England, Regional and County Statistics Notes

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England, Regional and County Statistics Notes

Weekly statistics are collated from a snapshot of the Wikitree database taken at about midnight each Saturday. The figures are usually rolled out between Tuesday and Thursday.

What’s new?

20 October 2022

There have been a number of changes to the way English profiles are identified, collated and presented. The changes are summarised below:

1. Identification of profiles – more flexible search terms are used as explained in more detail here
2. New counties of Greater Manchester and West Midlands have been added
3. Isle of Wight is no longer separately reported; it is included in Hampshire’s figures. (Update 20 October - due to a technical issue, Isle of Wight hasn't been included in this week's figures. The problem will be sorted in next week's figures.)
4. Bristol's statistics will be collated and profiles reviewed by the Gloucestershire team, whilst recognising that it is a unique location as detailed here. The correct way to enter a Bristol location remains 'Bristol, England'. Please not use 'Bristol, Gloucestershire, England'.
5. There is now a new ‘county’ of England Unknown Region. This includes all profiles that have a birth, marriage or death that is identifiable as an England profile, but which can’t be allocated to a specific county.
6. The profile count has changed to include in a county’s statistics every profile which has an identifiable birth, marriage or death location. (Previously, a technical adjustment reduced slightly the headline figure; the new approach is more straightforward.)

What impact has the change had?

• England figures at county level have increased by 4%. Some counties have increased by more than others. A number of profiles that were previously incorrectly included in one county’s figures are now identified in the correct county; a number of poorly formatted locations are being allocated to England or the United Kingdom.
• Suggestions, Unsourced, Unconnected and Unknown figures have increased disproportionately. This is not a great surprise, as the newly identified profiles have not previously been ‘owned’. We now have a new batch of profiles to work on to further improve the quality of our tree.

Are all England/county profiles being picked up by the new approach?

The answer to this question is 'no'. The new system is an improvement but there are still profiles that will slip through the net. There are ways members can clean up locations relatively easily.

• The new Unknown Region ‘county’ contains profiles where the location is merely “England”; many are merely punctuation problems; and others are well-known towns and cities that need a county adding to the location field. It would help considerably for members to correct the location fields in this Unknown Region 'county' which will allocate these profiles to the appropriate county.

How can you help?

This Data Doctors report lists in birth date order 363 profiles where the Nofolk birth location is poorly formatted. The equivalent report can be run for other counties by replacing Norfolk (in the text box on the left hand side of the screen) with the name of the county you wish to work on.

Please change all poorly formatted location fields in line with our usual protocols. By doing this, you will be increasing the county total figures, and the profile will appear on future county reports for attention. Many of the profiles are unsourced. You can either

• add a source, or
• add an Unsourced template so that the profile can be revisited at a later stage.

Thanks for your help.