Search historic census data

This website holds Scottish census data from 2001 and 2011. It will also hold data for the 2022 census. Census data from before 2001 is held in several different places.

Historical reference books

Historical reference books are the main source for census data from 1801 onwards.

Reference books are available at:

• main reference libraries, such as the Mitchell Library and the National Library of Scotland
• the library at National Records of Scotland’s office at Ladywell House

These books are available by topic and by geography.

Integrated Census Microdata project

The University of Essex’s Integrated Census Microdata project produced a standardised dataset of most censuses in Great Britain from 1851 to 1911.

Find out more about the Integrated Census Microdata project.

Access the data at the UK Data Archive.

Online Historical Population Reports

Get complete population reports from 1801 to 1937 for Great Britain and Ireland from the Online Historical Population Reports website.

It contains a wealth of statistical and contextual material covering a range of topics including health, birth deaths and marriages, and the economy.

UK Data Service

You can search historical census data on the UK Data Service website.

Census data is available through:

• Casweb, which provides census data from 1971 to 2001
• WICID, which offers flow data about the movement of people between places from 1981 onwards
• InFuse, which offers aggregate data from 2001 and 2011

SASPAC

SASPAC is software that enables data searches for censuses in the UK from 1971 onwards.

Find out more about SASPAC.

Nomis

Nomis is a service run by the Office for National Statistics in England and Wales. It hosts some census data from 1971 onwards.

Find out more about Nomis.

Commissioned outputs

We can provide you with tables of census data from 1981 onwards.

Contact us to request a census table. Note that more complex requests may incur a fee.