THE population of Northumberland has risen, residents are older now than a decade ago and there remains more females than males living in the county - those are the findings of the March 2021 census.

The census takes place every 10 years and is used to understand how the UK's population changes over time. It was taken when coronavirus restrictions were still in place.

Figures show that in Northumberland, the population size has increased by 1.4 per cent, from around 316,000 in 2011 to 320,600 in 2021. This is lower than the overall increase for England (6.6 per cent), where the population grew by nearly 3.5 million to 56,489,800.

There were 59,597,300 people living in England and Wales on March 21 2021 - the day of the latest census. This is over 3.5 million more (6.3 per cent) than in 2011 and is the largest census population ever recorded.

There were also 81,600 people aged 65 and over living in Northumberland on census day last year. This figure was up from 63,304 in 2011 when the census was last carried out. It means the proportion of over-65s living in the area rose over the last decade - from 20 per cent to 25.5 per cent.

There were 93,800 people aged 29 and under living in the county on March 21 last year, who accounted for 29.3 per cent of the population – down from 100,900 (31.9 per cent) in 2011. Of them, 30,900 under-10s called Northumberland home.

This trend is reflected across England and Wales as a whole, where the population is ageing.

The census also charts the balance of men and women across the country.

In Northumberland, 48.8 per cent of the population was male and 51.2 per cent was female last year – around the same proportion as 10 years ago.

Data from the 2021 census for England and Wales will be published in stages over the next two years, the ONS has said. Future releases will include figures on ethnicity, religion, the labour market, education and housing plus – for the first time – information on UK armed forces veterans, sexual orientation and gender identity.