"newshound" wrote in message
o.uk...
On 12/02/2020 09:43, NY wrote:
"Andy Burns" wrote in message
...


How are people identified in a census - I've forgotten? Is it just by
name or does each person in a household have to give a unique ID such as
National Insurance number? If they gave NI number, it would make it much
easier for genealogists to trace the correct John Smith as he moves from
house to house between one census and the next.

I've heard it said that most Americans (land of the free) know their
social security number. I've always thought that the NI number had some
merits as a potentially unique identifier. There are places that use it as
your login ID on the computer system.

I certainly know my NI number - it's used for filling in tax returns and
various other things that are not *directly* related to state pension and NI
contributions to build up credits for pension.

But then I'm the sort of person who can remember all my car registrations
and the postcodes and phone numbers of all the houses I've lived at. ;-)

I can see a lot of benefit from using some form of ID number (and NI is as
good as any) as the number on lots of databases, as an easy means of
relating one database to another *once the legal confidentiality "just
cause" conditions have been met*.