Why Isn’t the 1921 U.K. Census Available on Ancestry.com?

FindmyPast has announced that the 1921 Census of England and Wales, containing information about nearly 38 million people, is now available on that site. (See https://eogn.com/page-18080/12243959 for the details.) Several people have written to me asking why it isn’t available on Ancestry.

The quick answer is because the National Archives has signed an EXCLUSIVE deal with Findmypast.

Researchers from Findmypast have spent three years delving into and digitising the findings of the 1921 census, which consists of 28,000 physical volumes. It isn’t yet known when, or whether, the 1921 census will eventually be released on Ancestry. I cannot speculate on just when that will be. Given the National Archives’ exclusive contract with Findmypast, it may be some time.

In other news, the 1921 Scottish census will be released via ScotlandsPeople, the Scottish government’s official archive site, in the second half of this year.