Released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), results from last year’s census provide population estimates for England and Wales, as well as local authority age and gender profiles .

It showed the region’s population was now 1,460,500 from 1,378,781, an increase of 81,719 since the previous census in 2011.

In Wolverhampton the population is now 263,700, up 6% from 249,470 in 2011. In Dudley the figure has increased by 3% from 312,925 to 323,500, while the population of Walsall has increased by 5%, from 269,323 to 284,100.

In Sandwell, this was a steep increase of 11%, from 308,063 to 341,900. In Stafford, the population increased by 5%, from 130,869 to 136,800, while in the South Staffordshire, it rose just 2% from 108,131 to 110,500.

The census is crucial for UK statisticians to understand how our population is changing and plays a vital role in the functioning of public services and government.

In England and Wales, the total population has increased by 6.3% over the past decade, from 56,075,912 in 2011 to 59,597,300 last year. This included a 6.2% increase in the West Midlands, where the population rose from 5,601,847 in 2011 to 5,950,800.

There were 24.8 million households in England and Wales on Census Day 2021, up from 23.4 million in 2011, with an average of 2.4 people in each household – the same as in 2011.

These results are the first of a long series, which will be published in phases over the next few months and until 2023.