1951–1981

Those who believe in an innate tendency to social improvement might expect population censuses to get better and better as time goes by. This did indeed happen until 1951, though there were a few lapses along the way. In 1901, the authorities presented a single table aggregating the occupational data for the United Kingdom, while including separate columns for England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland. After that those who wished to combine the data for Great Britain or the United Kingdom had to do it for themselves. In 1931, tricks were played with the status categories, managers and employers being combined under the title ‘managerial’. This was repeated in 1961, while in the semi-decennial census of 1966, employers and selfemployed were combined as ‘self-employed with and without employees’. Happily, in 1971 there was a return to the style of 1951, and occupational tables were published for the whole of Great Britain.