We aim to publish all main Census 2021 data on the population of England and Wales within two years of the census.
We will be adding ward level geographies to each topic summary for Census 2021 for England and Wales. You can see what we're planning to publish on the release calendar.
Interactive content
We have created several interactive products using Census 2021 topic summary data. You can use these products to find facts and figures about areas in England and Wales.
Census maps is an interactive tool to explore Census 2021 topic summary data across England and Wales for different topics down to a neighbourhood level. Explore your area on the Census maps page.
You can also access area profiles, which allow users to view statistics from across different topics for a particular area. Alternatively, you can draw your own area and create a custom area profile.
To tell the local stories from Census 2021 topic summaries, we have published interactive reports for every local authority in England and Wales. These articles and charts highlight the most interesting changes in that area. Look at how your area has changed in 10 years.
Phase 1
Census 2021 first results: published
On 28 June 2022 we published the first results from Census 2021 for England and Wales.
Datasets, publications and methodology
The results included rounded population and household estimates for England and Wales, for local authorities. View the list of the datasets, publications and methodology in the first results from the Census 2021 on the release calendar.
Topic summaries (univariate data)
We released this phase of census statistics in autumn 2022.
We have published a series of data and supporting information grouped by a similar theme, known as topic summaries.
Check the release calendar to learn more about publication dates.
The topic summaries in publication order are:
You can find out more about topic summaries by watching our Census 2021 topic summaries playlist on our YouTube channel.
Census 2021 analysis programme
All Census 2021 data releases will be published with statistical commentary. A detailed three-year Census 2021 analysis programme will start after the release of topic summary data. Get more information about what we plan to publish in the first year of the analysis programme.
Phase 2: Starting from March/April 2023
Multivariate data for the usual resident population base
Multivariate data will allow you to combine variables and explore relationships between the data, collected from Census 2021 on the usual resident population of England and Wales. We are introducing new functionality for Census 2021 data that will allow you to make your own datasets, as well as view and download ready-made datasets. Get more information about the new functionality and our plans to release multivariate data.
Short-term resident population data
The short-term resident population includes those who were not born in the UK and who intended to stay in the UK for less than 12 months, as of March 2021. Following user feedback, we moved the release of this alternative population into phase two.
Get information about the datasets we have produced for Non-UK Born Short-term Residents.
Phase 3: from Summer 2023
National Parks
There are 10 national parks in England and 3 in Wales. Each national park is managed by its own national park authority, a special-purpose local authority. For more information please see National park residents, England and Wales: Census 2021.
Approximated social grade data
Social grade is a socio-economic classification. This means a way to group people by type mainly based on their social and financial situation. Marketing industries use it to help analyse consumer markets.
Get more information about the data we have produced on approximated social grade.
Alternative population bases
Alternative population bases are the different geographical locations where individuals could have been counted for Census 2021. Examples include workplace, workday and out-of-term populations.
Small populations
Small populations are groups that are defined by their cultural background, including characteristics such as ethnic group, country of birth, religion, national identity, and main language. Examples of small populations that we have produced datasets about include:
British Sign Language (BSL)
Caribbean
Cornish
Jain
Kashmiri
Nepali
Ravidassia
Sikh
Get more information about datasets we have produced on alternative and small populations.
Detailed migration data
Detailed migration statistics provide the characteristics of people or households who have moved within the UK or from another country into the UK during the year before the census.
Get more information about the datasets we have produced on detailed migration.
Origin-destination data or 'flow' data
Origin-destination data describes the movement of people from one location to another. Planned types of origin-destination data from Census 2021 include:
migration flow data
workplace flow data
second address flow data
student flow data
These datasets will be classified as either public, safeguard or secure. Get more details about our plans, including how you can access origin-destination data.
Microdata samples
Microdata are samples of anonymised records for individuals and households, which include a selection of associated census characteristics. Microdata samples will be classified in three ways: public, safeguarded or secure.
Read more details about our plans including how you can access microdata samples.
Additional geographies
Parishes data provides Census 2021 estimates for usual residents and households in parishes.
Get information about the datasets we have produced for parishes.
Get information about the dataset specifications we have produced for parishes.
Postcode data provides Census 2021 estimates of usual residents for postcodes, postcode sectors and postcode districts and estimates of households for postcodes in England and Wales.
Get information about postcode data, resident and household estimates for England and Wales.
UK census data
Censuses took place in England and Wales, and Northern Ireland in March 2021. Scotland's census took place in March 2022. We are working closely with UK census offices to publish comparable data from across the UK.
More information
We asked for feedback about our release plans between July to October 2021.
You can also contact us about Census 2021 output release plans by emailing census.customer.services@ons.gov.uk.
Related downloads
- Census 2021 Parish datasets (55.0 kB xlsx)