Important notice
On 12 September 2024, the gender identity estimates from Census 2021 were reclassified from official statistics to official statistics in development. To reflect this change in designation, the accredited official statistics logo has been removed from this page.
The change in classification reflects the innovative nature of the statistics and the evolving understanding of measuring gender identity, along with the uncertainty associated with these estimates. To support appropriate use, please refer to the Sexual orientation and gender identity quality information page before using these estimates.
Gender identity by sexual orientation
Particular care must be taken in interpreting census results on gender identity. Please read the Sexual orientation and gender identity quality information for Census 2021 before using this data.
Read more about this quality notice.
There are a number of quality-related aspects of the census data on sexual orientation that you should be aware of when using estimates on this topic. Read more in the sexual orientation and gender identity quality information page.
Read more about this quality notice.
Summary
This dataset provides Census 2021 estimates that classify usual residents aged 16 years and over in England and Wales, by gender identity and sexual orientation. The estimates are as at Census Day, 21 March 2021.
Variable and dataset information
Area type
Census 2021 statistics are published for a number of different geographies. These can be large, for example the whole of England, or small, for example an output area (OA), the lowest level of geography for which statistics are produced.
For higher levels of geography, more detailed statistics can be produced. When a lower level of geography is used, such as output areas (which have a minimum of 100 persons), the statistics produced have less detail. This is to protect the confidentiality of people and ensure that individuals or their characteristics cannot be identified.
Lower tier local authorities
Lower tier local authorities provide a range of local services. There are 309 lower tier local authorities in England made up of 181 non-metropolitan districts, 59 unitary authorities, 36 metropolitan districts and 33 London boroughs (including City of London). In Wales there are 22 local authorities made up of 22 unitary authorities.
Coverage
Census 2021 statistics are published for the whole of England and Wales. However, you can choose to filter areas by:
- country - for example, Wales
- region - for example, London
- local authority - for example, Cornwall
- health area – for example, Clinical Commissioning Group
- statistical area - for example, MSOA or LSOA
Gender identity
Classifies people according to the responses to the gender identity question. This question was voluntary and was only asked of people aged 16 years and over.
Sexual orientation
Classifies people according to the responses to the sexual orientation question. This question was voluntary and was only asked of people aged 16 years and over.
Variables
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Protecting personal data
Sometimes we need to make changes to data if it is possible to identify individuals. This is known as statistical disclosure control.
In Census 2021, we:
- swapped records (targeted record swapping), for example, if a household was likely to be identified in datasets because it has unusual characteristics, we swapped the record with a similar one from a nearby small area (very unusual households could be swapped with one in a nearby local authority)
- added small changes to some counts (cell key perturbation), for example, we might change a count of four to a three or a five – this might make small differences between tables depending on how the data are broken down when we applied perturbation
Read more in Section 5 of our article Design for Census 2021.
Version history
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Dataset link
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