Census in the United Kingdom is done every 10 years .
The UK census as we know it today started in 1801 ( championed by John Rickman who managed the first four up to 1831 ) , partly to ascertain the number of men able to fight in the Napoleonic wars , and partly over concerns stemming from An Essay on the Principle of Population by Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus ( 1798 ) .
Census in the United Kingdom