The classification of occupations in the 1881 census of England and Wales

Abstract

This article discusses the importance of classifying occupations both to the original collectors of the occupational data contained within the late-nineteenth century censuses and to present-day historians with particular reference to the 1881 censuses of England and Wales. It describes the method by which occupational data was collected and prepared for classifiation in 1881. It shows that the classifications of occupations in the 1881 were remarkably similar to a present-day recoding exercise and concludes that the rules laid down by the Census Office in 1881 for the tabulation of occupations were acted on as well as possible by the contemporary clerks. The final section demonstrates these results and explains why differences might have occurred.