The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is responsible for planning and carrying out the census for England and Wales. The most recent census took place on 21 March 2021.
It is a legal requirement for everyone to complete the census. Doing so helps us and other public services understand more about the people that live in Cambridge. This in turn helps us provide services that better meet the needs of those people.
We expressed some reservations about the potential implications of undertaking the census in the context of coronavirus, and wrote to the national statistician regarding these concerns.
We are working with the Office for National Statistics and colleagues at the county council to ensure the census is as successful and accurate as possible, and that the accuracy of its final outputs is improved through the quality assurance process that ONS has established.
2011 census
The results showed that the usually resident population for Cambridge in 2011 was 123,900. This was an increase of about 15,000 (13%) since 2001.
The number of households in Cambridge increased by 4,042 (9.5%) since 2001.
The population continued to show a ‘bulge’ in the number of people in the 16 to 24 and 25 to 39 age groups. This reflects the large number of students resident in the city.
Overall, the population of Cambridge had aged slightly. The increase in the number of older people, as a proportion of the population, wasn't as high as in other areas.
For more information, visit the ONS website or read the Cambridge data [PDF, 0.1MB] extracted from the full ONS data.
