Combining data from the 1971, 1981 and 1991 Censuses, the purpose of this study is to describe how the local areas in which people live in Britain have changed over the last two decades in the most simple way - through their population density. The population of all of Great Britain is considered, and enumeration district data form the 1971 and 1981 Censuses have been combined with ward level data from the 1981 Census, so that the changing population densities of people living in over 10,000 frozen areas can be considered.