Census to ask about citizenship

[XPhile2868]

People are to be asked questions about their citizenship, national identity and mastery of English for the first time as part of the national census.

Ministers have said they plan to hold the next 10-yearly survey of the British population on 27 March 2011.

In an effort to get more comprehensive information on immigration, people will also be asked when they entered the UK and their intended length of stay.

Most forms will be posted while people will be able to fill them out online.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7778314.stm

Stephen

[jensquest]

How many will tick - How well do you speak English - not at all? 

and for the nationality section - my OH is British,  he wasn't born in this country but is naturalised, so I wonder if they mean your birth nationality or naturalised one.
This could be an interesting one to fill in.

[geniecolgan]

Not unlike the early censuses for the USA or Canada when those countries were being populated.

Fields that included; Country of Birth, When Arrived or Length of Residence, Ethnicity etc...

Reasonable, given recent population movements.

[jensquest]

It makes more sense to have country of birth rather than nationality as seen as so many in the UK have dual nationalities.

[Aulus]

When it comes around, just remember - as somebody else suggested in another thread here on rootschat a while ago - to make a photocopy of your return and file it with your family history research.  Then future generations won't have to wait until 2111 to get at the information.

 (Woah, that's scary.  Writing 2111 as a date, I mean.  Have we developed warp engines by 2111?)

[madpants]

Having read that I'm very inclined to tell them complete lies about heating etc.   

I've taken to putting  'MYOB' on the ethinicity questionnaires you seem to get with everything these days and stated that my child gets to school by helicopter/private plane when a questionnaire was sent home from school on how they got there.

[Sylviaann]

Oh madpants I got told off for saying on a thread on this site that I put Jedi for religion on the last census.  "What will your family think" said someone.  I think they might realise I was not religious.

I'll have to see what the questions really are, if I'm still alive.

Love the helicopter thing

Sylviaann

[jensquest]

Sylviaann, I love your Jedi religion answer     I think it shows your family that you have a good sense of mour