Scotland's Census 2021 Topic Consultation

Footnotes

1. The CQS was a voluntary survey carried in Scotland after the 2011 Census. It aimed to measure the accuracy of answers given to census questions by asking a sample of households the census questions again in a face-to-face interview. By comparing the responses given, agreement rates were calculated providing an indication of how accurately the 2011 Census was answered.

2. All questions which were new for the 2011 questionnaire have a status of 'further information required' to ensure the correct information is being gathered.

3. Information on number of rooms with more than one window was collected in Scotland between 1861 and 1931. Number of rooms has been collected since 1951.

4. No information on students was collected in 1931, 1961, 1971 or 1981.

5. The classification was discussed by members of the Scottish Parliament during consideration of the 2011 Census in Scotland and was subsequently amended for use in the Census. Following further consultation and consideration, the Scottish Government revised the ethnicity classification for use in Scottish Official Statistics to be consistent with the recommended Census question.

6. The protected characteristics are age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion and belief, sex and sexual orientation.

7. The Scottish Government recommends using the title self-identified sexual orientation when using the question and when reporting the results. This is to avoid confusion with the term gender identity which is widely used in Scotland to describe how a person defines their gender.

8. It is worth noting that there are some differences in the way non-response rates were calculated between the two censuses. The 2001 results were measured after the application of some hard edits which means that for some questions they will underestimate the level of non-response. There were considerably fewer hard edits applied in 2011 than in 2001. In most cases the non-response rates for 2011 are lower than the corresponding published figures for 2001 which suggests that the level of missing or invalid data was lower in 2011.

9. For the 2001 Census, the CQS was run after the 1999 Rehearsal, concentrated on questions specific to Scotland and was based on a slightly different set of questions from those asked in 2001. Consequently, the results in 2001 were very limited in Scotland and not entirely consistent with the final outputs.