It is true that in Canada, the provinces are responsible for registering all vital statistics. As for the Census of Canada, as of 2011, the long-form Census was made voluntary (previously, it was compulsory). The other change in 2011 was that the public was urged to complete the Census via the Internet. You had to telephone a government number to request a mail-in form. It is not clear to me how these changes affected the collection of Census data but I do suspect that less information was gathered, since a small but significant proportion of the population is not computer literate. To make this more relevant to the Lanarkshire list, not sure what Census enumeration methods are currently in use in the UK? Carolyn On 2013-09-14, at 10:44 PM, Paul Hutcheson wrote: > > In Canada, the individual provinces register all births, marriages, deaths > and changes of name. BMDs have absolutely nothing to do with the federal > government. The only remote connection is the ability, in some provinces, > to apply for a SIN at the time of birth.