Data glossary
Information about the datasets available on the Build a profile and Download datasets pages.
Demography and migration
Population
Mid-year estimate of the total number of people.
Read more(opens in a new tab)Number of households
The number of households on Census Day, 21 March 2021.
Read more(opens in a new tab)Age profile
Five year age bands based on mid-year population estimates.
Read more(opens in a new tab)Sex
Mid-year estimate of the proportion of females and males.
Read more(opens in a new tab)Live births
The number of babies born in a year, excluding stillbirths.
Read more(opens in a new tab)Deaths
The number of people who died in a year, from all causes.
Read more(opens in a new tab)Legal partnership status
Classifies a person according to their legal marital or registered civil partnership status on Census Day 21 March 2021.
It is the same as the 2011 census variable "Marital status" but has been updated for Census 2021 to reflect the revised Civil Partnership Act that came into force in 2019.
In Census 2021 results, "single" refers only to someone who has never been married or in a registered civil partnership.
Read more(opens in a new tab)Country of birth
Where people were born.
Read more(opens in a new tab)Passports held
All passports classifies a person according to the passport or passports they held at the time of the census. This included expired passports or travel documents people were entitled to renew. Where a person recorded having more than one passport, they were counted only once, categorised in the following priority order: 1. UK passport, 2. Irish passport, 3. Other passport.
Read more(opens in a new tab)Length of residence in the UK
The length of residence in the UK is derived from the date that a person most recently arrived to live in the UK. It does not include returning from a holiday or short stay outside the UK.
Length of residence is only applicable to usual residents who were not born in the UK. It does not include usual residents born in the UK who have emigrated and since returned - these are recorded in the category “born in the UK”.
Read more(opens in a new tab)Household size
The number of people in the household.
Visitors staying at an address do not count to that household's size.
Read more(opens in a new tab)Household composition
Households according to the relationships between members.
One-family households are classified by:
- the number of dependent children
- family type (married, civil partnership or cohabiting couple family, or lone parent family)
Other households are classified by:
- the number of people
- the number of dependent children
- whether the household consists only of students or only of people aged 66 and over
Household deprivation
The dimensions of deprivation used to classify households are indicators based on four selected household characteristics.
Education
A household is classified as deprived in the education dimension if no one has at least level 2 education and no one aged 16 to 18 years is a full-time student.
Employment
A household is classified as deprived in the employment dimension if any member, not a full-time student, is either unemployed or economically inactive due to long-term sickness or disability.
Health
A household is classified as deprived in the health dimension if any person in the household has general health that is bad or very bad or is identified as disabled.
People who have assessed their day-to-day activities as limited by long-term physical or mental health conditions or illnesses are considered disabled. This definition of a disabled person meets the harmonised standard for measuring disability and is in line with the Equality Act (2010).
Housing
A household is classified as deprived in the housing dimension if the household's accommodation is either overcrowded, in a shared dwelling, or has no central heating.
Read more(opens in a new tab)Economy
Distance travelled to work
The distance, in kilometres, between a person's residential postcode and their workplace postcode measured in a straight line. A distance travelled of 0.1km indicates that the workplace postcode is the same as the residential postcode. Distances over 1200km are treated as invalid, and an imputed or estimated value is added.
“Work mainly at or from home” is made up of those that ticked either the "Mainly work at or from home" box for the address of workplace question, or the "Work mainly at or from home" box for the method of travel to work question.
Distance is calculated as the straight line distance between the enumeration postcode and the workplace postcode.
Combine this variable with “Economic activity status” to identify those in employment at the time of the census.
Read more(opens in a new tab)Method of travel to workplace
A person's place of work and their method of travel to work. This is the 2001 method of producing travel to work variables.
"Work mainly from home" applies to someone who indicated their place of work as their home address and travelled to work by driving a car or van, for example visiting clients.
Read more(opens in a new tab)Economic activity status
People in employment, looking for work, waiting to start a job or economically inactive.
Read more(opens in a new tab)Employment history
Classifies people who were not in employment on Census Day into:
- Not in employment: Worked in the last 12 months
- Not in employment: Not worked in the last 12 months
- Not in employment: Never worked
Occupation
Classifies what people aged 16 years and over do as their main job. Their job title or details of activities they do in their job and any supervisory or management responsibilities form this classification. This information is used to code responses to an occupation using the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) 2020.
It classifies people who were in employment between 15 March and 21 March 2021, by the SOC code that represents their current occupation. The lowest level of detail available is the four-digit SOC code which includes all codes in three, two and one digit SOC code levels.
Read more(opens in a new tab)Socio-economic Classification (NS-SeC)
The National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SEC) indicates a person's socio-economic position based on their occupation and other job characteristics.
It is an Office for National Statistics standard classification. NS-SEC categories are assigned based on a person's occupation, whether employed, self-employed, or supervising other employees.
Full-time students are recorded in the "full-time students" category regardless of whether they are economically active.
Read more(opens in a new tab)Hours per week worked
The number of hours worked per week before the census includes paid and unpaid overtime. This covers the main job of anyone aged 16 years and over.
Read more(opens in a new tab)Claimant Count
Percentage of people aged 16 to 64 who are claiming unemployment-related benefits.
Read more(opens in a new tab)Education and skills
Highest level of qualification
The highest level of qualification is derived from the question asking people to indicate all qualifications held, or their nearest equivalent.
This may include foreign qualifications where they were matched to the closest UK equivalent.
Read more(opens in a new tab)Schoolchildren and full-time students
Indicates whether a person aged 5 years and over was in full-time education on Census Day, 21 March 2021. This includes schoolchildren and adults in full-time education.
Schoolchildren and students in full-time education studying away from home are treated as usually resident at their term-time address.
Read more(opens in a new tab)Ethnic group, national identity, language and religion
Ethnic group
The ethnic group that the person completing the census feels they belong to. This could be based on their culture, family background, identity or physical appearance.
Respondents could choose one out of 19 tick-box response categories, including write-in response options.
Read more(opens in a new tab)National identity
Someone's national identity is a self-determined assessment of their own identity, it could be the country or countries where they feel they belong or think of as home. It is not dependent on ethnic group or citizenship.
Respondents could select more than one national identity.
Read more(opens in a new tab)Religion
The religion people connect or identify with (their religious affiliation), whether or not they practise or have belief in it.
This question was voluntary and includes people who identified with one of 8 tick-box response options, including "No religion", alongside those who chose not to answer this question.
Read more(opens in a new tab)Proficiency in English
How well people whose main language is not English (English or Welsh in Wales) speak English.
Read more(opens in a new tab)Welsh language skills
Whether a person has Welsh language skills. If they do, can they do any of the following:
- understand spoken Welsh
- speak Welsh
- read Welsh
- write Welsh
- no skills in Welsh
The census questionnaire only asked this question to people in Wales.
In results that classify people by Welsh language skills, a person may appear in more than one category depending on which combination of skills they have.
Read more(opens in a new tab)Welsh speaking ability
This classifies a person as being able to "Speak Welsh". They may have also ticked one or more of the following:
- understand spoken Welsh
- read Welsh
- write Welsh
In results that classify people by Welsh language skills, a person may appear in more than one category depending on which combination of skills they have.
The census questionnaire only asked this question to people in Wales.
Read more(opens in a new tab)Health and wellbeing
General health
A person's assessment of the general state of their health from very good to very bad. This assessment is not based on a person's health over any specified period of time.
Read more(opens in a new tab)Disability
People who assessed their day-to-day activities as limited by long-term physical or mental health conditions or illnesses are considered disabled. This definition of a disabled person meets the harmonised standard for measuring disability and is in line with the Equality Act (2010).
Read more(opens in a new tab)Provision of unpaid care
An unpaid carer may look after, give help or support to anyone who has long-term physical or mental ill-health conditions, illness or problems related to old age.
This does not include any activities as part of paid employment.
This help can be within or outside of the carer's household.
Read more(opens in a new tab)Housing
Residential property sales
The statistics in this dataset report the count of all dwellings sold and registered in the 12 months to September each year. They are calculated using open data from the HM Land Registry, a source of comprehensive record level administrative data on property transactions.
Read more(opens in a new tab)Energy efficiency of housing
This dataset provides figures for the number of Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) in each energy efficiency rating band up to the financial year ending 2024. Band A is very energy efficient and Band G is very energy inefficient.
An Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) provides information on the energy efficiency of a building. Since 2007, an EPC is required when a building is constructed, sold or let and it is valid for 10 years. Our analysis includes the latest EPC lodgements for a 10-year period up to the financial year end shown.
EPCs are based on data about a building's energy features (like the building materials used, heating systems and insulation, for example), which are collected by an accredited energy assessor and are entered into government-approved software to generate the EPC. These statistics were created using domestic, record-level EPC data published on Open Data Communities by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).
This data does not reflect all dwellings in England and Wales, because not every dwelling has an EPC. These are only required when a dwelling is constructed, sold or let. We also use a subset of available EPC lodgements, as we only keep records with plausible values on key energy efficiency variables. There can be multiple EPC lodgements for the same dwelling, but we analyse the latest lodgement only so we do not double count dwellings. A lodgement is essentially a record in the EPC register.
The Individual EPC bands are calculated based on the energy efficiency scores at the time the EPC lodgement was assessed.This means that our statistics do not necessarily reflect energy efficiency improvements as the majority of alterations don't require a new EPC to be generated.
Read more(opens in a new tab)Accommodation type
The type of building or structure used or available by an individual or household.
This could be:
- the whole house or bungalow
- a flat, maisonette or apartment
- a temporary or mobile structure, such as a caravan
More information about accommodation types
Whole house or bungalow: This property type is not divided into flats or other living accommodation. There are three types of whole houses or bungalows.
Detached: None of the living accommodation is attached to another property but can be attached to a garage.
Semi-detached: The living accommodation is joined to another house or bungalow by a common wall that they share.
Terraced: A mid-terraced house is located between two other houses and shares two common walls. An end-of-terrace house is part of a terraced development but only shares one common wall.
Flats (Apartments) and maisonettes: An apartment is another word for a flat. A maisonette is a 2-storey flat.
Read more(opens in a new tab)Number of cars or vans
The number of cars or vans owned or available for use by household members.
Vehicles included:
- pick-ups, camper vans and motor homes
- vehicles that are temporarily not working
- vehicles that have failed their MOT
- vehicles owned or used by a lodger
- company cars or vans if they're available for private use
Vehicles not included:
- motorbikes, trikes, quad bikes or mobility scooters
- vehicles that have a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN)
- vehicles owned or used only by a visitor
- vehicles that are kept at another address or not easily accessed
The number of cars or vans in an area relates only to households. Cars or vans used by communal establishment residents are not counted. Households with 10 to 20 cars or vans are counted as having only 10. Households with more than 20 cars or vans were treated as invalid and a value imputed.
Read more(opens in a new tab)Central heating
Central heating is a heating system used to heat multiple rooms in a building by circulating air or heated water through pipes to radiators or vents. Single or multiple fuel sources can fuel these systems. Central heating systems that are unused or not working are still considered. No information is available for household spaces with no usual residents.
Read more(opens in a new tab)Number of bedrooms
The number of bedrooms in a household's accommodation.
This number is not available for household spaces with no usual residents.
Read more(opens in a new tab)Occupancy rating for bedrooms
Whether a household's accommodation is overcrowded, ideally occupied or under-occupied. This is calculated by comparing the number of bedrooms the household requires to the number of available bedrooms.
The number of bedrooms the household requires is calculated according to the Bedroom Standard, where the following should have their own bedroom:
- adult couple
- any remaining adult (aged 21 years or over)
- two males (aged 10 to 20 years)
- one male (aged 10 to 20 years) and one male (aged 9 years or under), if there are an odd number of males aged 10-20
- one male aged 10-20 if there are no males aged 0-9 to pair with him.
- repeat steps 3-5 for females
- two children (aged 9 years or under) regardless of sex
- any remaining child (aged 9 years or under)
An occupancy rating of:
- -1 or less implies that a household's accommodation has fewer bedrooms than required (overcrowded)
- +1 or more implies that a household's accommodation has more bedrooms than required (under-occupied)
- 0 suggests that a household's accommodation has an ideal number of bedrooms
Tenure of household
Whether a household owns or rents the accommodation that it occupies. Owner-occupied accommodation can be:
- owned outright, which is where the household owns all of the accommodation
- with a mortgage or loan
- part-owned on a shared ownership scheme
Rented accommodation can be:
- private rented, for example, rented through a private landlord or letting agent
- social rented through a local council or housing association
This information is not available for household spaces with no usual residents.
Read more(opens in a new tab)Second address indicator
An address (in or out of the UK) a person stays at for more than 30 days per year that is not their place of usual residence. Second addresses typically include:
- armed forces bases
- addresses used by people working away from home
- a student's home address
- the address of another parent or guardian
- a partner's address
- a holiday home
If a person with a second address was staying there on census night, they were classed as a visitor to the second address but counted as a usual resident at their home address.
Read more(opens in a new tab)