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Mass population survey conducted in the United Kingdom

Coincident full censuses have taken place in the different jurisdictions of the United Kingdom every ten years since 1801, with the exceptions of 1941 (during the Second World War), Ireland in 1921/Northern Ireland in 1931, and Scotland in 2021. In addition to providing detailed information about national demographics, the results of the census play an important part in the calculation of resource allocation to regional and local service providers by the UK government. The most recent UK census took place in England, Wales and Northern Ireland on 21 March 2021. Because of the COVID 19 pandemic, the census in Scotland was delayed to 20 March 2022.

The British government undertakes the census for policy and planning purposes, and publishes the results in printed reports and on the website of the Office for National Statistics (ONS). A number of datasets are also made available. Public access to individual census returns in England and Wales is normally restricted under the terms of the 100 year rule (Lord Chancellor's Instrument no.12, issued in 1966 under S.5 (1) of the Public Records Act 1958). Some argue that ministers and civil servants in England and Wales made no attempts to strictly enforce the 100 year census closure policy until 2005, five years after the Freedom of Information Act 2000 was passed, which, they argue, effectively abolished the 100 year rule. However, personal information provided in confidence is likely to be exempted if disclosure could result in successful prosecution for breach of confidence. In exceptional circumstances, the Registrar General for England and Wales does release specific information from 70 , 80 , or 90 year old closed censuses.

National censuses in Scotland have been taken on the same dates as those in England and Wales, but with differing legislation, governorship and archiving arrangements. The 2001 census was the first to be taken under full domestic control, while all preceding censuses since 1861 had been under the control of the Registrar General for Scotland. The 19th century Scottish censuses were all released after 50–80 years of closure, while the 1901 and 1911 censuses were made available to the public after their 100th anniversaries. Unlike the censuses for England and Wales, there was a statutory bar on early release of the 1911 census details. The census that had been due in 2021 was delayed until March 2022, with the COVID 19 pandemic cited as the reason. This was the first time since 1941 that the census count had been delayed. The return rate of the 2022 census was lower than expected, leading to plans to extend the deadline. There were concerns the data collected would be statistically invalid.

Irish censuses from before 1901 have not generally survived to the present day, due to a combination of official incompetence (the 1881 and 1891 returns were pulped before they could be transcribed into books), non retention (1861 and 1871), and a fire during the Irish Civil War in 1922. The 1901 and 1911 censuses for Ireland (all of which was then part of the UK) have been available for inspection since 1960 – they were made available earlier than the other British records, since Irish law is different on this matter. No census was taken in 1921 due to the disruption of the Irish War of Independence. The first census taken in the Irish Free State (now the Republic of Ireland) was in April 1926; the first Northern Ireland census occurred at the same time. No census took place in Northern Ireland in 1931, but one took place there in 1937.

In 2001, the census form was completed by 94 per cent of the population in England and Wales, with a further 4 per cent identified by the census enumerators, though the results still represented 100 per cent of the population through the use of cross matching with a follow up survey. The Census Act 1920 (as amended) legislates a fine of up to £1,000 for those who refuse to complete their census forms. In some censuses, significant numbers of people intentionally did not participate for political reasons. In 1911, the Women's Freedom League, a suffragette organisation campaigning for female suffrage in the United Kingdom, organised a boycott of the census. They encouraged women to go to all night parties or to stay at friends' houses to avoid the census and some heads of households refused to report the women at the address. In 1991, many people again avoided the census, which was conducted during the time of the poll tax debate, in case the government used it to enforce the tax. It was estimated that up to one million people were not counted by the 1991 census due to such evasion.

Under section 8 of the Census Act 1920, whoever refuses or neglects to comply with the census, makes a false declaration, makes, signs, or delivers a false document, or causes the same, or refuses to answer, or gives false answers, shall be liable on summary conviction and face a maximum fine of £1,000. Exceptions exist for refusing or neglecting to respond to questions about religion, as stipulated by the Census (Amendment) Act 2000.

Traditionally, outputs are released in the form of tables of counts at various levels of geography. However, microdata, known Samples of Anonymised Records (SARs) are UK data sets consisting of samples of individual records from national censuses. These very large datasets resemble survey data and are used for a range of applications by social scientists and policymakers. The first SAR was released in 1991. In 2001, the SAR system was extended, and it is anticipated that there will be SAR files from the 2011 census.

The 1851 census included a question about religion on a separate response sheet, whose completion was not compulsory. However, the 2001 census was the first in which the government asked about religion on the main census form. New legislation was enacted through the Census (Amendment) Act 2000 to allow the question to be asked, and to make its response optional. Perhaps encouraged by a chain letter that started in New Zealand, 390,000 people entered their religion as "Jedi Knight", with some areas registering up to 2.6% of people as Jedi. Thus, "Jedi" was the fourth largest reported religion in the country. (See: Jedi census phenomenon).

The 2011 national census took place on 27 March 2011. Several identity and status questions were included for the first time in the census, including questions relating to civil partnerships. The first set of data to be released from this census (basic counts of population by age and sex) was made available in July 2012, with the remainder of the tables following thereafter.