ABSTRACT
In 2010, the UK Statistics Authority asked the National Statistician and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to review the future provision of population statistics in England and Wales in order to inform the Government and Parliament about the options for the next census. Over the next three years, ONS undertook extensive research into new ways of counting the population, reviewed practices in other countries, engaged with a wide range of users, completed a three-month consultation and commissioned an independent review of methodology. In March 2014, the National Statistician recommended a predominantly online census in 2021 supplemented by the further use of administrative and survey data. The Board of the Authority and the Government subsequently accepted and endorsed the National Statistician’s recommendation. This chapter outlines early thinking and plans by ONS to deliver an online census in 2021. It considers the impact on the design of a move to an online first approach as a means for the public to complete census questionnaires, and the greater use of administrative data to improve the efficiency, effectiveness and quality of the census. It also describes the strand of work on continued research into the potential to switch to an administrative data-based census after 2021.
