mass data gathering once a decade.The mandatory questionnaire will largely be answered online for the first time, and statisticians are looking at the possibility of using other digital data sources to provide the information gleaned from many of the 50 questions in a survey that is expected to cost £900m.Scotland has postponed its census until 2022 because of Covid, but citizens in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will provide a snapshot of their lives during the pandemic.
It could deliver anomalous answers more helpful to future historians than policymakers.Questions about employment include “how do you usually travel to work?” and “where do you mainly work?” which could create puzzlement if the answers are “in slippers” and “perched.