This paper compares published census tables for employers in England and Wales with extractions of individuals from the I-CeM and S&N sources. This is for non-farmers for 1851, and farmers for 1851-71, the only years that have published census tables for these data. The comparisons confirm a generally good match. Although there are some deficiencies possible from I-CeM/S&N data, the data are less ambiguous in definitions and more complete in some respects than achieved by published census tables, especially for larger firms and larger farms
