We will complete our census return on 21st March 2021. Somebody investigating our family history in one hundred years time (or whenever the census is released) will see that we live at the same address as ten years ago, and that our professions have changed. In 2021, they will also be able to see for the first time whether we served in the armed forces, our sexual orientation, and gender identity.

The 1921 census was the only time the census was delayed (until June) and that was due to industrial unrest.

New questions in 1921 included more details about profession: what materials people worked in, place of work and their employer’s name. For those over the age of 15 there was information about marital status, and whether divorced. For those under 15 the census recorded whether both parents were alive or if either or both parents had died. It also had detailed questions on education including whether people were in full-time or part-time education.

The 1921 census summary for the Borough of Abingdon showed the inhabitants to number 7,167, an increase of 358 from 1911. Females numbered 3,896, and males 3,271.

Commenting on the summary statistics, released in September 1921, a local newspaper said, ‘It is evident that all of them cannot get married unless they go further afield. The single man who shows a preference for the single life will have to run the gauntlet and if the feminine majority care to exercise their powers, they will no doubt impose a heavy tax on bachelors. Women came into many occupations during the war, and many of them continued to be employed. They have cultivated the spirit of independence and are claiming equality of opportunity. The males have no longer any right to pose as the superior sex’.

The individual details of the 1921 census have not been published yet but will be within the next year on findmypast.com. This delay is supposedly for reasons of privacy. However a lot of the details of people now over 100 years old will be already in the public domain from other sources.