Census shortfall does not add up

National Records of Scotland (NRS) have some serious thinking to do about what went wrong during the Scottish census earlier this year.

Despite warnings of potential fines for those who failed to fill the form in, the initial return rate at just 79% was below expectation and the experience elsewhere across these isles.

Given the state of the public finances right now, it is a matter of concern that several million pounds had to be injected into the project.

But it is an even greater worry that more than 20% of the public did not see the need – or indeed the worth – of completing the census forms.

Whether the root cause of such apathy was education around the purpose of the census or a poor public communication strategy, NRS must address it with gusto.

Robust census data is vital for all sorts of purposes, not least in deciding how best to allocate public resources for the common good.