OFFICIAL HISTORY OF BRITAIN

Sub-titled 'Our Story In Numbers as Told by the Office for National Statistics' from the Census 2021. What official data past and present tells us about our nation is who we are, what we do and where we live. For the past 200 years, the Census has charted our jobs, home lives and strange cultural habits with questions on occupation, housing, religion, travel and the family. The Census findings have informed the economy, politics and every other national matter and the data collected forms the single most valuable on-going historical resource of modern times. In 1841 there were 734 female midwives working in Britain, along with 9 artificial eye makers, 20 peg makers, six stamp makers and one bee dealer. Fast forward nearly two centuries and there are 51,000 midwives working in the UK, and not a single eye maker in sight! Here is the lowdown on our relationships, cultural beliefs and of course recent findings on COVID-19. There is a great deal on the popularity of 'traditional' names, the trend towards informality with names, the way in which we use the Internet is changing, the gap between what young people wanted to do and how much they envisaged earning and the reality of how they ended up. In 2016 the top five jobs that 16-21 year olds wanted to do included artistic, literary and media (writer, actor, producer), teaching, health professional, police officer or nursing. House building and skyscrapers, working hours and education, a fascinating slice of mass observation. 298pp, diagrams.