The 1911 Scotland Census

The 1911 Census in Scotland

The 1911 Scotland census was taken on the same date as for England & Wales, the night of Sunday 2nd April. The returns gave a population of 4,759,445, that is 2,307,603 males and 2,451,842 females, an increase of 287,342 over 1901.

Accessing the 1911 Scottish Census

The position in Scotland regarding access to the Scotland 1911 Census differed from that in England and Wales. The Census in Scotland is devolved to the Scottish Parliament and Administration and the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 exempts personal Census records from disclosure until after a 100 year closure period.

So, while 1911 Census information for England and Wales was made available at the start of January 2009, the Registrar General for Scotland only released the Scottish 1911 Census information just after the date of the 2011 Census (27 March 2011), by which time the 100 year closure period had ended.

The census was released on 5th April 2011 via the scotlandspeople website.
Payment is by pay-per-view credits which cost 25p each. You can register on the site for free and can search the index without charge and see details of name, gender, age and area. However to see the the detail costs 6 credits

If you live in Scotland, you can obtain credits at a reduced price from your local library. There is a little publicised Scotlands People Voucher Scheme which allows public libraries to sell discounted vouchers directly to the public for non-commercial use. You have to visit the library in person.

It is also available by visiting the ScotlandsPeople Centre in Edinburgh. You can book a search room seat for £15 per day and can view as many records as you like for no additional charge although there is a charge for printing or saving an historical record to your account.
Click here for more details.

Note also that, unlike in England and Wales, the individual household schedules for the Scottish 1911 census have been destroyed so it is not be possible to view these. Instead the enumeration books have been digitised, similar to that for the 1901 census, except that the entries for each person go across a double page. This includes the 'fertility' questions for married women, that is years married, number of children and how many were still alive.

Unlike previous censuses, there is no plan to make the actual enumerators' books available to the public at New Register House in Edinburgh.