Every 10 years the government undertakes a survey to to collect information on the population of the United Kingdom.
This is the decennial census which was first introduced in 1801 and has been taken every decade since with the exception of the Second World War year 1941.
From 1801 to 1831 the censuses were simple head counts. From 1841 personal information on individuals was recorded.
 

Local census returns are available in the Middlesbrough Reference Library for 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891 and 1901. The attachment below is a an index, giving the appropriate reel number,to the towns and villages in the local areas of North Yorkshire, Cleveland and South Durham for which the census returns are held in microform in the Reference Library.

Note also that Middlesbrough Libraries have taken a subscription to Ancestry Library Edition from Proquest Information and Learning.This includes for the whole of England and Wales the full enumerators data for the Census Returns 1841-1901.

Ancestry Library Edition is a web delivered research tool offering comprehensive geneaological information online. The resource is available in all Middlesbrough branch libraries as well as the Reference Library.
 

Census returns

Census index by town or village (microfilm)
Filename:  Census index by town or village (microfilm).htm
Description:    Census index by town or village (microfilm)
Type and size:    html doc size 212KB