The population of England and Wales has reached an all-time high of 59,597,300, according to the first results of the 2021 census.
The count was based on questionnaires completed by households on Sunday, March 21, 2021 and represents an increase of 6.3% over the 2011 figure of 56,075,912, an additional 3.5 million people.
It means the UK’s largest population is almost 67 million, once the results of the Northern Ireland census were published last month, showing a population of 1.9 million, and the Scotland’s latest estimate of 5.47 million. The total is about to break. the 70 million mark over the next five years, but population growth has slowed slightly over the past decade.
The latest UK population estimate made by the National Statistics Office was 67.1 million by mid-2020. There are 1.4 million more households than in 2011.
The snapshot of the population of England and Wales was unveiled at St Alban’s CE primary school in Havant after the pupils won a competition involving ‘counting things’.
It once again showed an increase in population aging. In 2011, 9.2 million residents were 65 years of age or older, an increase of nearly 1 million from 2001 with 8.3 million. In 2021, the figure rose again to 11.1 million, more than a sixth of the total. The population over the age of 90 exceeded half a million and reached 527,900 people.
Children under 15 represent a declining proportion of the population, and with 10.4 million have been outnumbered by those over 65 in the last decade.
Global figures mean that the UK remains the third largest country in Europe behind Germany, which had 83.2 million people on 1 January 2021, and France, which at the same time had 67 , 7 million people, according to Eurostat.
There are 11.1 million more people living in England and Wales than in 1981 (48.5 million). With 434 inhabitants per square kilometer, England is now the second most densely populated country in Europe after the Netherlands (507 people per km²), according to Eurostat data.
Census data are critical to national and local government decision-making on the distribution of funds for health and education, targeting locations and targets for housing construction, and projecting housing needs. future social care.
It is the 22nd full census of Britain; the first was in 1801. The company has been done every 10 years, except during World War II. Statisticians consider the first modern census in 1841, when the head of the household received a form to fill out on behalf of all members of the household on a given day.
This may be the last census of its kind. The ONS has previously said it is looking for cheaper ways to collect data from the entire population, combining administrative data such as GP records, taxes and driver’s licenses with regular population surveys. The government has stated that its “ambition is for censuses after 2021 to be conducted using other data sources and providing more timely statistical information.”
More detailed figures will be published in the autumn illustrating changes in the ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender identity, religion, language and education of the people of England and Wales. Data on health, housing, unpaid care, disability, work and veterans of the UK Armed Forces will also be published later this year.