A treasure trove of statistical information and historical background, this sourcebook is the complete history of the General Register Office--the key institution in the production of demographic data in England and Wales in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Details are provided on how the office became responsible for the British and Welsh civil registration system and the taking of censuses every ten years--from which it produced statistics on population, birth rates, mortality, and causes of death. This resource places the office's work in an intellectual, institutional, and political framework.

Edward Higgs is a reader in history at the University of Essex. He is the author of The Information State in England and Making Sense of the Census Revisited.