November 23, 2022

We're all excited and are patiently waiting for the data to be released for the UK 2021 census that was carried out around March 2021. This was the case for England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, but unfortunately not Scotland. As we all know, Covid 19 caused a huge amount of disruption for us all and it made it particularly difficult to conduct a Census. Scotland postponed their census by a year, which is adding a level of complexity and delay to an already difficult process.

There is some light at the end of the tunnel, we're getting news of some of the data becoming available next year for England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. We will then have our own processing to do when it becomes available in order to get it ready for Vision and our mapping projects, but it will be a high-priority task for us. We'll explain what we know below, but keep in mind all of the dates and planned releases are subject to change. We're also going to try our best to keep you updated as frequently as we can when anything changes, so it's worth subscribing to our emails or following us on our socials to make sure you stay in the loop.

England and Wales

The final outputs from the England and Wales census are part of the Phase 3 outputs, these are currently planned to begin in Spring 2023.

We've found some population and household estimates for England and Wales from Census Day, March 21st 2021:

  • 59,597,300 population in England and Wales
  • 56,489,800 in England and 3,107,500 in Wales
  • Population growth of more than 3.5 million (6.3%) since the 2011 Census
  • There were more people than ever before in the older age groups; the proportion of the population aged 65 and over was 18.6%. It was 16.4% in 2011
  • 24,782,800 households in England and Wales
  • Households increased by more than 1.4 million since 2011 when there were 23,366,044 households

The source of this information is the Office for National Statistics (June 2022) and if you want to see the full article and investigate more of the preliminary estimates, please follow this link.

Population change between 2011 and 2021, Local Authorities in England and Wales

The trend for population ageing has continued, Age and sex of the population, 2011 to 2021, England and Wales

Changes in the number of households between 2011 and 2021, Local Authorities in England and Wales

Northern Ireland

The final releases of Census 2021 data at all geographies are estimated for Summer 2023.

Population and household estimates for Northern Ireland for Census Day, March 21st 2021:

  • 1,903,100 population in Northern Ireland
  • The population has increased by 92,200 (5%) since the 2011 Census
  • The population aged 65 and over has seen the largest increase of 62,800 (24%)
  • 768,900 households in Northern Ireland
  • Households increased by 65,600 (9%)

The source of this data is the Census Office, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (May 2022) and if you want to see the full article, please follow this link.

Scotland

As mentioned at the start of the article, Scotland is at least a year behind the rest of the UK in terms of having its data ready to be released. All we know at this point is that they will start publishing census information from 2023 onwards but nothing more specific. We'll post updates as we find out more.

Staying up to date

If you are interested to find out more about when and what data is being released, please feel free to check out our socials or subscribe to our emails. You can find the links to each below: