GB Historical DB

Burgh, District of County and Parish-level statistics for Scotland taken from the 1951 census

Table ID:
PAR_1951_S     (1252561)
Contents:
Burgh, District of County and Parish-level statistics for Scotland taken from the 1951 census
Approx. number of rows:
1,458
Table type:
Raw Data
Documentation Author:
Humphrey Southall
Chronology:
The data are for the single year 1951.

Sources:

  1. The data were extracted from Table 1 in the County Reports of Census of Scotland: 1951.
  2. The original transcription was by the Centre for Data Digitisation and Analysis. They were checked against the original photocopies, and significantly re-organised, by Humphrey Southall in April 2009. This was done to enable the data to be used as a replacement authority for much of the Scottish part of the AUO, enabling us to remove credits to SCRAN for copyrights reasons. In January 2016 the table was again reorganised and checked, and the data for Districts of County added, by Humphrey Southall and Paula Aucott. This was to enable it to be used, along with the 1931 equivalent, to identify 1931-51 boundary changes, and so assist in the construction of a burgh- and district-level GIS for 1931.

Notes:

  1. This table includes population counts for all the main Scottish administrative geographies, not just parishes. Note that the counties of Kinross and Nairn were too small to be divided into Districts of County, so their Landwards need to be treated for many purposes as if they were Districts of County.
  2. The following values of area_type appear in the table and have been systematically matched to the AUO (the counts exclude rows with exclude_city = Y or data_1931 = Y):
    • County (33 areas).
    • City (4 areas): Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow.
    • Large Burgh (24 areas). These include copies of the data for the four Cities re-assigned to the equivalent Burgh-level units.
    • Small Burgh (171 areas).
    • Landward (33 areas).
    • District of County (199 areas).
    • Parish (891 areas).
    Unlike the 1931 parish table, this table does not include sub-totals for the different types of unit within each county, only an overall county total.
  3. The final six columns, giving changes or rates, have been re-computed from the other columns rather than being checked for errors.
  4. The figures for civil parishes which are partially within the counties and partially the cities have been edited to remove the numbers representing that part of the parish which occurs within the City boundary. Currently we do not have copies of the city reports and therefore cannot check these have been accurately edited. This may be the cause of the inconsistencies in area totals between county and summed parishes described below.
  5. The rows giving totals for the 4 cities have been duplicated and added to the table again as data for the burghs of the same name. This is to ensure consistency in the mapping on A Vision of Britain through Time. Please ignore these rows for all other purposes.
  6. This table contains much data from the previous census taken in 1931. Where the boundary of the unit was significantly different in 1931, a second row of data was usually included giving the 1931 values for the area as defined in 1931. These rows can be identified by their lack of 1951 data.
  7. Where the boundary changed, the table gives the year(s) of the change(s).

Checking:

  1. Numbers of females and males correctly sum to total population for both 1951 and 1931 for all areas.
  2. All counts for Large and Small Burghs and Districts of County were summed by county and compared with the published county totals. The Landwards of Kinross and Nairn were treated here as if they were Districts of County.
  3. Similar checking against county totals was carried out for parishes.
  4. At the time of writing, a substantial number of errors are found by the above checks against county totals, and need to be corrected. Note that this checking against county totals is not possible for the rows giving data for 1931 areas.
  5. The total Area given for the County was compared to the sum of the area of the Districts. Midlothian County area was 3 more than the sum of its Districts. This is explained by the note for Cramond parish which specifies that the totals for the County and the Landward "includes the Islands of Inchmickery and Cow & Calves situated in Cramond Parish and having an area of approximately three acres. The remainder of the parish was annexed to the City parish of Edinburgh in 1920." whereas the District areas do not include these 3 acres.
  6. The total Area given for the County was compared to the sum of the area of the Parishes within the county. The following did not match despite the transcription being correct.
    • Angus County area 86 acres more than summed Parishes.
    • Dumfries County area 1 acre more than summed Parishes.
    • Wigtown County area 1 acre more than summed Parishes.
    • Midlothian County area 3 more acres than the Parishes. Presumably related to Cramond Parish note given above.
  7. The number of rooms occupied and unoccupied given for the County was compared to the sum of the same columns for the Parishes within that county. They all matched except for Perth County. In Perth the County had 13 more occupied rooms for 1951 than the summed Parishes did and conversely 13 less unoccupied rooms in 1951 than the summed Parishes. The transcription is correct, the error is in the original report and therefore cannot be corrected.
  8. The geographical units have been cross-checked against the GBHGIS administrative unit gazetteer to ensure that all units are correctly identified. Each unit has a unique unit ID assigned to it and this can be used to cross-reference against other data-sets.

Indices:

IndexTypeColumn(s) indexed
par_1951_s_pkey Primary key rec_num
par_1951_s_idx Unique sco_cnty, sco_type, sco_area, rec_num

Constraints:

The table has the following associated constraints:

ConstraintTypeDetails
par_1951_s_pkey Primary Key See details above for primary key index


Columns within table:

ColumnTypeContents
sco_cnty Text string (max.len.=24). Name of the county; the data are from the County Reports, so this is part of the volume title.
sco_area Text string (max.len.=54). Name of Burgh, District of County, or Civil Parish. The county totals have area_name = 'TOTAL'.
sco_type Text string (max.len.=34). Type of area; these actually appear above the start of each type of area name. See above notes for the values appearing here.
cnty_unit Integer number. Unit ID for the county containing the current area, as defined in the AUO. Note that the table includes rows for county totals, with g_unit set to the county ID, whereas summing the data by cnty_unit will produce massive over-counting.
g_unit Integer number. Unit ID for the current unit, which may be a county, a county Landward, a Burgh, a District of County or a Parish. Deliberately unset for rows which would cause double-counting (see above).
area_note Text string (max.len.=84). Text immediately following area name. This includes dates of boundary changes, within brackets.
part_of Text string (max.len.=6). Flag: "Y" if area is labelled as "Part of". Usually means the remainder is in another county but sometimes parts are inside and outside cities.
exclude_city Text string (max.len.=6). Flag: "Y" indicates rows withing county listings which duplicate data included in the reports for cities, which should be excluded to avoid double counting. These rows all have null values of g_unit.
data_are_for_1931 Text string (max.len.=6). Flag: "Y" indicates the row is for the population of the unit as defined in 1931. These rows all have null values of g_unit.
pop_1951 Integer number. Original column heading: '1951: Population: Both Sexes'.
male_1951 Integer number. Original column heading: '1951: Population: Males'.
fem_1951 Integer number. Original column heading: '1951: Population: Females'.
schedules_1951 Integer number. Original column heading: '1951: Census Schedules Completed'.
hous_occ_1951 Integer number. Original column heading: '1951: All Residential Establishments: Occupied'.
hous_unoc_1951 Integer number. Original column heading: '1951: All Residential Establishments: Unoccupied'.
room_occ_1951 Integer number. Original column heading: '1951: Rooms: Occupied'.
room_unoc_1951 Integer number. Original column heading: '1951: Rooms: Unoccupied'. These include unoccupied sub-let rooms in occupied houses.
pop_1931 Integer number. Original column heading: '1931: Population: Both Sexes'.
male_1931 Integer number. Original column heading: '1931: Population: Males'.
fem_1931 Integer number. Original column heading: '1931: Population: Females'.
schedules_1931 Integer number. Original column heading: '1931: Census Schedules Completed'.
hous_occ_1931 Integer number. Original column heading: '1931: All Residential Establishments: Occupied'.
hous_unoc_1931 Integer number. Original column heading: '1931: All Residential Establishments: Unoccupied'.
room_1931 Integer number. Original column heading: '1931: Windowed Rooms (Occupied Establishments only)'.
pop_1921 Integer number. Original column heading: '1921: Population (Both Sexes)'.
area_1951 Integer number. Original column heading: 'Area in Acres (1951)'.
pop_acr_1951 Floating point number. Original column heading: 'Population per 100 acres (1931)'.
pop_acr_1931 Floating point number. Original column heading: 'Population per 100 acres (1951)'.
inc_3151_num Integer number. Original column heading: 'Increase or Decrease: Number (1931-1951): Increase'. This column is empty if the population decreased.
dec_3151_num Integer number. Original column heading: 'Increase or Decrease: Number (1931-1951): Decrease'. This column is empty if the population increased.
ch_3151_pc Floating point number. Original column heading: 'Increase or Decrease: Percentage: 1931-1951'. Decreases recorded as negative values.
ch_2131_pc Floating point number. Original column heading: 'Increase or Decrease: Percentage: 1921-1931'. Decreases recorded as negative values.
notes Text string (max.len.=1004). Footnotes transcribed from the report.
rec_num Integer number. Sequence number keeping rows in order.