistent counts for age or sex categories that did not sum to the total population. The eight Output Areas affected were: E00015045, E00023289, E00049002, E00159643, E00172150, E00170915, E00172167, E00174876. Correcting the figures for these areas has resulted in the figures for five Middle Layer Super Output Areas (MSOAs) and two Local Authorities also being changed. The Local Authorities affected were Coventry and Warwick.

This error has now been corrected and the table can be accessed by downloading this revised zip file (containing all tables in the release.)

No other published releases or tables were affected. ONS apologies for any inconvenience caused.

25 July 2014

2011 Census: European Commission Census Regulation Statistics

National Records for Scotland, who are responsible for the 2011 Census in Scotland, have identified an issue with some of the Scottish results, which affects data published on the Census Hub relating to address one year ago, and affects seven of the 12 reference tables published with this release on 31 March 2014.

The affected data has been removed from the Census Hub, and the affected reference tables have been removed from the ONS website. The reference tables affected are:

  1. Residence one year ago by Age by Sex
  2. Residence one year ago by Economic Activity Status and Status in Employment
  3. Residence one year ago by Housing Arrangements
  4. Residence one year ago by Legal Marital Status
  5. Residence one year ago by Occupation and Industry
  6. Residence one year ago by Place of Birth and Citizenship
  7. Residence one year ago by Size of Locality

All other data in the Census Hub, and the reference tables relating to location of place of work, are not affected by this error. No other published releases or tables were affected.

ONS are working with National Records for Scotland to resolve the issue found, and information on the publication of the corrected data will be provided in due course.

ONS apologises for any inconvenience caused.

23 May 2014

2011 Census: Workday Population Statistics for Output Areas in England and Wales (Part 1)

A production error was discovered in the workday population tables originally published on 31 October 2013, which affects eight output sreas in 10 of the 13 published workday tables. The three tables counting only usual residents in households, or only usual residents in Wales, were not affected by this error. The tables affected are: WD102EW, WD1117EW, WD201EW, WD203EW, WD204EW, WD210EW, WD212EW, WD302EW, WD501EW, WD803EW.

For the affected tables and areas, the workday populations were incorrectly allocated to the wrong output area code. The eight output areas affected were: E00015045, E00023289, E00049002, E00159643, E00172150, E00170915, E00172167, E00174876. Correcting the figures for these areas has resulted in the figures for five middle layer super output areas (MSOAs) and two local authorities also being changed. The local authorities affected were Coventry and Warwick, where 1,449 people were originally incorrectly allocated to the workday population in Coventry rather than Warwick.

This error has now been corrected, and the workday population has been correctly allocated to all areas affected. No other published releases or tables were affected, the people who were mis-allocated in the workday population were correctly allocated in the usually resident population.

ONS apologises for any inconvenience caused.

17th January 2014

2011 Census: Short-term resident population statistics for local authorities in England and Wales

A production error was discovered in table ST403EW Tenure - People, originally published on 31 October 2013. The table provides estimates for the short-term resident population, but the error means that not all short-term residents were included in the published figures. The table, which is available from the Nomis website, has now been corrected.

ONS apologises for any inconvenience caused.

17th January 2014

Table KS205EW - Passports held

An error was discovered in all original published versions of this table for all geographic levels. There were 48 people with an Irish passport that were omitted from this table. No other tables or data are affected, and this table has now been corrected.

ONS apologises for any inconvenience caused.

This table was originally published in the following releases:

11 December 2012

30 January 2013

19 February 2013

17th January 2014

A change has been made to the calculation of occupancy rating (bedrooms). In the original version of tables that included occupancy rating (bedrooms), all households who reported having no bedrooms were reported as over-occupied (i.e. they had fewer bedrooms than required), but this is not necessarily correct as these are usually one-room households and should have been recorded as having one bedroom. The updated versions of tables in each affected release have recalculated the occupancy rating, treating these households as if they have one bedroom. In table KS403EW, the calculation of the average number of bedrooms per household has been similarly changed to be consistent and treat households that recorded zero bedrooms as if they have one bedroom.

ONS apologises for any inconvenience caused.

The tables affected were originally published in the following releases:

11 December 2012

30 January 2013

19 February 2013

12 July 2013

30 August 2013

17 January 2014

Detailed Characteristics on demography for 2011 Census Merged Wards and Middle Layer Super Output Areas in England and Wales

An error was discovered in table DC1110EWla - Concealed family status by dependent children by age of Family Reference Person (FRP), originally published 30 August 2013 for merged local authorities. The number of families with dependent children was incorrect, and inconsistent with other published data. The updated version of this table is consistent with other tables previously published and those planned for publication in 2014.

ONS apologises for any inconvenience caused.

19 November 2013

2011 Census: Method of travel to work (alternative), local authorities in England and Wales

A production error was discovered in table CT0015 Method of travel to work (alternative), originally published on 13 February 2013.

This table prioritises Workplace Address information over Method of Travel to identify home-workers, to allow a direct comparison with data from the 2001 Census. However, some respondents who do not work at home were incorrectly included in this category when building the table. This occurred for people whose addresses were incomplete (for example, didn't include a postcode) as these records had been allocated a temporary code, while ONS Geography provided complete address information. These records are now complete and correct for use in this table and all future outputs.

ONS apologises for any inconvenience caused.

25 September 2013

2011 Census, Headcounts and Household Estimates for Postcodes in England and Wales

An error was identified in the formatting for postcode E3 2UG in file "Postcode_Estimates_Table_ 1_A_F.csv" first published 28 June 2013. The initial file incorrectly contained two entries for postcode E3 2UG - E3 2UG (single space between E3 and 2UG) and E3 2UG (double space between E3 and 2UG). The counts for these two entries, when combined provide the correct counts for this postcode. This error has now been corrected, the counts combined and the format E3 2UG (double space between E3 and 2UG) used for the new entry as this is the standard format.

ONS apologises for any inconvenience caused.

05 August 2013

2011 Census, Local Characteristics on Ethnicity, Identity, Language and Religion for Output Areas in England and Wales

Between 31 July and 2 August 2013 some of the bulk data files on Nomis, relating to table LC2106WA, contained data in an order that did not correspond to the cell numbered table layout. The output area (OA) level data files align with the cell numbering, and only files for lower super output area (LSOA) and higher geographies for this table were affected.

ONS apologises for any inconvenience caused, and replacement files have been published on the Nomis website since late afternoon of the 2nd August. Data for this table in all other media is unaffected.

14 February 2013

2011 Census: Key Statistics and Quick Statistics for Wards and Output Areas in England and Wales

There was an issue with a subtotal in the 2011 Census table, QS203 Country of Birth (detailed). The figure “Antarctica and Oceania: Australasia: Total” included the count for “Antarctica and Oceania: Other Oceania”. The subtotal should be just a sum of the counts for "Antarctica and Oceania: Australasia: Australia" and "Antarctica and Oceania: Australasia: Other Australasia". This occurred on all versions of the table published in December 2012 and January 2013, and has now been corrected on the ONS website, NeSS, Nomis, and bulk media.

ONS apologises for any inconvenience caused.

06 February 2013

2011 Census: Key Statistics and Quick Statistics for Wards and Output Areas in England and Wales

This release also included data for parishes and communities in England and Wales. An issue was identified that affected data for a small number of parishes on the Neighbourhood Statistics website. See a list of the affected parishes. This issue is now resolved. 2011 Census data for parishes are also available from NOMIS and these were not affected by this issue.

ONS apologises for any inconvenience caused.

01 February 2013

2011 Census: Key Statistics and Quick Statistics for Wards and Output Areas in England and Wales

This release also included data for Westminster Parliamentary Constituencies (WPCs) in England and Wales. An issue was identified that affected data for some Westminster Parliamentary Constituencies (WPCs) on the Neighbourhood Statistics website. This affects 81 of the 573 WPCs in England and Wales; view the list of affected WPCs. This issue is now resolved. Census data for WPCs are also available from NOMIS and these were not affected by this issue.

ONS apologises for any inconvenience caused.

20 July 2012

2011 Census: Population and household estimates for England and Wales

A production error was discovered in Figure 10 (Average household size 1911 to 2011) of this report, originally published on 16 July 2012. The error means that the values illustrated for all years, 1911 to 2011, in Figure 10 were incorrect. This also affects the accompanying large chart. The Excel download containing the data represented in the chart was not affected by this error. This error has now been corrected. View this release.

ONS apologises for any inconvenience caused.

17 July 2012

2011 Census: Population and household estimates for England and Wales

A production error was discovered in Figure 7 (Population change in number of residents aged 15 to 64) of this report, originally published on 16 July 2012. The error means that the values illustrated for all regions, England and Wales, England, and for Wales in Figure 7 were incorrect. This also affects the accompanying large chart and Excel file download for this Figure. Although the data used in these files were incorrect, all related figures quoted in the text of the report are correct. This error has now been corrected. View this release.

ONS apologises for any inconvenience caused.

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