Census 2021 reveals how Wrexham’s population has changed over the last 10 years

The first results of the 2021 Census have been released today (28 June), revealing how Wrexham’s population has changed over the last decade.

The Census is a count of the population, recording how the numbers of people and their attributes vary from one neighbourhood to another across the UK.

It is primarily a mix of demographic information. For example: how old people are, their gender and family relationships; socio-economic information, such as the size of the property, main job and educational qualifications; ethno-cultural background; health; and some voluntary questions, including religious identity and sexuality.

Last summer all households were asked to take part in the 10 yearly survey to help understand how the characteristics of the UK population vary across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The data is used to predict the demands on and to inform the financing of public services, such as schools and healthcare, to support decision-making in business and commerce, and to map the social geography of the UK.

Overall across England and Wales the population has increased by more than 3.5 million, with 59,597,300 people living in England and Wales on 21 March 2021, the day of the latest census.

Today’s data shows that this is the largest census population ever recorded.

However in Wales the rate of population growth has been slower than in England, with the population growing by 44,000 (1.4%) in the last 10 years.

There were 1,586,600 women (51.1% of the population) and 1,521,000 men (48.9%) in Wales at the time the Census was carried out last year.

Wrexham has seen a marginal increase in people living in the county borough since 2011, increasing 0.2% from 134,800 to 135,100 as of last March.

This is lower than the overall Wales increase, with Wrexham seeing one of the lowest population growths in Wales along with Powys and Merthyr Tydfill.

Picture: ONS

Neighbouring counties Flintshire saw increases of 1.6% and Denbighshire 2.2%.

Wrexham is described as being the “tenth least densely populated of Wales’ 22 local authority areas, with around two people living on each football pitch-sized piece of land”.

However seven Welsh local authorities saw a drop in population numbers, including  Conwy (-0.4%), Gwynedd (-3.7%) and the Isle of Anglesey (-1.2%).

Ceredigion saw the biggest drop of -5.8% compared with Newport which grew by 9.5%.

The figures also show a large increase in the number of over 65s living in Wrexham and across England and Wales as a whole – revealing the scale of the country’s ageing population.

Across Wales more than one in five people were aged over 65 – the highest number ever recorded. This is alongside a drop in the number of children being born.

For example across Wales there has been a 17.7% increase in over 65s, according to the Census data, compared to a decrease of 2.5% in those aged 15-65.

There was also a decrease of 1.0% of children aged under 15.

Wrexham has seen a higher increase in the over 65s than the all Wales average, with 19.5% now classed as being in that age group.

This coincides with a drop of almost four per cent in those aged between 15-64 and 3.6% decrease in children under the age of 15.

Overall across the county borough 17.2% of the population is made up of under 15s, 62.5% of 15-64 year olds and almost 20% of over 65s.

Further Census data will be released at the end of the year.