census 2001 at a glance

25 April 2001

• A count of all U.K. residents--an estimated 59 million people

• Some 33 million households in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

• A quarter of a billion form pages have been printed, each page bar coded for the first time in a Census

• 32 different Census form types will be used

• Forms in English and Welsh language versions

• Some 80,000 enumerators and team leaders will be employed in information gathering

• 2,300 District Census teams will distribute forms in April, 2001

• A total of 33 million Census forms are expected to be processed in 10 months between June, 2001 and March, 2001

• Another 1,200 people will be employed in the processing of Census information

• Householders return Census forms by post for the first time

• An expected 300,000 boxes of completed forms will arrive at a national processing centre in Widnes starting in May.

• Each census district manager will send about 110 boxes containing 11,000 forms

• Forms will be stored in a 180,000 square foot warehouse to await processing

• Forms will be opened and scanned by an information system that can actually "read" the handwriting and marks on the forms and convert it to digital information at the rate of 88 forms every minute or 160,000 per day over two work shifts.

• Seven computing clusters will be used to perform the processing--a total of 477 computer workstations, 133 servers and 28 scanners

• Approximately 28 terabytes of images and data will be captured from the forms. It would take 20 million diskettes to hold that data.

• Individual Census returns remain confidential and 'closed' for 100 years

• Census processing development work began in 1998 with the initial tender to contractors

• Dress rehearsal was conducted in late 1999

• Census Day: April 29, 2001

• Processing Centre opens: May 15, 2001

• Completion of data delivery: March 29, 2002