Aidan White looks at some of the findings from the recently-released 2021 Census report which outlines a profile of Newham and its people.

By Aidan White

There are more of us and it’s getting crowded…

Over the past ten years the population of Newham has been increasing rapidly and now it is one of the most densely populated boroughs in Britain. The results of the 2021 Census show a 14 percent increase in the population to around 351,000 since 2011, with the latest estimate around 355,000 at the start of 2024.

The population has increased by a higher percentage than any other area in London or nationally and, to show the scale of how crowded life is, the census notes that in 2021, Newham was home to around 69.2 people per football pitch-sized piece of land, compared with 60.8 ten years earlier, putting the Borough among the top 3% of England’s most densely populated areas.

Changing faces…

In 2021, more people in Newham – 30.8% of residents – identified themselves as ethnically “white” (up by almost two percent since 2011) while across London and England the percentage of people from the “white” ethnic group dropped six points to 53.8% and to 81.0% respectively.

At the same time 42.2% of people in Newham identified their ethnic group within the “Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh” category, a slight fall since 2011, with a similar fall to 17.5% who identified their ethnic group as either “Black, Black British, Black Welsh, Caribbean or African.”

We have fewer children…

Newham saw England’s second-largest percentage-point rise in the proportion of households including a couple but no children rising to almost 12% in 2021. Despite the increase, Newham was in the lowest four percent of English boroughs for the share of households including a couple but no children in 2021.

More people in work…

Newham saw England’s largest percentage-point rise in the proportion of people aged 16 years and over who were employed, rising by five points over the last ten years to 56 percent in 2021.

But there’s a note of caution over the reliability of the figures here because the 2021 Census took place during the turmoil of the COVID-19 pandemic when the national lockdown and furlough measures affected the labour market.

Our people are working longer hours…

The percentage of employed people aged 16 years who said they usually worked over 49 hours per week increased in
Newham to 10 percent while the numbers fell across London. At the same time the percentage of employed adults who worked 31 to 48 hours increased from by a percentage point to 57.7 percent.

Fewer affected by disability…

Newham saw England’s largest percentage-point fall in the proportion of residents who were identified as being disabled, down more than four percent to 9.1 percent. Similar falls were seen across London with the regional proportion of residents who identified as being disabled down to 7.1 percent.

We’re feeling better…

In 2021, the number of residents who described their health as “very good” rose by more than five percent to almost 43 percent, while the proportion of Newham residents describing their health as “very bad” dropped by almost a third to two percent. Again, the numbers may have been influenced by the pandemic that was raging at the time, but the data reflects people’s own opinions in describing their overall health.

For the record it’s worth noting that according to figures from the Office of National Statistics on the Newham Council website, the life expectancy at birth for men in Newham is currently 80.2 years and for women 83.3 years. In London
as a whole it is 81.6 for men and 85.4 for women.

Turning away from God…

In 2021, there has been a five point rise to 14.5 percent of Newham people reporting that they have “no religion” – the
largest increase of all broad religious groups in Newham. This was less than the percentage rise across London and across England where some 36.7 percent of people say they have no religion.

In 2021, the major drop was in people describing themselves as Christian, while those describing themselves as Muslim rose by almost three percentage points to 34.8 percent. Religious affiliation is the religion with which someone connects or identi-
fies, rather than their beliefs or religious practice.

We have fewer homeowners…

Of Newham households, fewer live in home ownership – 30.8 percent, a three percent fall since 2011. More people rent their homes privately and there has been a fall in the percentage of Newham households in a socially rented property, down to 28
percent.

Figures from Newham Council show there are almost 117,000 dwellings in Newham, of which 15,400 are owned by local authorities, another 13,900 owned by housing associations and 87,400 in the private sector, including owner occupied properties and those rented from private landlords.

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