"From the Domesday Book to the present day, the taking of censuses has been an important and sometimes controversial event in the life of the nation. From 1801 onwards a census has been taken every ten years, providing the state with vital information on the lives and work of its citizens. Since 1841 these great surveys have gathered personal and family details of named individuals." "Building on the success of the ground-breaking book, Making Sense of the Census, this newly revised and expanded work contains more interpretative material, new chapters on using the census returns in historical research, an introduction to the problems of using published census data on occupations, a revised guide to the Victorian census returns from 1841 to 1901, new research on the returns from the 1891 census, and a comprehensive bibliography." "Whether you are a professional historian or simply embarking on a piece of local research, A Clearer Sense of the Census will be an invaluable reference tool for finding your way around the census. It will also have enormous advantages as a teaching aid, since it combines a hands-on approach to using historical sources with user-friendly data."--BOOK JACKET.