The UK Statistics Authority's proposals for the next census in England and Wales, to be taken in March 2011, were published and presented to Parliament and the National Assembly for Wales in a Government White Paper on 11 December 2008. These have been published at this time--some two years or more before the census itself--in order for Parliament and the public alike to be given the opportunity for informed discussion on the design of the next census, and particularly the proposed questions to be included, before the secondary legislation necessary for the census to take place is considered by Parliament towards the end of 2009Iearly 2010. This article--the first of two to report on the significant recent developments in the design of the census--comments on the questions that are being proposed in England and Wales and notes the degree in which these are being harmonised across the rest of the UK and how comparable they are with those asked in 2001. The main uses to which the information collected will be put are described. A second article, scheduled for the summer issue of Population Trends, will focus on the key methodological and operational developments designed to improve coverage in the 2011 Census and the quality of the resulting statistical outputs.