Demographics of Bristol

Demographics of Bristol
Population pyramid of Bristol
Population	472,500 (2021)

Bristol , England is the tenth most populous city in the United Kingdom.

Population

See also: List of wards in Bristol by population

Bristol's total population, according to the 2021 census, was 472,500. The population density was 4,308.1 people per square km.

Ethnicity

Ethnic makeup of Bristol by single year ages in 2021

The population of the city of Bristol was historically ethnically homogeneous, White British, but is now polyethnic, with the largest ethnic group, White British, constituting 71.6% of the population in the 2021 census. This proportion has consistently declined in each modern census, down from 88.0% in the 2001 census.

In the 2021 census, the ethnic composition of the city of Bristol comprised: 81.1% White, 6.6% Asian, 5.9% Black, 4.5% Mixed, and 1.9% Other.

The following table shows the ethnic group of respondents in the 1991, 2001, 2011, and 2021 censuses in Bristol.

Ethnic Group	1971 estimations [1]		1981 estimations [2]		1991 census [3] [4]		2001 census [5]		2011 census [6]		2021 census [7]
	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%
White: Total	396,543	97.7%	381,764	95.7%	376,418	94.8%	349,530	91.83%	359,592	83.97%	383,142	81.1%
White: British	–	–	–	–	–	–	335,085	88.04%	333,432	77.86%	338,452	71.6%
White: Irish	–	–	–	–	5,571	1.48%	4,321	1.14%	3,851	0.90%	4288	0.9%
White: Gypsy or Irish Traveller [note 1]	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	359	0.08%	273	0.1%
White: Roma	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	966	0.2%
White: Other	–	–	–	–	–	–	10,124	2.66%	21,950	5.13%	39,163	8.3%
Asian or Asian British: Total	–	–	6,583	1.6%	8,479	2.1%	13,008	3.42%	23,655	5.52%	31,269	6.7%
Asian or Asian British: Indian	–	–	2,420		2,969		4,595	1.21%	6,547	1.53%	8,302	1.8%
Asian or Asian British: Pakistani	–	–	2,422		2,931		4,050	1.06%	6,863	1.60%	9,064	1.9%
Asian or Asian British: Bangladeshi	–	–	334		602		1,230	0.32%	2,104	0.49%	2,616	0.6%
Asian or Asian British: Chinese [note 2]	–	–	867		1,165		2,149	0.56%	3,886	0.91%	5,466	1.2%
Asian or Asian British: Other Asian	–	–	540		812		984	0.26%	4,255	0.99%	5,821	1.2%
Black or Black British: Total	–	–	8,599	2.2%	9,507	2.4%	8,831	2.32%	25,734	6.01%	27,890	5.8%
Black or Black British: African	–	–	678		786		2,310	0.61%	12,085	2.82%	18,149	3.8%
Black or Black British: Caribbean	–	–	5,918	1.5%	6,409	1.6%	5,585	1.47%	6,727	1.57%	6,803	1.4%
Black or Black British: Other Black	–	–	2,003		2,312		936	0.25%	6,922	1.62%	2,938	0.6%
Mixed: Total	–	–	–	–	–	–	7,934	2.08%	15,438	3.61%	21,116	4.5%
Mixed: White and Black Caribbean	–	–	–	–	–	–	3,871	1.02%	7,389	1.73%	7,714	1.6%
Mixed: White and Black African	–	–	–	–	–	–	755	0.20%	1,533	0.36%	2,621	0.6%
Mixed: White and Asian	–	–	–	–	–	–	1,652	0.43%	3,402	0.79%	5,556	1.2%
Mixed: Other Mixed	–	–	–	–	–	–	1,656	0.44%	3,114	0.73%	5,225	1.1%
Other: Total	–	–	2,135		2,595		1,312	0.34%	3,815	0.89%	9,050	1.9%
Other: Arab [note 3]	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	1,272	0.30%	2,540	0.5%
Other: Any other ethnic group	–	–	–	–	–	–	1,312	0.34%	2,543	0.59%	6,510	1.4%
Ethnic minority: Total	9,499	2.3%	17,317	4.3%	20,581	5.2%	31,085	8.2%	68,642	16%	89,325	18.9%
Total	406,042	100%	399,081	100%	396,999	100%	380,615	100%	428,234	100%	472,467	100%

Notes for table above

1. New category created for the 2011 census
2. In 2001, listed under the 'Chinese or other ethnic group' heading.
3. New category created for the 2011 census

Distribution of ethnic groups in Bristol according to the 2011 census.

• 
  White
• 
  White-British
• 
  White-Irish
• 
  White-Other
• 
  Asian
• 
  Asian-Indian
• 
  Asian-Pakistani
• 
  Asian-Bangladeshi
• 
  Asian-Chinese
• 
  Black
• 
  Black-African
• 
  Black-Caribbean
• 
  Other-Arab

Ethnic group	School year [8] [9]
	1971 [10]		2021/2022
	Number	%	Number	%
White: Total	–	96.1%	42,959	67.9%
White: British	–	–	37,628	59.5%
White: Irish	–	–	175
White: Traveller of Irish heritage	–	–	44
White: Gypsy/Roma	–	–	110
White: Other	–	–	5,002
Asian / Asian British: Total	–	–	5,380	8.5%
Asian / Asian British: Indian	–	–	1,337
Asian / Asian British: Pakistani	–	–	1,969
Asian / Asian British: Bangladeshi	–	–	524
Asian / Asian British: Chinese	–	–	396
Asian / Asian British: Other Asians	–	–	1,154
Black / Black British: Total	–	–	6,649	10.5%
Black: Caribbean	–	–	905
Black: African	–	–	4,731
Black: Other Blacks	–	–	1,013
Mixed / British Mixed	–	–	5,999	9.5%
Other: Total	–	–	977	1.5%
Unclassified	–	–	1,309	2.1%
Non-White: Total	–	3.9%	19,005	32.1%
Total:	–	100%	63,273	100%

Languages

The most common main languages spoken in Bristol according to the 2011 census are listed below. ^[11]

Rank	Language	Usual residents aged 3+	Proportion
1	English	374,709	91.46%
2	Polish	6,080	1.48%
3	Somali	5,004	1.22%
4	Urdu	1,432	0.35%
5	French	1,403	0.34%
6	Spanish	1,329	0.32%
7	Punjabi	1,306	0.32%
8	Arabic	1,103	0.27%
9	Bengali (with Sylheti and Chatgaya)	983	0.24%
10	Italian	964	0.24%
11	Portuguese	850	0.21%
12	German	732	0.18%
13	Hungarian	664	0.16%
14	Malayalam and Tamil	663	0.16%
15	Russian	536	0.13%
16	Tagalog/Filipino	531	0.13%
17	Kurdish	516	0.13%
18	Romanian	503	0.12%
19	Greek	494	0.12%
20	Slovak	493	0.12%
	Other	9,403	2.30%

Religion

Religion in the city of Bristol (2021 United Kingdom census)

1. Christian (32.2%)
2. No religion (51.4%)
3. Muslim (6.70%)
4. Hindu (0.80%)
5. Buddhist (0.60%)
6. Sikh (0.50%)
7. Jewish (0.30%)
8. Other religion (0.80%)
9. Not stated (6.90%)

The table below shows data regarding religion in Bristol for the 2001, 2011, and 2021 censuses.

Religion	2001 [12]		2011 [13]		2021 [14]
	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%
No religion	93,322	24.52	160,218	37.41	242,864	51.4
Holds religious beliefs	251,989	66.20	233,234	54.47	197,180	41.7
Christian	236,239	62.07	200,254	46.76	152,126	32.2
Muslim	7,664	2.01	22,016	5.14	31,776	6.7
Buddhist	1,614	0.42	2,549	0.60	2,710	0.6
Hindu	2,131	0.56	2,712	0.63	3,545	0.8
Sikh	1,778	0.47	2,133	0.50	2,247	0.5
Jewish	823	0.22	777	0.18	1,228	0.3
Other religion	1,740	0.46	2,793	0.65	3,546	0.8
Religion not stated	35,304	9.28	34,782	8.12	32,423	6.9
Total population	380,615	100.0	428,234	100.0	472,467	100.0

Distribution of religions in Bristol according to the 2011 census.

• 
  Christianity
• 
  Islam
• 
  Judaism
• 
  Hinduism
• 
  Sikhism
• 
  Buddhism
• 
  Other religion
• 
  No religion

See also

• England portal

• Demographics of the United Kingdom
• Demographics of England
• Demographics of London
• Demographics of Birmingham
• Demographics of Greater Manchester
• List of English cities by population
• List of English districts by population
• List of English districts and their ethnic composition
• List of English districts by area
• List of English districts by population density

References

1. Jones, P. N. (1978). "The Distribution and Diffusion of the Coloured Population in England and Wales, 1961-71" . Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. 3 (4): 515–532. Bibcode:1978TrIBG...3..515J. doi:10.2307/622127. ISSN   0020-2754. JSTOR   622127. PMID   12157820.
2. Surveys, Great Britain Office of Population Censuses and (1996). Ethnicity in the 1991 Census: Demographic characteristics of the ethnic minority populations. H.M. Stationery Office. ISBN   978-0-11-691655-6.
3. Surveys, Great Britain Office of Population Censuses and (1996). Ethnicity in the 1991 Census: Demographic characteristics of the ethnic minority populations. H.M. Stationery Office. ISBN   978-0-11-691655-6.
4. Data is taken from United Kingdom Casweb Data services of the United Kingdom 1991 Census on Ethnic Data for England, Scotland and Wales Archived 5 April 2022 at the Wayback Machine (Table 6)
5. "Office of National Statistics; 2001 Census Key Statistics". webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk. Retrieved 7 September 2021.
6. "2011 Census: Ethnic Group, local authorities in England and Wales". webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk. Retrieved 15 December 2021.
7. "Ethnic group - Office for National Statistics". www.ons.gov.uk. Retrieved 29 November 2022.
8. "School and pupil characteristics". webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
9. "Schools, pupils and their characteristics, Academic Year 2021/22". explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk. Retrieved 9 September 2022.
10. "Immigrants - Volume 837: debated on Monday 22 May 1972 - Hansard".
11. "Download:local authorities: county / unitary". NOMIS. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
12. "KS007 - Religion - Nomis - 2001". www.nomisweb.co.uk. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
13. "KS209EW (Religion) - Nomis - 2011". www.nomisweb.co.uk. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
14. "Religion - 2021 census". Office of National Statistics. 29 November 2022. Archived from the original on 29 November 2022. Retrieved 16 December 2022.