Study title

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 Board of Supervision for the Relief of the Poor in Scotland, later renamed the Local Government Board for Scotland. They were computerised 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.

This study contains Scottish poor law statistics, generally by parish, from 1845 to 1915, plus some limited data from 1931. From 1845 to 1889 they provide a single annual count of paupers, usually on the 14th of May. From 1890 to 1915 three counts are provided, for January,  May and either August or September. The data classify recipients of poor relief by reason for relief (casual, sane, lunatic, vagrant) and by gender/age (aged male, aged female, children).

Please note: this study does not include information on named individuals and would therefore not be useful for personal family history research.

All variables are counts of categories of paupers, except for the total population of each area, from the census.