The accuracy and precision of birthplace reporting in the 1851–1911 censuses: Place as a component of identity in nineteenth‐century England and Wales

Abstract If migration between 1851 and 1911 is to be analysed using individual‐level census data, it must proven that individuals' place of birth was reliably recorded. However, existing studies have primarily been concerned with establishing only the level absolute error, rather than how such errors were introduced. Through assessing determinants inaccuracy in 1851–1911 censuses, this article finds while birthplaces generally reported accurately, which did exist not fault individual question, but also householder whose responsibility fill form, those charged transcribing original, handwritten schedules into a machine‐readable format. By demonstrating ability identify their function age distance they migrated from birth, either intelligence or familiarity per se, shows birthplace accurately relevance held lives. Consequently, argues reflected its role as component identity , becoming less relevant further became, increasingly aged.