Frequently Asked Questions

When will the 2021 census data be available on StreetCheck?

England, Wales and Northern Ireland: The data is now available on StreetCheck for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. All postcode pages in those countries have been updated to show the new data automatically.

Scotland: The Scottish government took the decision to delay their census by a year (to March 2022) due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, it is likely that the latest Scottish census data will be added to StreetCheck a year later than England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The latest approximate dates for the Scottish census rollout can be found on Scotland's Census website. We estimate that the data will be available on our website in late Summer 2024, assuming that the Scottish government teams release data at a similar pace to those in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Is it possible to compare 2021 census data to 2011 or earlier?

Unfortunately not. With each census, the government learns from what worked well (and not so well) in the last census, so the questions asked and methodology for interpreting the results changes each time. Some questions are removed as they are no longer considered important, new questions are added, and existing questions are tweaked.

Some data outputs have changed in subtle ways that mean they are not easily comparable. For instance, Age in the 2011 data had very granular and irregularly sized categories for children (0-4 years, 5-7, 8-9, 10-14, 15 only, 16-17, 18-19), but then very broad irregular ranges for adults (e.g. 45-59 years, 65-74). For 2021 this was replaced with regular 5-year intervals all the way from birth to 85 years of age, giving much clearer charts of age distribution.

Even long-standing questions such as relationship status have changed for 2021, due to the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 and the Civil Partnerships, Marriages and Deaths (Registration etc) Act 2019, both of which changed the interpretation of married, separated, divorced or widowed in the census. In 2011, same sex relationships were counted as a distinct kind of relationship, whereas in the 2021 census they are classified as any other.

Given all the changes, only a very small amount of data would be comparable, and even then, would need a lot of caveats. As a result, we have decided not to create a comparison tool, and instead will just show the latest available data.

My new-build property is incorrectly located on the map and delivery drivers cannot find it; can you help?

When a new street is built, or a new postcode is assigned to a property, the Ordnance Survey (OS) will assign a provisional (estimated) location for the postcode in their data. Almost all map providers use OS data, so when entering your postcode into Google Maps, Apple Maps, StreetCheck or almost any sat-nav system, it will show the provisional location, which is generally wrong.

Unfortunately, this problem occurs for every new build, and often residents have problems with mail delivery for the first year or more of residency. OS update their data very three months at the end of February/May/August/November. Once OS have surveyed your area, they should provide a more accurate location in their next data release. That data will then be picked up by StreetCheck, and other users of that data such as Google Maps, and the problem will gradually subside.

Can you tell me the postcode for a particular property?

If you only know part of an address, you can look up the full address and postcode on the Royal Mail website at https://www.royalmail.com/find-a-postcode

Do you know who owns a particular house?

No, unfortunately the information that we receive from the Land Registry relating to house sales gives us only the price paid, not who paid it, or who it was paid to.

If you are looking to find out who currently owns a house, you may be able to request the information from the Land Registry here: https://www.gov.uk/search-property-information-land-registry

Please note that the Land Registry levy a small charge for this service.

Do you know who owns a particular road/street/path/piece of land?

If your query is related to parking rights, street lighting, access, drainage/utilities/cabling, potholes, grass cutting or similar, you should first try and contact your local council to check if they have "adopted" the street. If so, they will be able to advise on what your rights are in relation to the street, and they will also be responsible for upkeep.

If the local council confirm that the street is not adopted, or if it is a piece of land with no public access, you will need to contact the Land Registry to try and establish ownership. Bear in mind that ownership of private roads is sometimes shared between properties adjoining the street, or sometimes held by the original site developers. Also, the Land Registries are not complete records of ownership - there are many parcels of land that have never been registered by their owners.

The England/Wales Land Registry have an online map-based property identifier here which can be used to pinpoint the land. They charge a small fee (£3 at the time of writing) for a copy of the title deed. They have also produced a useful guide for finding land ownership here.

If you are still unable to find details of the owner, you may need to resort to contacting neighbours of the land to see if they know who owns it, or checking the electoral role for residents who may have ownership.

If your query relates to a motorway or other major trunk road, you should contact the associated Trunk Road Agent - for example, in England this is Highways England.

How old are the houses in my street?

This can sometimes be tricky to ascertain for very old properties, but for ones less than 100 years old can usually be found out to within 5-10 years. The Land Registry have a great guide on how to find this information on their website: https://hmlandregistry.blog.gov.uk/2018/01/26/how-old-is-my-house/.

The website HowOldIsMyHouse.co.uk also has a wealth of information, and links to old maps to help with your search.

Can you help me trace a person?

All our information is anonymous, so we do not store house owners, renters, resident's telephone numbers or forwarding addresses. If the resident of a property is on the electoral roll or their telephone number is available to Directory Enquiries, you may be able to find their information on 192.com.

Can you tell me how a particular person responded to the census?

All our information is anonymous, and is aggregated into groups called Output Areas before we receive it, so we have no access to individual census responses.

In England and Wales individual census responses are not made available publicly until 100 years have passed. This was originally enforced through the Lord Chancellor's Instrument no.12, issued in 1966 under S.5 (1) of the Public Records Act 1958. That has been effectively nullified by the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOI Act). Despite this, Freedom of Information requests may be (and have been) denied under S41 of the FOI Act, which allows for the information to remain private where the information was provided to the public authority in confidence.

In Scotland also, individual census responses are not made available publicly until 100 years have passed. We do not have definitive information at this time as to what specific legal protections exist in Scotland, although it is likely that the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (e.g. Part 2 Section 38) and/or the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (see above) will apply.

In Northern Ireland, the Census (Northern Ireland) Act 1969 provides for the protection of the privacy of individual responses. The act does not specify a period of time after which responses are published, so records remain confidential. It should be noted that prior to 1926, the Irish census was taken for the whole of the island, and those records are now maintained by the National Archives Office in Dublin, so the above-mentioned legislation would not apply. Records for 1901 and 1911 are publicly available from The National Archives of Ireland, as well as fragments of 1821-51 records.

Is there a risk of flooding in a particular area?

We are working to bring this information to StreetCheck, but in the meantime you can request a flood risk indicator from the Land Registry here (a small charge applies): https://www.gov.uk/search-property-information-land-registry

The Environment Agency also maintain a free interactive map of flooding risks here: https://flood-warning-information.service.gov.uk/long-term-flood-risk/

Scottish users should check the SEPA flood maps here

Bear in mind that all of these resources assess the potential risk, not whether the house has actually ever flooded.

If you have reason to suspect that a house may have previously flooded, a search of the street name on the local paper's website may sometimes yield results. If you are considering buying a property, ask the seller or agent directly if the house has ever flooded. Agents that are part of a professional group such as the NAEA have codes of conduct to ensure transparency in these matters, but the onus is often on you as a buyer to ask.

Do you know why a particular street is so named?

We receive this request frequently. Unfortunately, we simply do not have enough staff to investigate this, but a good place to start your own investigations is the website of your local paper. Particularly for new build properties they often publish anecdotes and planning applications. For older streets, using a search engine sometimes yields results by local historians.

Where does your data come from?

We receive data from a number of sources, including open government datasets, NHS Choices, the Land Registry, the Home Office and more. You can find more information on our Data Sources page.

How accurate are the locations of crime data?

The data we receive from police forces via the police.uk website is anonymised so that the exact victim of a crime cannot be inferred (for instance by pinpointing a particular house). This is done by assigning it a point close to the location that is one of 750,000 specially selected anonymised locations, or a public place or commercial premises such as an airport or shopping centre. The exact methods used are discussed in more detail on the police.uk website.