Mnemonic: residence_length
Applicability: Person
Type: Derived variable
Definition
The length of residence in the UK is derived from the date that a person most recently arrived to live in the UK. It does not include returning from a holiday or short stay outside the UK.
Length of residence is only applicable to usual residents who were not born in the UK. It does not include usual residents born in the UK who have emigrated and since returned - these are recorded in the category “born in the UK”.
Classification
Total number of categories: 6
| Code | Name |
|---|---|
| 1 | Born in the UK |
| 2 | 10 years or more |
| 3 | 5 years or more, but less than 10 years |
| 4 | 2 years or more, but less than 5 years |
| 5 | Less than 2 years |
| -8 | Does not apply* |
*Students and schoolchildren living away during term-time.
Background
Read about how we developed and tested the questions for Census 2021.
Comparability with the 2011 Census
Highly comparable
What does highly comparable mean?
A variable that is highly comparable means that it can be directly compared with the variable from the 2011 Census. The questions and options that people could choose from may be slightly different, for example the order of the options may be swapped around, but the data collected is the same.
England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland comparisons
Not comparable
This variable is not comparable as the data is not available for all countries.
What does not comparable mean?
A variable that is not comparable means that it cannot be compared for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Find out more about variables produced for Census 2021 in Northern Ireland and Census 2022 in Scotland.
Census 2021 data that uses this variable
We use variables from Census 2021 data to show findings in different ways.
You can:
- get the length of residence in the UK dataset
- view length of residence in the UK data on a map
- view length of residence in the UK data for an area on Nomis (an Office for National Statistics service)
Alternatively, you can also create a custom dataset.