Such is the rigour of the census that even Queen Victoria was required to add her name – listing her occupation as “the Queen”. But after more than 200 years the decennial stocktake of the nation is undergoing a radical overhaul and concern is growing at the impact any changes will have on swathes of policy-making.

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) will this month begin a three-month public consultation, including a roadshow to gather the views of interested parties from local government number-crunchers to genealogists, on moves to replace the current census model with a cheaper alternative.

Prior to the last nationwide survey to fill in Britain’s demographic blanks in 2011 the Government announced its desire to scrap the census, which two years ago cost nearly £500m and employed 35,000 people to go door-to-door collecting forms for the mammoth data collection exercise.

The ONS has said that it wants to change the current model and outlined its two “front-running options” – an internet-based “modernised census”  or a rolling annual survey of four per cent of the population supplemented by “administrative data” such as education or health records.

“This piece provides an overview of how England and Wales are multi-faith. According to the Census, our towns and cities are global villages with an extra 2.9 million foreign-born people living in England and Wales since 2001 – most from India, Poland and Pakistan – and an additional 1.1 million Muslims, bringing the total to 2.7 million. Christianity, or at least the number identifying themselves as followers of the largest religion, is on the slide with more than 4 million fewer saying they followed the church than in 2001.

The march of the faithless has also continued with 14.1 million people, about a quarter of the entire population, saying they had no religion at all, a rise of 6.4 million over the decade. The Church of England said the figures “confirm we remain a faithful nation”, but adding that the fall of 4 million in those choosing to see themselves as Christians was “a challenge”. With Justin Welby (the Bishop of Durham) about to take the top job and become the next archbishop, and having turned round the diocese, can he do it on a much bigger scale and transform the way people think about Christianity?”

It is a matter of fact that under the 2001 census there were more active congregations in rural than urban England and it would be interesting to learn how this might have developed over the last 10 years. The 2011 Census can be accessed here.

Another really interesting “story” arising from the latest census releases refers to the role of migrant workers – very important we know in rural England. See also this piece on Boston.