About this dataset

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.

Gender identity estimates from Census 2021 are official statistics in development. This reflects their innovative nature 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.

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.

Download options

About the variables

Release calendar