Fen Ditton Parish Council

(From the Census Office.)

On 27 March, the census will take a snapshot of society in England and Wales. So any day now a questionnaire will arrive in the post asking you about your household and all the people living there. If it has already arrived keep it safe.

Your household is one of around 25 million in England and Wales taking part. The 2011 Census is all about numbers. It asks about work, health, national identity, citizenship, ethnic background, education, second homes, language, religion, whether you are married and so on. This information helps the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to produce population estimates.

Why should this matter to you? Like all local authorities in England and Wales, South Cambridgeshire District Council relies on census population estimates to feed into the government funding your communities need for public services. How much it gets is related to how many people the census says live in your area – so if the census can’t account for everyone, it could lose out. Even if the census were to end up just a few households short, it could make a very real difference to people’s lives.

You can complete your 2011 Census online (you’ll need the internet access code on the front of your questionnaire to log in), or complete the questionnaire by hand and post it back in the pre-paid envelope. Everything you tell the census is confidential. It will only be used to help build an accurate picture of the population so that public sector organisations and other users can plan their services and activities over the next ten years. Your questionnaire is turned into numbers by ONS and is not shared with any other local or national government department.

For more information visit www.census.gov.uk

Thank you for taking part.