Census 2021 publications
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is releasing the data from Census 2021 in three phases. This began in Summer 2022 with the initial population data. These are links to all the main data sets and publications.
We are also publishing links to data sets, reports and other publications using Census 2021 data on Calderdale elsewhere on DataWorks. These are created by the Performance and Business Intelligence at Calderdale Council and other organisations. They are at Census 2021 data set.
Each dataset has the option to select several levels of area type. Many will provide data at all available areas from England and Wales to OAs (Output areas). However, some will not provide data for smaller areas where figures could make anonymisation difficult, for example sexual orientation and gender identity.
There is also an interactive tool which provides a link to several of the main datasets and publications. These can be available at ward, parish or MSOA (Middle layer super output area): Facts and figures about people living in Calderdale.
Phase one
Release: Census first results
Data sets:
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Population and household estimates, England and Wales, rounded data.
Publications:
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Initial results publications: Population and household estimates, England and Wales (rounded data) | Maximising the quality of Census 2021 population estimates | Compare age-sex estimates from Census 2021 to areas within England and Wales | Quality and methodology information (QMI) for Census 2021.
Interactive tools:
Release: Demography and migration
Data sets:
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Unrounded population estimates: Age by single year | Number of households | Population density | Sex | Sex by single year of age.
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Household characteristics: Household composition | Household size | Households by deprivation dimensions | Legal partnership status | Living arrangements | Number of usual residents in households and communal establishments.
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Migration: Age of arrival in UK | Country of birth | Country of birth (detailed) | Length of residence | Migrant indicator | Number of non UK short term residents by sex | Passports held | Passports held (detailed) | Year of arrival in UK.
Publications:
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Demography and migration publications: Household and resident characteristics | International migration | Population and household estimates | Demography and migration quality information | Quality and methodology information.
Release: Education
Data sets:
Publications:
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Education, England and Wales: Usual residents aged 16 years and over who have academic, vocational or professional qualifications, as well as the number of schoolchildren and full-time students | Quality and methodology information (QMI): Education.
Release: Ethnic group, national identity, language and religion
Data sets:
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Ethnic group | Ethnic group (detailed) | Household language | Main language (detailed) | Multi religion households | Multiple main languages in household | Multiple ethnic group | National identity – UK | National identity (detailed) | Proficiency in English | Religion | Religion (detailed).
Publications:
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Ethnic group – Ethnic groups of usual residents and household ethnic composition | Language – Main language, English language proficiency and household language | National identity – National identity of usual residents | Religion – Religion of usual residents and household religious composition | Quality and methodology information (QMI).
Release: Health, disability and unpaid care
Data sets:
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Disability | General health | General health, age-standardised proportions | Number of disabled people in the household | Provision of unpaid care | Provision of unpaid care, aged-standardised proportions.
Publications:
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Disability, England and Wales: Information on disability | General health, England and Wales: People’s health across local authorities | Unpaid care, England and Wales: Usual residents aged 5 years and over who provide unpaid care, and how many hours they provide in a typical week | Quality and methodology information (QMI): Health, disability and unpaid care.
Release: Housing
Data sets:
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Accommodation type | Car or van availability | Central heating | Communal establishment residents by age and sex | Communal establishment management and type | Number of bedrooms | Number of rooms | Occupancy rating for bedrooms | Occupancy rating for rooms | Purpose of second address | Second address indicator | Tenure.
Publications:
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Communal establishment residents, England and Wales: March 2021: People living in communal establishments, including age, sex and type of establishment | Housing, England and Wales: Accommodation type, tenure, rooms and bedrooms, central heating and car or van availability | People with second addresses, England and Wales: People who use second addresses | Quality and methodology information (QMI): Housing.
Release: Labour market and travel to work
Data sets:
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Comparing Census 2021 and Labour force survey estimates of the labour market: census-based estimates: Estimates of labour market status, occupation and industry taken from Census 2021, for households only | Comparing Census 2021 and Labour force survey estimates of the labour market: LFS-based estimates: Estimates of labour market status, occupation and industry taken from the Labour force survey, February to April 2021 | Distance travelled to work | Economic activity status | Hours worked | Industry | Method used to travel to work | NS-SeC (National Statistics Socio-economic Classification) | Occupation | Occupation – minor groups | Employment history.
Publications:
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Comparing Census 2021 and Labour force survey estimates of the labour market, England and Wales: March 2021: Comparing the percentages of adults in employment and other labour market data between Census 2021 and the Labour force survey, and reasons why they differ | Economic activity status, England and Wales: People in and out of work covering employment, unemployment, hours worked and employment history | How industries have changed at a local level between censuses | Industry and occupation, England and Wales: Industries people are employed in, types of work people do as their main job and social grades | Travel to work, England and Wales: Method of travel and distance travelled to work | Quality and methodology information (QMI): Labour market | Quality and methodology information (QMI): Travel to work.
Release: Sexual orientation and gender identity
Data sets:
Publications:
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Gender identity, England and Wales: Gender identity of usual residents aged 16 years and over | Sexual orientation, England and Wales: Sexual orientation of usual residents aged 16 years and over | Quality and methodology information (QMI): Sexual orientation and gender identity.
Release: UK armed forces veterans data
Data sets:
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UK armed forces veterans population data : Household reference person indicator | Previously served in communal establishments and in households | Previously served (household) in the UK armed forces | Previously served (person) in the UK armed forces.
Publications:
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UK armed forces veterans publications: UK armed forces veterans: Census 2021 in England and Wales | UK armed forces veterans quality information | Quality and methodology information (QMI)| UK armed forces veterans variables.
Release: Welsh language
Data sets:
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Welsh language skills (detailed) | Welsh language skills (reading) | Welsh language skills (speaking) | Welsh language skills (speaking) by single year of age | Welsh language skills (understanding) | Welsh language skills (writing) | Welsh skills (detailed), Wales: Usual residents in Wales by their overall Welsh language skills | Welsh skills (reading), Wales: Usual residents in Wales by their ability to read Welsh | Welsh skills (speaking), Wales: Usual residents in Wales by their ability to speak Welsh | Welsh skills (speaking) and resident age, Wales: Usual residents in Wales by their ability to speak Welsh by age | Welsh skills (understanding), Wales: Usual residents in Wales by their ability to understand Welsh | Welsh skills (writing), Wales: Usual residents in Wales by their ability to write Welsh.
Publications:
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Welsh language, Wales: The ability of usual residents aged three years and over living in Wales to understand spoken Welsh, and to speak, read or write Welsh | Quality and methodology information (QMI).
Release: Other publications and interactive tools
Publications:
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Census 2021 dictionary: Detailed information about variables, definitions and classifications to help when using Census 2021 data.
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Voices of our ageing population: Living longer lives: Complied in partnership with Age UK, the Centre for Ageing Well, and the International Longevity Centre UK.
Interactive tools:
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Build a custom area profile: create your own profile for local areas using ready made areas or draw your own area on a map.
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Census map: explore data on age, sex, household composition and migration. More data will be added as it is released.
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Census 2021 quiz: how well do you know your local authority area? Test yourself with this quiz. Each time you play, you’ll get different questions.
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How your area has changed in 10 years: select a local authority and find out how it has changed since Census 2011 compared to region and country.
Phase two
Multivariate datasets – preset and build your own
ONS have created a range of datasets using two or more variables. These can be found at:
The datasets include the option to change area type, coverage and characteristics within the data.
There is also the option to create your own datasets using the Create a custom dataset.
We’ve created a guide to using this tool: Create a custom dataset (Flexible table builder) guide.
Analysis topics and other publications
Release: Ageing
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Centenarians living in England and Wales in 2021: Profile of centenarians including sex, marital status, living arrangements, health, disability and socio-economic attributes.
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Profile of the older population living in England and Wales in 2021 and changes since 2011: Overview of the characteristics of the population aged 65 years and over in 2021.
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Older people living in care homes and changes over time: Characteristics of people aged 65 years and above living in a care home, including health, disability, ethnicity, main language and changes since 2011.
Release: Demography
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Adult children living with their parents: Analysis of adults living with their parent(s) at the time of Census 2021.
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Alternative populations: People counted in Census 2021 not at their usual residence, including workday, workplace, out of term, and second address population.
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Characteristics of people with a second address: An address where someone stays for more than 30 days a year, other than their usual place of residence.
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Children in families : A headline release accompanying datasets on dependent children, step-families, multi generational households and households broken down by the number of dependent children.
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Holiday homes: Location of addresses used as holiday homes and movements of holiday home users.
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Marriage and civil partnership status: People’s legal partnership status.
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People in England and Wales with a different address in the UK a year before the census: Characteristics of people who moved a year prior to Census 2021 and 2011 with detailed migration datasets. It includes regional and local authority inflows and outflows.
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People’s living arrangements: Analysis on legal partnership status, non-dependent children, people living alone, second addresses, people who moved in the year prior to the census and other living arrangements.
Release: Education
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How qualification levels across England and Wales differ by country of birth: How qualifications of international migrants and UK born residents compare.
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How workforce qualification levels differ across England and Wales: Interactive article analysing qualification levels of local labour forces and how areas create, attract and retain highly qualified workers.
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Variation in worker qualification levels between different industries: Analysis of the variation in qualification levels across different industries, with reference to the levelling up agenda and industry skills needs / shortages.
Release: Equalities
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How does home ownership, health and more differ across society?: Analysis and quiz exploring life in 2021 for different people, including home ownership, health, education and work.
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How people living in communal establishments differ from the household population: How the characteristics of people living in communal establishments compare with occupants of private households.
Release: Ethnic group, national identity, language and religion
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Cornish identity: Characteristics and outcomes for people who identified themselves as Cornish in Census 2021.
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Ethnic group by age and sex: Sex and age characteristics of ethnic groups and how this has changed since 2011.
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Ethnic group differences in health, employment, education and housing: Variations in health, disability, overcrowding and home ownership, education and employment between ethnic groups
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Ethnic group differences in health, housing, education and economic status in Wales: Population and household estimates for ethnic groups in Wales by age, sex, religion, general health, disability status, unpaid caregiving, housing tenure, occupancy rating, education level, employment and socio-economic status
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Gypsy or Irish Traveller populations: Analysis including country or continent of birth, education, age and sex, health and unpaid care, household composition, labour market, cultural identity and housing.
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Jewish Identity: Characteristics and outcomes for people who identified as Jewish in the religion and ethnic group questions.
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Religion: The religion of usual residents and the religious composition of households.
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Religion by age and sex: the religion people connect or identify with (their religious affiliation), whether or not they practice or have belief in it, by age and sex.
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Religion by housing, employment and education: Differences in life outcomes across the eight ‘tickbox’ religious groups
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Roma populations: Analysis including national identity, country of birth, age and sex, education, main language, labour market, housing, health, disability and unpaid care.
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Sikh identity: The characteristics and outcomes of people who identified as Sikh.
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Somali populations: Education, employment, health, housing, language and country of birth for residents who identified as Somali.
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Welsh language by other characteristics: Information of the population who can speak Welsh by demography, national identity, economic status, health and other characteristics.
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Welsh language composition of households in Wales: An analysis of Welsh speaking ability within households in Wales.
Release: Health, disability and unpaid care
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Disability by age, sex and deprivation: Insights into disability prevalence, broken down by age and sex. Also comparison of disability prevalence to 2011 and 2001 Censuses and the relationship between deprivation and disability.
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General health by age, sex and deprivation: Insight into self-reported health, by age and sex. Also comparison to 2011 Census and relationship between deprivation and health.
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Geographical divide in general health, disability and unpaid care: How areas compare with the level of people who reported being in bad or very bad health, were disabled and limited a lot in their day to day activities or spent 20 hours or more per week providing unpaid care.
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Life expectancy in care homes: Average number of years care home residents aged 65 and over are expected to live beyond their current age.
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Protected characteristics by disability status: The protected characteristics of disabled and non-disabled people.
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Unpaid care and protected characteristics: Differences in unpaid care by protected characteristics – legal partnership status, sexual orientation, ethnic group, disability and religion.
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Unpaid care by age, sex and deprivation: Provision of unpaid care. Also comparison of deprivation with 2011 and 2001 Censuses.
Release: Housing
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Communal establishment residents: People living in communal establishments by age, sex, type of establishment.
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Dwellings: Dwelling numbers, type and multiple occupation (HMO).
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Household characteristics by tenure: Variations in tenure by household size, household family composition, multi-generational households, and household level information of household members by age, ethnic group, religion, employment status and occupation.
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Housing: 2021 compared with 2011: Housing characteristics at dwelling level, including occupancy, shared dwellings, accommodation type, tenure, central heating type and number of bedrooms.
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How homes are heated in your area: Central heating type.
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More than one in ten addresses used as holiday homes in some areas: Analysis of where hotspots of second addresses are used as holiday homes.
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Number of vacant and second homes: Unoccupied dwellings split into vacant dwellings and second homes.
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Overcrowding and under-occupancy by household characteristics: Occupancy rating variations for bedrooms by household tenure, accommodation type and household family composition. Also has household level data on age, ethnic group, religion, employment status, country of birth and sexual orientation.
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People experiencing homelessness: The age, sex, ethnic group, health, disability status, legal partnership status, sexual orientation and employment status of people identified as homeless.
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People with second addresses: People who use a second address.
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Who is likely to live in homes that are harder to warm: Analysis using Census 2021 and housing energy performance data to focus on households living in lower energy efficient housing.
Release: International migration
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Analysis of social characteristics of international migrants living in England and Wales: Covering country of birth, age, sex, housing, family, language, health, qualifications, religion, national identity and ethnicity.
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Changing picture of long-term-international migration: Comparison of long-term migrant population in Census 2021 to 2011 and 2001 Censuses.
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Changing picture of short-term-international migration: Overview of non-UK-born short-term residents including analysis by country of birth, economic activity and industry.
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Dual citizens living in England and Wales: This covers passports held, country of birth, age, sex, year of arrival and national identity for dual citizens.
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Families: Prevalence, characteristics and geographical spread of family types.
Release: Labour market
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Characteristics of those not in employment as of Census Day 2021: A breakdown of people out of work covering economic inactivity, unemployment, employment history, occupation and industry, using Census 2021 data.
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Diversity in the labour market: The differences in labour market outcomes across subgroup populations.
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Employment in local authorities: People who are in and out of work covering employment, unemployment and economic inactivity.
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Migration and the labour market: Differing labour market participation between migrant and non-migrant populations, including type of occupations and industries worked in.
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Occupations most dependent on older and younger workers: Occupations and industries held by usual residents aged 16 years and above at the time of Census 2021, by age, sex, disability and geography.
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Understanding unemployment: what role does ethnicity and disability play?: An interactive analysis examining how unemployment rates vary dependent on ethnicity and disability.
Release: Sexual orientation and gender identity
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Gender identity: age and sex: Gender identity by age and sex.
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Quality of Census 2021 gender identity data: ONS investigation into the quality of gender identity data.
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Sexual orientation: age and sex: Sexual orientation by age and sex.
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Sexual orientation, further personal characteristics: Analysis including disability, general health, ethnic group, religion, labour market characteristics, education, legal partnership status, family status and children. This dataset builds on the dataset by age and sex.
Release: Travel to work and other geographical analysis
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Coastal communities: characteristics of built-up areas: Analysis of coastal built up areas including health, disability, unpaid care, employment status, highest qualification and tenure.
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Towns and cities: characteristics of built-up areas: Analysis of characteristics of Built up areas (BUAs) focusing on various topics by size of BUA, also description and comparison of towns and cities showing interesting trends.
Release: UK armed forces veterans
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Living arrangements of UK armed forces veterans: Includes resident type, type of communal establishment and household characteristics, and characteristics of spouses, partners, children and stepchildren who live with UK armed forces veterans.
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UK armed forces veterans, health and unpaid care: Analysis of the UK armed forces veteran population and their spouses and children living in the same household. It covers general health, disability and unpaid care by personal characteristics.
Release: Other publications and interactive tools
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Characteristics for Census 2021 respondents by mode of completion: Looking at the different ways people completed the Census 2021 and their characteristics.
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Create a population group profile: An interactive tool to create profiles of the population across England and Wales on measures such as health, education and employment.
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How many people do my job: An interactive tool showing how many people listed a selected occupation, including age, gender and other characteristics.
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How your area has changed in ten years: See how characteristics within a local authority have changed between Census 2011 and Census 2021.
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Kinship care in England and Wales: Detailed characteristics of children living with relatives other than their parents.
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People experiencing homelessness: Covering the age, sex ethnic group, health, disability status, legal partnership status, sexual orientation and employment status of people identified as homelessness.
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Reconciliation of mid-year population estimates with Census 2021 – England and Wales | Reconciliation of mid-year population estimates with Census 2021 – local authority level: Analysis of differences between mid-year population estimates rolled forward from mid-2020 and the official estimates rolled forward from Census 2021.
Phase three
Release: Additional geographies
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Parish data: A series of profiles at Parish level (link to Nomis site).
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Postcode data: Household and usual residents data at postcode level (link to Nomis site).
Release: Approximated social grade data
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Approximated social grade data: A socio-economic classification – Census 2021 was not designed to directly measure this. The Market Research Society has modelled data from the 2021 National Readership Survey for Census 2021.
Release: Detailed migration data
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Detailed migration data: Characteristics of people or households who have moved within the UK or from another country into the UK in the year before Census 2021.
Release: National parks
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National park residents: Statistics on people who lived within national parks.
Release: Origin-destination data
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Origin-destination data: Data on the movement of people from one location to another. This covers migration, work or staying at a second address.
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Origin-destination data explorer: An interactive tool showing the flow of people travelling to work or migrating.
Release: Small populations
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Small populations: Statistics about small population groups, defined by ethnic group, religion, national identity, main language or country of birth.