1841 census - rounding down of ages

[dee-jay]

To put things into perspective, I extracted this little 'gem' from a contemporary 1841 newspaper:

'The Census.— We think this will be rather a bungling piece of business, and will not afford anything approaching to an exact account of the population. The Commissioners' instructions are too complex, and, except to educated persons and persons accustomed to fill up forms of this description, are far from being intelligible.  We have had a glance at some of the returns, which are perfectly ludicrous, and show how little the instructions are comprehended by a vast number of the heads of families. Amongst the fair ones, the very idea of giving ages even to five years, caused no little concern: some who have numbered forty summers, have conscientiously written themselves down thirty, and so in proportion. At the same time, we would not be understood to blame them for lessening their ages in order to make the most of themselves.' 
Exeter & Plymouth Gazette 12 Jun 1841

[stanmapstone]

Not just in 1841 

From "The Times" 21 Jan 1911.

"The Disclosure of Age"
'That is the point where trouble generally arises, if trouble there is. Women who are no longer very young and not yet very old have a traditional and unconquerable objection to saying exactly how old they are. One curious result is that the number of women who return themselves as aged from 20 to 25 exceeds at every Census the number of girls returned as from 10 to 15 at the previous Census. A certain number of women householders, though deterred by fear of a £5  fine from absolutely refusing information, will send up their answers direct by  post to the Registrar-General, hoping it will be hidden at least from the eye of  any neighbour, even from the confidential enumerator. The Registrar-General will politely acknowledge the schedule - and send it back to the local registrar for inclusion in the district returns. It never occurs to any of these ladies, apparently, to adopt a really effective method by undertaking the duties of  an enumerator herself. In that capacity she could not only conceal her own age, but find out every one else's. Many people of both sexes deliberately falsify their statement of age to bolster up a previous falsification. At the last Census (1901) according to the  official report, it was found that servants had misstated their age to get higher wages, and workhouse inmates to secure a better dietary and other advantages, or that an understatement had been made to deceive an insurance company. Consistency here is not a jewel; and if the culprits realised that the Census details would not be used as proof against them or for any purpose except to make up statistical tables, they might for once be inconsistently accurate.'



Stan

[Plummiegirl]

I must say that a lot of the age accuracy depended on the enumerator

In my own experience every family members age has been accurate to within 1 year (pretty much the norm right through)

The exception being one of my g/g/grandmothers who changed her age with every census until her husband died.  Her year of birth ranged from 1800 - 1811.  It turned out she was about 7/8 years older than him and never admitted this until he died.