Summary
This dataset provides Census 2021 estimates that classify families in England and Wales by family type, by dependent children and by age of the Family Reference Person. The estimates are as at Census Day, 21 March 2021. A concealed family is one that does not include the Household Reference Person.
Variable and dataset information
Area type
Census 2021 statistics are published for a number of different geographies. These can be large, for example the whole of England, or small, for example an output area (OA), the lowest level of geography for which statistics are produced.
For higher levels of geography, more detailed statistics can be produced. When a lower level of geography is used, such as output areas (which have a minimum of 100 persons), the statistics produced have less detail. This is to protect the confidentiality of people and ensure that individuals or their characteristics cannot be identified.
Lower tier local authorities
Lower tier local authorities provide a range of local services. There are 309 lower tier local authorities in England made up of 181 non-metropolitan districts, 59 unitary authorities, 36 metropolitan districts and 33 London boroughs (including City of London). In Wales there are 22 local authorities made up of 22 unitary authorities.
Coverage
Census 2021 statistics are published for the whole of England and Wales. However, you can choose to filter areas by:
- country - for example, Wales
- region - for example, London
- local authority - for example, Cornwall
- health area – for example, Clinical Commissioning Group
- statistical area - for example, MSOA or LSOA
Concealed family type
This categorises the type of concealed family, whether it is a lone parent or couple family, with or without dependent or non-dependent children.
A concealed family does not include the Household Reference Person (HRP).
Example
George and Amy live at the same address as their daughter Emily and her husband and daughter.
Because Emily is not a dependent child and has her own family, there are two families in this household.
Family one are George and wife Amy. George is the Family Reference Person (FRP).
Family two is daughter Emily, husband Simon and their daughter Eve. Emily is the FRP.
As there is more than one family in the household, The FRPs are prioritised to decide who is the HRP.
In this household, George is the HRP.
This means that Emily's family is a "concealed family". Their HRP is George. They will be included as part of his household in relevant outputs.
Age of the family reference person
Age of the Family Reference Person
Variables
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Protecting personal data
Sometimes we need to make changes to data if it is possible to identify individuals. This is known as statistical disclosure control.
In Census 2021, we:
- swapped records (targeted record swapping), for example, if a household was likely to be identified in datasets because it has unusual characteristics, we swapped the record with a similar one from a nearby small area (very unusual households could be swapped with one in a nearby local authority)
- added small changes to some counts (cell key perturbation), for example, we might change a count of four to a three or a five – this might make small differences between tables depending on how the data are broken down when we applied perturbation
Read more in Section 5 of our article Design for Census 2021.
Version history
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