The 2021 census has released information about diversity in England and Wales. This data is invaluable to help understand the diversity of the population and to help develop policies and services to meet differing needs and tackle discrimination/ inequality.

The data shows that England is more diverse than it has ever been. Shropshire is predominantly a rural county, less diverse compared to some other areas of England, but still has diversity in the population. Even though often these numbers are very low, in many cases there has been a small increases in these groups, so that Shropshire has become more diverse than in 2011.

Ethnicity

In 2021 96.7% of the population classed themselves as white compared to 81% in England and 81.7% in the West Midlands. Shropshire had a lower proportion of ethnic minority groups in all categories compared to England and the West Midlands, and a lower rate of growth.

There has been a small increase in the proportion and number of people describing themselves as 'white other', from 2% of the total population in 2011 to 2.8% in 2021. With the exception of white other, all the main ethnic groups had a relatively small increase, both in number and as a proportion of the population, since 2011.

The second largest group in Shropshire was 'Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh'. This group accounted for 1.3% of the Shropshire population, much less than in England (9.6%) and the West Midlands (13.3%).

Religion

The religion question was a voluntary question in the census, and in Shropshire 94.1% (304,700) of usual residents answered the question in 2021, similar to England at 96.0%. For the first time, the census includes insights into religious group composition within different households that contain more than one person.

In Shropshire over half of the population (63%) described themselves as having a religious belief. This was similar to England but less than the West Midlands (67.1%).

There has been an increase in the proportion of the resident population describing themselves as having 'no religion' from 22.8% of the population in 2011 to 37% in 2021. This shows the decline in traditional religious beliefs in society.

The majority of people described themselves as Christian. 55.5% of the resident population described themselves as having this belief. This religious group has had the largest decline since 2011, falling by 13.2%. In 2011 people describing themselves as Christian accounted for 68.7% of the resident population. This is the only religious group to have declined since 2011.

Shropshire has fewer people with religious beliefs other than Christian when compared to national and regional averages. However, there has been small increases in all religious groups other than Christian.

Language and national identity

The majority of Shropshire residents (97.4%) selected English as their main language, lower than England (90.8%) and the West Midlands (91%). Compared to 2011, the number of people selecting English as their main language has slightly fallen from 97.9%.

In Shropshire Polish was the second most popular language spoken in 2021 (1,385 (0.4%)). Polish was also the second most popular language spoken in Shropshire in 2011 (1,575, 0.5%).

In 2021, 96.4% (311,800) of usual residents in Shropshire identified with at least one UK national identity (English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish, British, and Cornish) this compares to 90% in England. In Shropshire, 2.1% of the resident population identified their national identity as Welsh only compared with 0.3% for England.

Country of birth and passports held

Shropshire had more people born in the United Kingdom (94.1%) than England generally (82.6%). This figure has declined slightly since 2011 by 1.2% from (95.3%).

Of the population in Shropshire, the majority of people not born in the United Kingdom were born in Europe (3%). In fact out of 19,136 people born outside of the United Kingdom in Shropshire, half of them were born in a European Union country. The number of people born in Europe living in Shropshire has increased since 2011. The largest country of birth outside the UK was Poland, with 0.5% of the Shropshire population born there.

Similarly to nationally there has been a large rise in the number of people born in Romania from 130 in 2011 to 986 in 2021.

Sexual orientation and gender identity

This is the first census that has asked people about their sexual orientation and gender identity. The questions were voluntary for those aged 16 and over. In Shropshire a total of 252,900 (93% of the population 16 years and over) answered the question on sexual orientation and 94.3% answered the question on gender identity.

This new information is really useful to provide evidence to help plan services, eg healthcare, leisure, education, employment, housing, social services for lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people living in Shropshire, and to help address discrimination and inequality.

Please see attached bulletins for further information:

• Census 2021 bulletin - religion
• Census 2021 bulletin - ethnicity
• Census 2021 bulletin - national identity and language
• Census 2021 bulletin - country of birth and passports held
• Census 2021 bulletin - sexual orientation and gender identity

If you have any difficulties accessing or reading the pdf files, please contact the Business Development: Data, Analysis, and Intelligence Team at Shropshire Council using the email BusinessIntelligence@shropshire.gov.uk