FOI reference: FOI-2026-3631
You asked
Please provide:
The number of British-born citizens still alive
The above broken down by age groups "under 65", and "65+"
We said
Thank you for your request.
We produce estimates of the population at a point in time so cannot say whether these people are still alive at the present time.
Our census estimates for England and Wales are for Census day and collect information on passports held as a proxy for nationality and citizenship. There is guidance available on using country of birth, nationality, and passports held data. Someone can be a British citizen without being born in the UK. Similarly, someone can be born in the UK and not be a British citizen.
The number of people who were usually resident in England and Wales on 21 March 2021 and were born in the UK was 49,5795,70. More detail for different geographies can be found in TS004 -- country of birth.
The number of people who were usually resident in England and Wales on 21 March 2021 and held a UK passport was 45,688,445. Note that around 8 million people did not hold a passport. More detail for different geographies can be found in TS005 - passports held
If you are interested in the number of people who were usually resident in England and Wales on 21 March 2021 who were born in UK and held a UK passport, the number was 41,402,092. This was obtained by cross-tabulating country of birth and passports held using the ONS create a custom dataset tool.
This Age and country of birth dataset provides a breakdown of those born in the UK for those aged under 65 and those aged 65 or more.
This Age and passports held dataset provides a breakdown of those holding a UK passport for those aged under 65 and those aged 65 or more. This Age, country of birth (UK) and passports held dataset provides a breakdown of those born in the UK and holding a passport for those aged under 65 and those aged 65 or more.
These were created using the ONS create a custom dataset tool.
Similar Census data can be obtained from Scotland and Northern Ireland by contacting the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency and National Records of Scotland. Their contact details are:
National Records of Scotland
Telephone: 0131 3144299
Email: statisticscustomerservices@nrscotland.gov.uk
Website: www.nrscotland.gov.uk
Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency
Telephone: 02890 255156
Email: info@nisra.gov.uk
Website: https://www.nisra.gov.uk/statistics
The census provides the most comprehensive snapshot of society every 10 years. However, more timely and frequent statistics are needed to better understand population change. We produced an estimate of the non-UK-born population for 30 June 2024 as part of our long-term international migration estimates. These estimates are official statistics in development and are provisional, so there is a degree of uncertainty around them. They are not available broken down by age.
Historically, we used the APS to produce our Population estimates for individual countries and nationalities. However, this was discontinued in 2022 because of quality issues relating to the data used to weight the non-UK-born population. We are exploring the best methods to produce these estimates, including using:
- the Transformed Labour Force Survey (TLFS)
- a rolled-forward cohort component method based on Census 2021 and Census 2022 data
- administrative data
We will provide an update on our research later in the year.
You may be interested in completing our survey on user needs for population estimates by country of birth and nationality to help shape our research.
If you have any further questions on Census data please contact us using Census.Customer.Services@ons.gov.uk.