Phase one - Census 2021 first results
Phase one began when we published the first results on Tuesday 28 June 2022. These are estimates of the number of people and households in England and Wales. They show the number of people by sex and age at local authority level, rounded to the nearest 100 and in age groups of five years.
The population numbers for England and Wales on 21 March 2021
On Census Day, the size of the usual resident population in England and Wales was 59,597,300.
The population of England was 56,489,800.
The population of Wales was 3,107,500.
This was the largest the population has ever been.
Find out more about what the population numbers mean in this interactive article, How the population changed where you live (opens in a new tab) on the Office for National Statistics (ONS) website.
You can find more information about the Census 2021 first results (opens in a new tab) on the ONS website.
On 2 November, we released updated unrounded population estimates for England and Wales. We have not rounded them to the nearest 100 and they show the number of people by sex and in age groups of one year.
You can find more information about the Census 2021 unrounded population estimates (opens in a new tab) on the ONS website.