Council and Democracy

The latest set of figures from the 2011 Census was released by the Office of National Statistics in December 2012. These include more statistics about the district’s population including household composition, economic activity and religion.

You may remember being asked to fill out your Census form on 27 March 2011. We would like to thank every person who filled out the form. You have helped to make our district count!

The key findings for the Bradford district from the December 2012 statistics are:

• The Bradford District 2011 Census population estimate is 522,452. This is a population increase of 51,652 since 2001, an increase of 11.0%
• 22.0% of the population is between 0 and 14 years of age. Only two other local authorities have a larger percentage – Slough and the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham
• Bradford has become more ethnically diverse. Although the White ethnic group has decreased in size since 2001 (76.1%), the largest proportion of the District’s population (63.9%) identified themselves as White British
• Bradford District had the largest proportion of people of Pakistani ethnic origin (20.4%) in England; this is an increase of nearly 6% since the 2001 Census (14.5%)
• The following groups also saw an increase in their numbers: Bangladeshi, Mixed multiple ethnic groups, Other Asian, Black/African/Caribbean/Black British and Other ethnic groups. There was a decrease in the proportions of the District’s Indian and White Irish groups
• Although the proportion of the population who identified themselves as Christian has fallen since 2001, they were still the largest religious group in the Bradford District. Between 2001 and 2011 the proportions fell from 60.1% to 45.9%
• Nearly one quarter of the population identified themselves as Muslim – the second largest group and an increase of 8% to 24.7% since 2001. Bradford District has the fourth highest proportion of Muslims in England
• Just over one-fifth of the District’s population (20.7%) stated that they had no religion – lower than regional or national figures and an increase from 13.3% in 2001
• The question about religion was voluntary and 6.2% of the District’s population chose not to give an answer
• In 2011, 84.4% of people in Bradford District described their health as being ‘good’ or ‘very good’. In Yorkshire and Humber the figure was 80.0% and 81.4% for England
• There were 210,000 residents aged 16-74 in employment which is an employment rate of 57.3%. This compares to a regional rate of 60.0% and an England rate of 62.1%. Male employment rates were higher than women. 63.8% of men aged 16-74 were in employment compared to 51.2% of women
• There were 21,200 people aged 16-74 who were unemployed, an unemployment rate of 5.8% which is higher than the regional rate of 4.8% and an England rate of 4.4%
• The proportion of residents with no qualifications has reduced considerably from 35.1% in 2001 to 27.7 % in 2011. This is still higher than the regional rate of 25.8% and an England rate of 22.5%

The statistics are being released in different phases by the Office of National Statistics. The next release is expected in January 2013, and will include results for neighbourhoods, wards and parliamentary constituencies.

The Census results are very important because they are used to plan, commission and deliver services such as transport, housing, healthcare and education in the district.

The amount of funding many public authorities, including the Council, receive from central government is also underpinned by Census population estimates.

We will be posting information about the Census figures and how they relate to the Bradford district on the Resources and Documents area of our Bradford Observatory website.