Census 2021: new data on ethnic groups, national identities, languages and religions

Monday 5 December 2022 7am

Headline results from the Census 2021 on ethnic groups, national identities, languages and religions of Herefordshire’s residents are now available to download from the Census 2021 webpage. The following are a few key points from the report:

• The number of people who identified themselves as being of an ethnicity other than ‘white: British’ increased to 5,100 (8.9%) - this is still very low compared to nationally (26%)
• Polish was the most common main language in the county other than English (spoken by around 3,000 people), followed by Romanian (1,500 people)
• Around 1,800 residents (1% of people) could not speak English well – 280 of them not at all
• Christianity remained the largest religion in Herefordshire, with just over half (55%) of residents
• The number of people who described themselves as “Muslim” continues to rise (790 people); overtaking Buddhists as the second largest group
• The proportion reporting they have no religion has increased to 37% - the same proportion as nationally

You can explore the data yourself using the Census maps on the ONS website.  These new interactive maps compare Herefordshire to the rest of England and Wales, and you can zoom in to the smallest statistical geographies (output areas).  Please note that data for wards and parishes is not yet included

The next release will be about the labour market and travel to work on 8 December – look out for a further update that week.