The census records an urban majority
The 1851 census of England and Wales is conventionally cited as the first in which more than half the population lived in towns. The precise share depends on where the urban threshold is set, and the figure quoted varies accordingly; the direction of travel does not. It is the first time any national population is recorded as predominantly urban.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- Nineteenth-century British urbanisation · phenomenon · United Kingdom · not located
- Manchester · city · United Kingdom
- Liverpool · city · United Kingdom
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
Census of England and Wales, 1801–1851
Supports urban and municipal population growth and the conventional dating of the urban majority to the 1851 count. V55 verification basis: NOT consulted. No population figure is quoted anywhere in this pack, because township, borough and conurbation boundaries differ and the distinction cannot be made responsibly without the returns.
Registrar General / The National Archives · 1801–1851 · Partly verified
Decennial Census of England and Wales, 1801 to 1851, with the Registrar General's reports; returns held at The National Archives
Recorded on Nineteenth-century British urbanisation
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.