Summary information

Study title

Great Britain Historical Database : Economic Distress and Labour Markets Data : Poor Law Statistics, 1859-1939

Creator

Southall, H. R., University of London, Queen Mary and Westfield College, Department of Geography
Gilbert, D. R., University of London, Queen Mary and Westfield College, Department of Geography

Study number / PID

4567 (UKDA)

10.5255/UKDA-SN-4567-2 (DOI)

Data access

Open

Series

Not available

Abstract

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The Great Britain Historical Database has been assembled as part of the ongoing Great Britain Historical GIS Project. The project aims to trace the emergence of the north-south divide in Britain and to provide a synoptic view of the human geography of Britain at sub-county scales. Further information about the project is available on A Vision of Britain webpages, where users can browse the database's documentation system online.These data were originally published by the Poor Law Board, later renamed the Local Government Board, and cover England and Wales. They were computerised over many years by the Great Britain Historical GIS Project. They form part of the Great Britain Historical Database, which contains a wide range of geographically-located statistics, selected to trace the emergence of the north-south divide in Britain and to provide a synoptic view of the human geography of Britain, generally at sub-county scales. The county-level data appeared in the Board's Annual Reports, while the union-level data appeared in their Returns to Parliament, within British Parliamentary Papers. The tabulations are always for the 1st of January and 1st of July. The original tables contain many columns, so two kinds of transcriptions have been made. Those labelled "full" include all columns but only for selected dates, while the other transcriptions cover all available dates but are generally limited just to total numbers of paupers and numbers of able-bodied male paupers, as the closest approximation to unemployment. Please note: this study does not include information on named individuals and would therefore not be useful for personal family history research. For the second edition (February 2024), the data was updated and extended to 1939, and former study 3713 was incorporatedMain Topics:- Total and able-bodied pauperage in all Poor Law Counties in England and Wales, July 1859 to January 1919. -...
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Methodology

Data collection period

01/01/1987 - 30/03/2023

Country

England and Wales

Time dimension

Repeated cross-sectional study

Analysis unit

Administrative units (geographical/political)
Individuals
National
Subnational

Universe

Persons recorded in poor law statistics in England and Wales for the period 1859 to 1939

Sampling procedure

No sampling (total universe)

Kind of data

Not available

Data collection mode

Compilation/Synthesis
Transcription

Access

Publisher

UK Data Service

Publication year

2004

Terms of data access

  The Data Collection is to be made available to any user without the requirement for registration for download/access under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Licence.