Birth Places
For the 1841 census the recorded birth place was limited to the simple
choice of either "Yes" or "No" to indicate whether the person
was born in the county of which the enumeration district was part.
If the answer was no, a tick indicated if the person was born in Ireland,
Scotland or Foreign Parts
From 1851 onwards the place(Town or Village) and County was recorded
As with much census data, this is not as simple as it first appears:
No attempt was made to check places against any gazetteer and often the names
recorded in the enumeration books cannot be found in any gazeteer.
Some people did not know where they were born
People often thought of themselves as being born in a parish, rather than
a town or village. Parishes frequently crossed county boundaries, Sonning being
a local example including parts of both Berkshire and Oxfordshire
Over the intervening years there have been many changes to the areas
included in the historic counties. The Counties (Detached Parts) Act 1844,
affecting 27 counties, transferred detached areas of one county wholly within
another county to that other county. This process of boundary changes
continues to this day.
Sometimes, Scottish and Welsh counties are named, but given the small number
of persons born outside England consolidated figures only are presented for
Ireland, Scotland Wales and Foreign parts.
The Isle of Wight is shown separately in the table, but is generally included
with Hampshire elsewhere.
Birth County Map
In the following maps counties are coloured acording to the percentage of the population
recorded as being born in that county. The correspondence between colour and percentage is:
less than 0.5%
between 0.5% and 1%
between 1% and 2%
between 2% and 5%
between 5% and 7.5%
between 7.5% and 10%
between 10% and 50%
more than 50%
Note that the Isle of Wight is included in Hampshire.
and London is included within Middlesex
1851
1861