Census 2021 results schedule announced

Date published: 31 January 2022

The first results on population statistics will be published by June 2022, with further Census 2021 results published in stages until summer 2023.

Find the full schedule on the NISRA website.

Census Director Dr David Marshall thanked the public for their participation, saying: “We have had a fantastic response to the Census and I want to thank everyone who responded. It was great to see people playing their part in shaping public services and helping government departments, businesses, charities and other organisations understand the needs of our population.”

With a return rate of 97.2%, Census 2021 had the highest level of engagement since Census 1991.

In total over 80% of returns were made online – this was higher than 2011 when less than 20% of returns were made online.

Census 2021 was run at the height of the pandemic and the Operational Report, also published today, highlights the scale of the exercise. Some key facts include:

• the most popular day for online returns was Census Day (21 March 2021) with over 80,000 household returns submitted on this one day alone;
• the website had around 1 million user sessions during the operational period;
• the Census Contact Centre processed over 160,000 local phone-calls to help the public complete their returns; and
• over 1,500 local census enumerators, working outside and within Covid-19 guidelines, made 375,000 address visits to help the public complete their returns.

Dr Marshall added: “The Census is a mammoth exercise and we are working hard to process, code and quality assure the census data. The first results will be published by June 2022 - just a few months from now. We will also publish key statistics on equality and identity later this year.”