General Register Office for S C O T L A N D information about Scotland's people The 2011 Census in Scotland: what will be different and why Sandy Taylor General Register Office for Scotland

General Register Office for S C O T L A N D information about Scotland's people Overview  The Census in Scotland has always been “the same but different” – same will be true in 2011  Highlight what these differences will be – from 2001 and from rest of UK  Context and evidence factors which have led to them

General Register Office for S C O T L A N D information about Scotland's people Important: health warning We have a good idea of the questions which will be recommended for 2011, BUT have still to: run and evaluate Census Rehearsal (March 2009) get approval from Scottish Parliament (spring 2010)

General Register Office for S C O T L A N D information about Scotland's people Differences in housing: Census “all building and tenements of which the whole or any part shall be used for the purposes of human habitation” “ a distinct building separated by party walls”

General Register Office for S C O T L A N D information about Scotland's people Danger of playing up the differences – still a lot in common with 2001 and rest of UK 1.Registrars General harmonisation agreement 2.Questions developed by UK topic groups 3.Core question set 4.Standard counting rules (on who to count) 5.Consistent approach to downstream processing 6.UK-wide statistical disclosure control methodology 7.Harmonisation of outputs - important for users

General Register Office for S C O T L A N D information about Scotland's people Household questionnaire: Scotland (questions for 2011) Compared with 2001 SameInOutRevised % same or revised Household Individual

General Register Office for S C O T L A N D information about Scotland's people Compared with England & Wales Same Scotland only England & Wales only% same Household Individual Visitors

General Register Office for S C O T L A N D information about Scotland's people Downstream processing  Coding rules  Coverage adjustment  Population estimates

General Register Office for S C O T L A N D information about Scotland's people Reasons for differences (1) We have listened to what users of Scottish census data have told us what they want.

General Register Office for S C O T L A N D information about Scotland's people Reasons for differences (2) Lessons learned from Census Test Formal consultation rounds – Autumn 2004 and Spring 2007 Bilateral discussions with stakeholders, eg Scottish Government and Local Authorities Cognitive question testing – by ONS and specific Scottish research

General Register Office for S C O T L A N D information about Scotland's people Questions dropped since 2001 Access to bath/toilet – data obsolete Lowest floor level of living accommodation – alternative (and richer) data sources Rented accommodation furnished or unfurnished – no longer a major issue Religion of upbringing – low user demand Size of workforce – low user demand

General Register Office for S C O T L A N D information about Scotland's people New questions Household income – strong user demand (acceptability/data quality) Proficiency/fluency in English – strong user demand (highest response in consultation) Languages spoken at home - ditto Date of arrival into UK – to improve data on migration trends National identity – classification variable for ethnic group, not a loyalty test! Long-term health conditions – strong user demand Visitor questions – to improve data on coverage

General Register Office for S C O T L A N D information about Scotland's people Scotland-only questions Household income strong user demand (despite likely data imperfections) Gaelic traditional question for census in Scotland – continued user demand Long-term health conditions strong user demand

General Register Office for S C O T L A N D information about Scotland's people Questions not being recommended for Scotland Number of bedrooms no. of rooms sufficient for most users Second residences limited user demand; small % of popn in Scotland; heavy on space Intention to stay (short-term migrants) subjective question - limited data utility

General Register Office for S C O T L A N D information about Scotland's people Operational differences Household questionnaires to be pre-addressed in 2011 (blank in 2001) More “traditional” approach planned for enumeration in Scotland – 95% to be delivered by enumerators and 5% posted out (compared with 95% postout in England & Wales) Greater focus on work of frontline enumerators. Decentralised fieldwork - 22 field offices - local postback

General Register Office for S C O T L A N D information about Scotland's people Other differences Greater efforts to improve response rates for hard to enumerate groups, eg young males, minority ethnic groups, gypsy/travellers Separate upstream operations in Scotland – printing, data capture and processing

General Register Office for S C O T L A N D information about Scotland's people Online completion - general First time for census in the UK Working assumption of 20% opting to complete questionnaire online – could be more

General Register Office for S C O T L A N D information about Scotland's people Online completion - advantages Convenience and accessibility Potentially easier for larger households Automatic routing Built-in checking, eg to disallow invalid responses Direct links to web help facility and FAQs Completion in Gaelic (Scotland only) Reduced load for paper data capture

General Register Office for S C O T L A N D information about Scotland's people Online completion - disadvantages Public perception fears on data security Potential for swamping website capacity if oversubscribed Potential for modal bias in responses to questions Not available in all circumstances, eg for communal establishments, households not identified at pre-addressing stage People who won’t complete a paper questionnaire won’t complete online Expensive to set up

General Register Office for S C O T L A N D information about Scotland's people Outputs and dissemination of census results Early stages, but in 2011 likely to be: Less emphasis on pre-defined tables and more on flexible table generation online Flexible approach to user-defined geographies Online mapping and graphing functionality One-stop shop solution for UK-level data

General Register Office for S C O T L A N D information about Scotland's people Summary Census in Scotland will be tailored to best meet needs of Scottish data users and Scottish circumstances Some differences in questions, approach to enumeration and upstream processing, but... overall aim is for a harmonised census in the UK common methodology for downstream processing high degree of comparability with 2001 results and with the rest of the UK

General Register Office for S C O T L A N D information about Scotland's people We have a plan and we know where we are going…

General Register Office for S C O T L A N D information about Scotland's people Questions?