Reliability of censuses

[K-453]

"In many cases, the enumerator filled in the form on the doorstep. Some of those who gave the information might well have mumbled; many might have foxed the listener with a regional accent, or a heavily foreign inflection. Some of the Monday informants may not have known some of the precise details about the people in the house, flat, tenement, room, lodging. On several occasions, it will have come down to intelligent (or, of course, unintelligent) guesswork: about the name, about the age, about the relationship. And of course in some cases, the informants would have been neighbours, not the householders themselves. Do your neighbours know your exact age?"

http://www.billgreenwell.com/lost_lives/

Information about censuses in the 19. and 20. century, especially the one of 1881. The text quite comprehensible explains where the varying information in the census documents comes from: differently spelled names, people getting younger from census to census ...

Probably nothing new for most of you, but helpful background information for me. So voilą.

[miss marple]

The point about Census records is that they are part of a bigger picture, so some times information is not accurate,ages can vary, or place of birth, or names can be shortened, but taken with other information, birth, marriage, death certificates, Kelly's directories, or newspapers you built up a picture.
Addresses are important in census records and it is fairly easy to follow a family through different census records and seek out individuals who have moved or married or died.
Everyone who is present on the night of the census at an address is recorded including visitors, so your person may not be present at the address but somewhere else.
And say an Irish person may be given a birthplace in the parish of the residence, if the enumurator is doing several families in multi occupancy, they don't distinguish place of birth unless someone makes a point of it.Sometimes age is estimated.
Middle and upper class households are usually more informative. Common names will have several entries that need to be counterchecked
There are many experienced researchers on this site but if you are doing it for the first time it can be daunting. Always check the original image on line as transcribed images for the internet may have small mistakes
I miss looking through the index books at Family record centre