Jason Zawadzki, Director, Population Statistics Transformation Directorate, Office for National Statistics (ONS)
Since 1801, a census has taken place in England and Wales every ten years, with the exception of 1941 due to the Second World War. It is a unique moment in time when we gather information about people’s lives not captured in other ways. Data from the census informs decisions about public services and helps us understand things like public health and inequality.
As with all our statistics at the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the needs of our users continue to be at the heart of our decision-making on the census. We have launched a public consultation and need your views on topics for inclusion in Census 2031 in England and Wales.
While the core topics of age, education and jobs have remained the same over time, other topics have been added based on the needs of users. Ethnicity was added as a topic in 1991, and in 2021 the census asked people if they had previously served in the UK armed forces for the first time.
Equally, if there is no evidence that census data users still need particular information, or if it can be sourced another way, the topic is removed to keep the burden on respondents proportionate.
That’s why it is vital to hear from you. What do you need from a census in an age of rapid societal and technological change?
A new harmonised standard
Alongside this topic consultation, the Government Statistical Service (GSS) is consulting on the harmonised standard for data collection on ethnicity. Harmonisation is the process of making statistics and data more comparable, consistent and coherent. Harmonised standards set out how to collect and report statistics to ensure comparability across different data collections in the GSS – the professional community of statisticians and data analysts working across government in the UK.
We expect the relevant census question to align to ethnicity harmonised standard in England and Wales. The purpose of the consultation on the ethnicity harmonised standard is to gather views on additional tick-box response options which may be required for the new standard, informing new guidance for data collection across a range of sources. It therefore has a different scope and questionnaire from the census topic consultation.
More information can be found on the related ethnicity harmonisation consultation page.
Both consultations close on February 4, 2026 and will inform the way data on ethnic group are collected in the England and Wales census in 2031.
You can watch the recording of our recent harmonisation webinar and topic consultation webinar and access the accompanying PowerPoint slides.
If you are interested in hearing more about the ONS’s ongoing plans for Census 2031 please contact email.
Published 22nd December 2025