Scottish researchers clear the calendar for April 2011, because as of the 5th of April, I guarantee that you’ll be spending it glued to your computer, checking out the (then) newly-released Scottish 1911 Census online.

That’s right, the Registrar General for Scotland has announced the date that the 1911 census will be released on Tuesday 5 April 2011. Containing details collected from more than 4.7 million Scots, this census marks a century since the data was first gathered.

The records will include the name, address, age, occupation, birthplace and marital status of everyone counted in the 1911 census, as well as details about their children. For the first time, the census data will also be in full colour (see below), as opposed to the grey images previous censuses have been done as. You can view a larger of this sample census page here.

It will be available to view on the ScotlandsPeople site, and as with all records on their site it will be available by pay-per-view.

Their website does give the following information:

It will cost 1 credit to view an index entry for the 1911 census. An image will cost 5 credits. Unlike previous censuses, the image spans two pages due to the additional questions that were asked about the fertility of marriage and the profession or occupation. Each page measures 34 cm long by 43 cm high so the images are best viewed on your computer screen or if printed, on size A3 paper.

You can read the full announcement of it on the ScotlandsPeople website.

So mark it on your calendar, and count down the days till the biggest online Scottish record release (at least for this year) happens. Then it’ll be happy researching!!