CENSUS 2021: Ethnicity, Identity, Language and Religion

The CENSUS 2021 in England and Wales published data about ethnic group, national identity, language, and religion. The release included four publications: National identity, Religion, Language and Ethnic Group.

Ethnicity

In Trafford the percentage of white population has decreased by 7.7% from 85.5% in 2011 to 77.8% in 2021.

The most common non-white broad ethnic group is Asian/Asian British that has increased 4.7% from 7.9% in 2011 to 12.6% in 2021. All other non-white broad ethnic groups have also increased.

The percentage of households in Trafford where all household members have the same ethnic group has decreased 1.7% from 60.7% in 2011 to 59% in 2021. The percentage of households where ethnic groups differ within partnerships has increased 1.9% from 5.8% in 2011 to 7.7% in 2021. The percentage of households where ethnic groups differ between generations but not within partnerships has decreased 0.4% from 2.3% in 2011 to 1.9% 2021.

	2011	2021	Change
White	85.5%	77.8%	-7.7%
Non- White	14.5%	22.3%	7.8%

	2011	2021	Change
Asian	7.9%	12.6%	4.7%
Mixed	2.7%	3.8%	1.1%
Black	2.9%	3.4%	0.5%
Other	1%	2.5%	1.5%

Trafford Non-White ethnicities by MSOA, Census 2021

Contains OS data ©; Crown copyright and database right 2022
Source: Census 2021 | @traffordDataLab

The largest proportion of residents in Trafford are of White ethnicity, however, this demographic is not evenly distributed across different age groups. White residents make up 66.3% of all residents aged 15 and under, 77.35% of all residents aged 16 to 64 years, and 92.72% of all residents aged 65 years and over. The second largest group for all age groups are residents of Asian ethnicity, with 17.6%, 13.33%, and 4.03% respectively. Mixed or Multiple ethnicity residents were the third largest group of all residents aged 15 and under, representing 8.96%, which is more than double the proportion of Black ethnicity residents (3.8%) and residents of other ethnicity (3.34%). However, for the two age groups over 15 years, residents of Black ethnicity were the third largest group with 3.77% and 1.85%, a slightly higher proportion than residents of Mixed or Multiple ethnicity (2.94% and 0.94%) and residents of other ethnicity (2.60% and 0.46%).

Across all ethnic groups, for residents aged 15 and under, there were more males than females. However, for residents aged 16 to 64 years and residents aged 65 years and over, there were more females than males, except for the “Other ethnic group” in the 65+ age category. Among residents aged 65 years and over, there was the largest difference between female and male numbers among different ethnicities. Specifically, among Asian residents, females represented 52.4% and males 47.6%; among Black residents, females represented 58.3% and males 41.7%; among Mixed residents, females represented 59.6% and males 40.4%; among White residents, females represented 55.3% and males 44.7%; and among “Other ethnic group” residents, females represented 43.2% and males 56.8%.

The plot below shows a more detailed distribution of age and sex for each ethnic group, also including 2011 proportions. The age distribution vary greatly among ethnicity groups.

National identity

“British only” national identity was the most common response in 2021 with 62.1% whilst in 2011 the most common response was “English only”, this change could reflect a change in national identity but can also reflect a change to the question structure.

Residents with “Non-UK only” identity increased 1.4% from 6.1% in 2011 to 7.5% in 2021. The most common non-UK identity in 2021 was “Irish” with 1.1% followed by “Polish” with 0.6%.

	2011	2021	Change
B* only	20.8%	62.1%	41.3%
E* and B* only	9.8%	13.4%	3.6%
E* only	60.2%	13%	-47.2%
Non-UK only	6.1%	7.5%	1.4%
UK and non-UK	0.8%	2.3%	1.5%
W* only	0.5%	0.3%	-0.2%
W* and B* only	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%

B* = British, E* = English and W* = Welsh

Languages

In 2021 92.8% of Trafford residents aged three and over declared English as their main language, a person’s first or preferred language, a 1.7% decrease from 2011. The top 5 non-English main languages in Trafford in 2021 were Urdu (0.9%), Polish (0.6%), Arabic (0.6%), Panjabi (0.4%) and Cantonese Chinese (0.4%). These differ from England and Wales top 5 non-english main languages in 2021 which were Polish (1.1%), Romanian (0.8%), Panjabi (0.5%), Urdu (0.5%), and Portuguese (0.4%).

In 2021, 6% of Trafford residents aged three and over can speak English very well or well, and 1.2% cannot speak English or cannot speak English very well, out of the 7.2% whose main language is not English. In 2011, the equivalent figures were 4.4% and 1.1% respectively, out of the 5.5% whose main language was not English in 2011.

	2011	2021	Change
English	94.5%	92.8%	-1.7%
Other language	5.5%	7.2%	1.7%

	2011	2021	Change
Urdu	0.7%	0.9%	0.2%
Polish	0.8%	0.6%	-0.2%
Arabic	0.3%	0.6%	0.3%
Panjabi	0.4%	0.4%	0%
Cantonese Chinese	0.1%	0.4%	0.3%

Religion

In 2021, 48.4% of Trafford residents described themselves as “Christian”, a 15% decrease from 63.4% in 2011. 33.1% declared “No Religion” in 2021, an 11.9% increase from 21.2% in 2011. 13.3% declared Non-Christian religion in 2021, a 4.3% increase from 9% in 2011. 8.7% described themselves as “Muslim” in 2021, the most common non-Christian religion, a 3% increase from 5.7% in 2011.

The Census 2021 included for first time information about religious group composition within multi-person households. In 35.5% of Trafford households all members who answered the question about religion reported the same religion within the household and 14.4% reported a combination of the same religion and “No religion”.

	2011	2021	Change
Christian	63.4%	48.4%	-15%
No religion	21.2%	33.1%	11.9%
Other religion	9%	13.3%	4.3%
Religion not stated	6.3%	5.1%	-1.2%

	2011	2021	Change
Muslim	5.7%	8.7%	3%
Hindu	1%	2%	1%
Jewish	1.1%	1%	-0.1%
Sikh	0.7%	0.8%	0.1%
Buddhist	0.3%	0.4%	0.1%