1881 Census

This page covers the 1881 census for England and Wales. The census was taken the night of Sunday 3 April 1881.

What does it contain?

Address
Whether inhabited or uninhabited
Name
Relation to head of family
Whether married, unmarried or widowed
Age
Sex
Rank, profession or occupation
Where born
Whether deaf and dumb, blind, imbecile or idiot, or lunatic – an imbecile/idiot had the mental age of a child, while a lunatic had periods of lucidity, in the eyes of the census.

The LDS, with the help of local family historians, has compiled an index. You can view this at the LDS’s index for the 1881 census. However, it is important not to rely on just the index. View the actual census pages, as filled in by the enumerator. You can view these at ancestry.co.uk, for example.

If you can’t find the person you are interested in, you can try browsing the actual census returns for the place you think they were living.