Details of the £23m project to process more than 32m forms from the 2001 census will be unveiled on Thursday.

Form filling will be made easier

The new scheme will lead to the most technically advanced census since the UK began collecting such statistics almost two hundred years ago.

Using the same techniques used to scan ink marks on lottery tickets or process credit card application forms, the new machines will be able to process 80 pages a minute or almost 5,000 pages an hour.

The new system is designed to make compiling the census far easier - and that should mean simpler forms to fill in.

Census director Graham Jones: "It will be more straightforward"

Graham Jones, the Census Director for England and Wales said: "It is more straightforward. You just tick boxes rather than writing the answers in a very long-handed way."

Trials in the US have already been successful and now the new system will be given a dress rehearsal in the UK.

Testing the new system will begin in eight weeks, when around 200,000 households will be able to assess its speed and accuracy.

The census will be delivered on 25 April - the day we are statistically most likely to be at home.

The new operation will be based in Runcorn, Cheshire, where much of the census work will be carried out.