GB Historical DB

1841 occupational statistics for counties and selected towns.

Table ID:
OCC_1841     (28328)
Contents:
1841 occupational statistics for counties and selected towns.
Approx. number of rows:
82,710
Table type:
Raw Data
Documentation Author:
Humphrey Southall
Chronology:
The data are for the single year 1841.

Sources:

  1. The data were taken from Occupational Abstract M.DCCC.XLI. Part I. England and Wales, and Islands in the British Seas and Part II. Scotland, London, 1844. The dataset digitised is actually based on a series of tables, one for each county. The first, for Bedfordshire, is titled 'Occupations of persons enumerated in the County of Bedford, Distinguishing the Borough of Bedford'.
  2. This table was digitised by the Centre for Data Digitisation and Analysis at the Queen's University of Belfast.
  3. The national totals were typed in and added by Humphrey Southall in the spring of 2006.

Notes:

  1. The 1841 census was the first to gather occupations, and no plans had been made for classifying the results. As a result, this transcription includes over 5,000 different occupational descriptions, some highly specific and others broad aggregates: the list of descriptions used varies between counties. The data are consequently hard to interpret without applying an additional classification. As the same list of occupations is used in all data from a given county, i.e. in both the county total and the data for individual towns, for many combinations of town and occupation there are zero persons; these rows have been deleted from the version of the table held in the database.
  2. While the precise occupations listed are different for each county, the table always ends with seven columns of totals and counts of persons without occupations: 'Total Number of Persons whose Occupations are returned as above', 'Other Persons employed in Trade branch not specified', 'Number of Persons returned as of Independent Means', 'Almspeople, Pensioners, Paupers, and Beggars', 'Other Persons*', 'Residue of Population' and an overall total population. The national totals also include 'Persons travelling on Railways, Canals, &c., on the night of 6th June 1841'. The 'occ_type' column is used to help identify these.
  3. To slightly simplify the table, occupation titles which differ ONLY in punctuation or capitalisation have been standardised to the most common form. However, all variations in spelling have been retained. All occupations listed in the table as loaded here are included in the 'occ_1841_dic' table.
  4. The urban units for which data were tabulated seem to be the principal towns within each county, defined using whatever administrative areas best approximated to the actual urban area. For example, 'Bristol City with Barton Regis Hundred' and 'Llanbeblig Parish, with the Borough of Carnarvon'. The tables ALWAYS include one town within each county, so some very small towns are included, especially in Wales.
  5. The 'unit_name' field has been added by the database project to simplify analysis. The names of units are simplified, so 'Bristol City with Barton Regis Hundred' becomes simply 'Bristol'. It was also used to permit some obvious aggregations. For example, the original Durham data include 'Bishop's Wearmouth Township', 'Monkwearmouth Parish' and 'Sunderland Town And Parish', which were all merged together as 'Sunderland'. However, note that the data contain data for the City of Glasgow, Glasgow Barony and Glasgow Gorbals, all of which are defined as units in the AUO, and overall totals for 'GLASGOW CITY and SUBURBS', which we have not defined in the AUO and whose unit name here is simply 'GLASGOW'.
  6. The most complex set of entries was for London, which consists of the following units within the raw data:
    • Kent: 'Deptford Town', 'Greenwich Town'
    • Middlesex: 'Clerkenwell Parish', 'London City within the walls', 'London City without the walls', 'Ossulstone Hundred Finsbury Division', 'Ossulstone Hundred Holborn Division', 'Ossulstone Hundred Kensington Division', 'Ossulstone Hundred Tower Division', 'Westminster City'
    • Surrey: 'Bermondsey Parish', 'Lambeth Church District', 'Rotherhithe Parish', 'Southwark Borough' (NB these were all the units distinguished within Surrey, so if they are merged into 'London' there are no Surrey towns left).

Checking:

  1. The nation- and county-level data were checked by summing the data for the four age/sex groups and comparing them with the published total for the given occupation. These overall totals do not appear in the published data for individual towns, so this check was not possible for towns.
  2. All data were checked by summing the individual occupational groups and comparing this computed total with the total for 'Total Number of Persons whose Occupations are returned as above' as listed at the end of each table. NB at the time of writing (May 2002) a substantial number of areas fail this test, and more cleaning work is required.
  3. The various 'total' and 'residual' categories at the end of the table were checked by summing all rows with occ_type values 'N', 'R' and 'T', and then comparing this computed total with the total for 'Total Population' (code = 'P') as listed at the very end of each table.
  4. NB while considerable checking has been done on the numerical data, there is another possible source of errors. The list of occupations varies from one county to the next, and these lists were not separately input but copied from previous counties and then modified to fit. These have been proof read and corrected as necessary for England and Wales.

Indices:

IndexTypeColumn(s) indexed
occ_1841_pk Primary key unit_label, row_type, occupation
occ_1841_idx_occ Unique occupation, unit_label, row_type

Constraints:

The table has the following associated constraints:

ConstraintTypeDetails
occ_1841_pk Primary Key See details above for primary key index


Columns within table:

ColumnTypeContents
row_type Text string (max.len.=6). Flag field: 'T' for town-level data, 'C' for county totals, and 'N' for national totals.
unit_label Text string (max.len.=204). The name of the unit to which the data relate, as stated in the original report. This may be a county or an urban area (see notes).
unit_name Text string (max.len.=44). A simpler version of the unit name, sometimes designed to permit aggregation; see notes.
container Text string (max.len.=104). The name of the higher-level area, usually a county, to which the data relate. These appear to be Ancient Counties, but this needs to be checked. This column is blank for data covering county and national totals.
container_agr Text string (max.len.=44). A field added to simplify analysis: aggregates Scottish counties into larger ad hoc units.
nation Text string (max.len.=6). Indicates the nation containing the county: 'E'=England, 'S'=Scotland, 'W'=Wales. Empty for the national totals for 'England and Wales' and 'Great Britain'.
occupation Text string (max.len.=84). The occupational group as stated in the census table (see note).
occ_type Text string (max.len.=6). A set of 3 codes to signify 3 different types of data.: T indicates 'Total Number of Persons whose Occupations are returned as above', which NB excludes the residual category. R indicates numbers in residual categories such as 'Other persons employed in trade'. N indicates categories out of employment, e.g. 'Independent persons', 'Almspeople'. P indicates 'Total Population'. In general, rows with non-null values here should be ignored when analysing occupations.
m_occ_20 Integer number. Number of males 20 years and upwards occupied in the specified occupation.
m_occ_19 Integer number. Number of males under 20 years of age occupied in the specified occupation.
f_occ_20 Integer number. Number of females 20 years and upwards occupied in the specified occupation.
f_occ_19 Integer number. Number of females under 20 years of age occupied in the specified occupation.
pop_occ Integer number. Total occupied population for the specified occupation in each county. NB this is raw data for county totals, but is simply computed from the four age/sex categories for towns.
notes Text string (max.len.=104). Notes.