Population and household estimates, England and Wales: Census 2021, unrounded data

This page is also available in Welsh (Cymraeg) (PDF, 210KB).

Census 2021 rounded population and household estimates for local authorities in England and Wales were released on 28 June 2022. The bulletin explored change over time, regional variations and the composition of the population by sex and by five-year age group.

This update provides unrounded population and household estimates, by sex and single year of age. The accompanying data are provided at even more detailed geographies, down to Output Areas where possible.

• On Census Day, 21 March 2021, the size of the usual resident population in England and Wales was 59,597,542 (56,490,048 in England and 3,107,494 in Wales); this was the largest population ever recorded through a census in England and Wales.
• The population of England and Wales grew by more than 3.5 million (6.3%) since the last census in 2011, when it was 56,075,912.
• The population grew in each of the nine regions of England and also grew in Wales; the region with the highest population growth was the East of England, which increased by 8.3% from 2011 (a gain of approximately 488,000 residents).
• There were 30,420,202 women (51.0% of the population) and 29,177,340 men (49.0%) in England and Wales.
• There were 24,783,199 households in England and Wales on Census Day; the number of households increased by more than 1.4 million since 2011 (6.1%), when there were 23,366,044 households.
• The median age in England and Wales was 40 years (40 years in England, 42 years in Wales); this is higher than the median age of 39 years across England and Wales in 2011.
• The region of England with the highest median age was the South West (44 years) and the region of England with the lowest median age was London (35 years).
• Across England and Wales, the local authorities with the highest median age were North Norfolk (54 years), Rother (53 years) and East Lindsey (52 years).
• The local authority with the lowest median age was Tower Hamlets (30 years), followed by Nottingham, Cambridge, Oxford and Manchester (all 31 years).

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Select an area to find out how median age varies across each local authority in England and Wales.

Figure 1: Local authorities with more university students tended to have a lower median age

Age structure of the population, 2021, local authorities in England and Wales

Notes:

1. The median age is the age of the person in the middle of the group, such that one half of the group is younger than that person and the other half is older.
2. Age refers to age at last birthday rather than the exact age.
3. Percentages are rounded to one decimal place.

Download the data

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Reference date

The census provides estimates of the characteristics of all people and households in England and Wales on Census Day, 21 March 2021. It is carried out every 10 years and gives us the most accurate estimate of all the people and households in England and Wales.

We are responsible for carrying out the census in England and Wales, but will also release outputs for the UK in partnership with the Welsh Government, the National Records of Scotland (NRS) and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA). The census in Northern Ireland was also conducted on 21 March 2021, whereas Scotland’s census was moved to 20 March 2022. All UK census offices are working closely together to understand how this difference in reference dates will impact UK-wide population and housing statistics, in terms of both timing and scope.

Response rate

The person response rate is the number of usual residents for whom individual details were provided on a returned questionnaire, divided by the estimated usual resident population.

The person response rate for Census 2021 was 97% of the usual resident population of England and Wales, and over 88% in all local authorities. Most returns (89%) were received online. The response rate exceeded our target of 94% overall and 80% in all local authorities.

Quality

Because of the impact of removing rounding and applying further statistical processes, there may be some very small differences for some local authorities between the rounded and unrounded population and household estimates.

More quality and methodology information on strengths, limitations, appropriate uses and how the data were created is available in the Quality and Methodology Information (QMI) for Census 2021. Further information on our quality assurance processes is provided in our Maximising the quality of Census 2021 population estimates report.