Demographics of Leeds explained

Place:	Leeds
Caption:	Population pyramid of Leeds
Size Of Population:	751,485 (2011)
Density:	1,388 people per square km.

Leeds, England is the third most populous city in the United Kingdom.

Population

Leeds's total population, according to the 2011 UK census, was 751,485. The population density was 1,388 people per square km.

Ethnicity

The following table shows the ethnic group of respondents in the 2001 and 2011 censuses in Leeds.

A Home Office report officially estimated that the 'coloured' population of Leeds in 1958 was likely around 3,000 to 5,000, the majority of these being Afro-Caribbean (2,000).^[1]

Ethnic Group	1971 estimations^[2]		1981 estimations^[3]		1991^[4]		2001^[5]		2011^[6]		2021^[7]
	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%
White Total	772,062	97.9%	660,754	96%	640,997	94.16%	657,082	91.85%	639,487	85.10%	641,801	79%
White: British	–	–	–	–	–	–	637,872	89.16%	609,714	81.13%	595,737	73.4%
White: Irish	–	–	–	–	9,163	1.34%	8,578	1.20%	7,031	0.94%	6,892	0.8%
White: Gypsy or Irish Traveller^[8]	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	687	0.09%	878	0.1%
White: Roma	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	1,610	0.2%
White: Other	–	–	–	–	–	–	10,632	1.49%	22,055	2.93%	36,684	4.5%
Asian or Asian British Total	–	–	–	–	24,602	3.61%	35,737	5.00%	58,243	7.75%	78,503	9.7%
Asian or Asian British: Indian	–	–	–	–	9,900		12,303	1.72%	16,130	2.15%	21,087	2.6%
Asian or Asian British: Pakistani	–	–	–	–	9,329		15,064	2.11%	22,492	2.99%	31,405	3.9%
Asian or Asian British: Bangladeshi	–	–	–	–	1,759		2,537	0.35%	4,432	0.59%	5,876	0.7%
Asian or Asian British: Chinese^[9]	–	–	–	–	2,066		3,447	0.48%	5,933	0.79%	8,117	1.0%
Asian or Asian British: Other Asian	–	–	–	–	1,548		2,386	0.33%	9,256	1.23%	12,018	1.5%
Black or Black British Total	–	–	–	–	10,815	1.58%	10,318	1.44%	25,893	3.45%	45,376	5.6%
Black or Black British: African	–	–	–	–	1,343		2,435	0.34%	14,894	1.98%	32,211	4.0%
Black or Black British: Caribbean	–	–	–	–	6,554		6,718	0.94%	6,728	0.90%	7,889	1.0%
Black or Black British: Other Black	–	–	–	–	2,918		1,165	0.16%	4,271	0.57%	5,276	0.6%
Mixed Total	–	–	–	–	–	–	9,737	1.36%	19,632	2.61%	27,388	3.3%
Mixed: White and Black Caribbean	–	–	–	–	–	–	4,603	0.64%	8,813	1.17%	10,028	1.2%
Mixed: White and Black African	–	–	–	–	–	–	885	0.12%	2,493	0.33%	4,294	0.5%
Mixed: White and Asian	–	–	–	–	–	–	2,516	0.35%	4,906	0.65%	7,410	0.9%
Mixed: Other Mixed	–	–	–	–	–	–	1,733	0.24%	3,420	0.46%	5,656	0.7%
Other: Total	–	–	–	–	4,308	0.63%	2,528	0.35%	8,230	1.10%	18,885	2.3%
Other: Arab^[10]	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	3,791	0.50%	5,980	0.7%
Other: Any other ethnic group	–	–	–	–	4,308	0.63%	2,528	0.35%	4,439	0.59%	12,905	1.6%
Non-White: Total	16,938	2.1%	27,807	4%	39,725	5.8%	58,320	8.1%	111,998	14.9%	170,152	21%
Total	789,000	100%	688,561	100%	680,722	100%	715,402	100%	751,485	100%	811,953	100%

Notes for table above

1. Book: J. A.G. Griffith, Judith Henderson . Coloured Immigrants in Britain . 1960 . Oxford University Press . Internet Archive . 15.
2. Jones . P. N. . 1978 . The Distribution and Diffusion of the Coloured Population in England and Wales, 1961-71 . Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers . 3 . 4 . 515–532 . 10.2307/622127 . 622127 . 12157820 . 1978TrIBG...3..515J . 0020-2754.
3. 1985 . Ethnic minorities in Britain: statistical information on the pattern of settlement . Commission for Racial Equality . English . Table 2.2. Equality. Commission for Racial.
4. Data is taken from United Kingdom Casweb Data services of the United Kingdom 1991 Census on Ethnic Data for England, Scotland and Wales (Table 6)
5. Web site: Office of National Statistics; 2001 Census Key Statistics . 2021-09-07 . webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk.
6. Web site: 2011 Census: Ethnic Group, local authorities in England and Wales . 2021-12-15 . webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk.
7. Web site: Ethnic group - Office for National Statistics . 2022-11-29 . www.ons.gov.uk.
8. New category created for the 2011 census
9. In 2001, listed under the 'Chinese or other ethnic group' heading.
10. New category created for the 2011 census

Languages

The most common main languages spoken in Leeds according to the 2011 census are shown below.^[11]

Rank	Language	Usual residents aged 3+	Proportion
1		670,650	92.90%
2		6,717	0.93%
3		4,989	0.69%
4		4,537	0.63%
5		3,393	0.47%
6		1,955	0.27%
7		1,772	0.25%
8		1,724	0.24%
9		1,623	0.22%
10		1,260	0.17%
11		904	0.13%
12		851	0.12%
13		842	0.12%
14		793	0.11%
15		760	0.11%
16		737	0.10%
17		726	0.10%
18		707	0.10%
19		705	0.10%
20		704	0.10%
	Other	15,522	2.15%

Religion

The following table shows the religion of respondents in recent censuses in Leeds.

Religion	2001^[12]		2011^[13]		2021^[14]
	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%
	492,656	68.86%	419,790	55.86%	343,311	42.28%
	21,394	2.99%	40,772	5.43%	63,054	7.77%
	7,586	1.06%	8,914	1.19%	10,047	1.24%
	4,183	0.58%	7,048	0.94%	9,217	1.14%
	8,267	1.16%	6,847	0.91%	6,267	0.77%
	1,587	0.22%	2,772	0.37%	2,874	0.35%
Other religion	1,530	0.21%	2,396	0.32%	3,637	0.45%
No religion	120,139	16.79%	212,229	28.24%	326,231	40.18%
Religion not stated	58,060	8.12%	50,717	6.75%	47,315	5.83%
Total	715,402	100.00%	751,485	100.00%	811,953	100.00%

See also

• Demographics of West Yorkshire
• Demographics of the United Kingdom
• Demographics of England
• Demographics of London
• Demographics of Birmingham
• Demographics of Greater Manchester
• List of English cities by population
• List of English districts by population
• List of English districts and their ethnic composition
• List of English districts by area
• List of English districts by population density