Svetlana Tarasova: Great Britain learned the exact number of its citizens. Results of 2001 population census published
Recently, the results of population census carried out in Great Britain last April have been completed. The project has already been called the most grandiose in the field.
Thirty-two million British citizens were transferred to the 21st century as a result of the population census carried out in 1901 in England and Wales and placed on the Internet. The previous population census was carried out since March 31, within several weeks after Queen Victoria’s death. After her death, Great Britain made big progress in all fields, including a them that was unusual for that time, woman’s emancipation.
So, why is the project unusual?
Already, a special website &to=www.pro.gov.uk/census'target=_blank>Census Onlineis available containing results of the two population censuses.
Now, every British citizen and any history fan, not having to leave his home, can see his family-tree. He also can find addresses where his family had lived, its members’ professions and line of work, as well as statistics of how many teachers, doctors, prisoners, etc. there were in the country at that moment. The main value of the project is that everybody can look through genealogical trees of all levels of the society: from housewives and chairwomen to the Royal Family members.
The first population census was carried out in Great Britain in 1841. Now, work is being carried out at including this population census’s results in the data bases. The project will be completed by the spring of 2003.
Everybody can look through the database free of charge, while one who wants to have an original document in handwriting should pay 5.00 or more in Pounds Sterling.
Within 100 years, the population of England and Wales grew by 20 million (from 32.527.843 to 52.700.000 people, of whom 51 percent are men and 49 percent are women).
Recently, more than 1.2 million people tried to visit the site at the same time. Unfortunately not everybody now has free access to the information he is interested in, because the lines are overworked.
Svetlana Tarasova PRAVDA.Ru
Translated by Vera Solovieva
Read the original in Russian: http://pravda.ru/main/2002/01/14/35525.html
