How we planned for data delivery

ONS conducted a series of consultations to define the range of products and services that would be made available from the 2011 Census.

Output geography

ONS conducted a series of consultations to define the range of products and services that would be made available from the 2011 Census.
Protecting confidentiality with statistical disclosure control

The Registrars General of Scotland, England and Wales and Northern Ireland have agreed to aim for a common statistical disclosure control (SDC) methodology for 2011 Census outputs.

What are census outputs?

Census outputs are the facts and figures produced from the questionnaires collected on census day. The information from the questionnaires is processed to produce a database from which results are drawn. Information about identifiable individuals is never released.

The data are presented either as simple estimates, such as the number of children, or as figures which relate one topic to another, such as the number of children in one parent families. The linking of topics is one of the most valuable features of a census.

Consultations

We conducted a series of consultations to define the range of products and services that would be made available from the 2011 Census.

The first main consultation on 2011 Census outputs gathered user requirements. The second consultation on 2011 Census outputs was designed to make sure that the outputs designed in response to the initial phase reflected user requests and met expectations. Read about the outputs consultations.

Plans

Statistics from the 2011 Census have been published regularly since July 2012, and we have published over 700 individual tables. We originally planned to publish all tables of a certain type at once (eg all Detailed Characteristics tables), but the sheer number of tables and complexity of processing led to us publishing smaller batches of tables. Prior to each release, plans for the next batches of tables and the corresponding table layouts were published in the 2011 Census Prospectus. The standard tables are almost complete. Any further releases will continue to be set out in the prospectus.

Use the 2011 Census Data Catalogue to see what's available and access the data tables.