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The first results of the 2021 census for Wales will be published on Tuesday, the ONS has announced.

This will only be the first slice of data and will focus on information on topics such as population size, age and gender.

Data on a range of hot political topics – such as the Welsh language, religion and gender identity – is due to be released from the autumn.

A key data point that will be sought will be any early signs of the impact of Covid-19 on UK population growth.

Estimates of the size of the population in Wales and England in each local authority area will be published, along with a breakdown by age and gender.

There will also be figures showing the evolution of the population since the last census in 2011.

The number of people living in England and Wales rose by a record 7% in the decade to 2011, to 56.1 million.

A similar jump in the 10 years from 2011 to 2021 would bring the population to just over 60 million.

Separate estimates from the ONS have previously suggested that the UK’s population in the 12 months to mid-2020 grew at the slowest rate in two decades, although this only reflects the impact of the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

More than 20 million households across England and Wales completed census questionnaires in the spring of last year, with a record 89% of responses completed online.

This provided “extremely high quality” data, according to Jen Woolford, director of health, population and methods transformation at the ONS.

“The data will give us a crucial baseline from which to measure changes in our society, which will help us understand changing needs,” she added.

“Understanding the population and its characteristics during the Covid-19 pandemic was important and early census data has already been used to learn about uptake of vaccines by occupation and to support the response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Growth

The census takes place across the UK every 10 years and provides the most accurate estimate of all people and households in the country.

Its results are used by a range of organisations, including governments, councils and businesses, and underpin everything from calculating economic growth and unemployment to planning for schools, health services and transport links. transport.

The 2021 census data for England and Wales will be released in stages over the next two years, the ONS said.

Upcoming releases will include figures on ethnicity, religion, labor market, education and housing, as well as – for the first time – information on veterans of the British Armed Forces, sexual orientation and gender identity.

The first results of the 2021 census in Northern Ireland were released last month by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency.

They showed that the population on census day – March 21, 2021 – was a record 1,903,100, up 5% since 2011.

This compares to a growth of 7% between 2001 and 2011.

In Scotland, the census is run by the National Records of Scotland and has been delayed for a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Data collection ended on May 31 and the first results are expected in 2023.