Bringing the Missing Million Home: Correcting the 1991 Small Area Statistics for Undercount

Abstract

The 1991 UK Decennial Census missed about 1.2 million people. These missing individuals present a serious challenge to any census user interested in measuring intercensal change, particularly amongst the most marginalised groups in society who were prominent amongst the missing population. Recently, a web-based system for accessing census data from the 1971, 1981, and 1991 censuses was launched ( www.census.ac.uk/cdu/lct ). The ‘LCT’ package also provides access to a set of 1991 small area statistics (SAS) which have been corrected to compensate for the missing million. The authors explain the methods used for adjusting the SAS counts, provide examples of the differences between analysis with the adjusted and unadjusted data, and recommend the use of the new data set to all those interested in intercensal change.