Updated 28 Apr 2006

WIRKSWORTH Parish Records 1600-1900

Return to Front Page

Ages from 1841 CENSUS

Enumerators walked from house to house, collecting information about who slept there on the night of Sunday 7 June 1841. They were instructed to round down ages to a multiple of five but half did not understand or did not obey.
This rounding only applied to the 1841 Census. Read about the difficulties encountered by an enumerator in 1901 

Instructions to Enumerators in the 1841 Census

                                     DIRECTIONS
    Respecting the manner in which Entries may be made in the Enumeration Schedule.

"Age and Sex" -Write the age of each person opposite to the name in one of the two columns headed
"Males" and "Females", according to sex.

Write the age of every person under 15 years of age as it is stated to you. For persons aged 15 years and
upwards, write the lowest of the term of 5 years within which the age is.
Thus - for Persons aged 15 years and under 20 write 15 | 35 years and under 40 write 35 | 55 years and under 60 write 55 
                        20 years and under 25 write 20 | 40 years and under 45 write 40 | 60 years and under 65 write 60 
                        25 years and under 30 write 25 | 45 years and under 50 write 45 | 65 years and under 70 write 65 
                        30 years and under 35 write 30 | 50 years and under 55 write 50 | 70 years and under 75 write 70 
       and so on up to the greatest ages.
If no more can be ascertained respecting the age of any person than that the person is a child or is grown up, write
"under 20", or "above 20", as the case may be.

    "LEGAL AGES"

    If these instructions had been obeyed to the letter, only the following "legal" ages would be found in the 1841 Census: 
    1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10  11  12  13  14 ("age as it is stated")
15  20  25  30  35  40  45  50  55  60  65  70         (age rounded down)

    However, a survey of the actual ages recorded in the 1841 Census shows that many ages were not rounded down when they should have been. Below 15, many were rounded down when they should not have been. This shows a misunderstanding of the instruction by the Enumerators.

    RESULTS of Survey

  1. The area was recorded by 33 Enumerators, of whom 16 were guilty of writing down "illegal" ages (ie. not on the list above).
  2. 1,336 ages out of 14,783 (9%) were illegal in this sense.
  3. Included in this figure, an estimated 300 from 5,276 aged 14 and below (6%) were rounded down illegally. 


      Age distribution in 1841 Census for Wirksworth Area.
             Sample size=14,783 recorded ages

  Age Num  Age Num   Age Num  Age Num   Age Num   Age Num   Age Num
  1   401  11  297   21  58   31  26    41  27    51  16    61  3
  2   436  12  349   22  53   32  31    42  30    52  18    62  9
  3   398  13  279   23  39   33  24    43  25    53  19    63  14
  4   393  14  310   24  49   34  45    44  28    54  22    64  20
  5   481  15  1186  25  973  35  695   45  614   55  370   65  248  
  6   381  16  87    26  44   36  28    46  29    56  18    66  14
  7   338  17  98    27  33   37  28    47  19    57  11    67  20
  8   353  18  119   28  36   38  35    48  22    58  24    68  8
  9   320  19  84    29  21   39  15    49  15    59  14    69  13
  10  540  20  1094  30  974  40  772   50  596   60  372   70  222

Deciphered, transcribed, compiled, indexed, formatted and copyright © 2006, . All Rights Reserved.