Demographics of Bristol

Bristol, England is the tenth most populous city in the United Kingdom.

Industry sectors of Bristol over time

Demographics of Bristol
Population pyramid of Bristol
Population	428,234 (2011)

Population density in the 2011 census in Bristol.

Population

See also: List of wards in Bristol by population

Bristol's total population, according to the 2011 UK census, was 428,234. The population density was 4,022 people per square km.

Ethnicity

Ethnic makeup of Bristol by single year ages in 2021

The following table shows the ethnic group of respondents in the 1991, 2001 and 2011 censuses in Bristol. Bristol has a strong White majority population, at 84%, which has declined from 94.5% in 1991. The largest ethnic group is the White British at 77.9% which have declined from 88% of the population in 2001. Black British residents are the 2nd biggest at 6% with Asian British at 5.5%.

Ethnic Group	1971 estimations[1]		1981 estimations[2]		1991 census[3][4]		2001 census[5]		2011 census[6]		2021 census[7]
	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%
White: Total	396,543	97.7%	381,764	95.7%	376,418	94.8%	349,530	91.83%	359,592	83.97%	383,142	81.1%
White: British	–	–	–	–	–	–	335,085	88.04%	333,432	77.86%	338,452	71.6%
White: Irish	–	–	–	–	5,571	1.48%	4,321	1.14%	3,851	0.90%	4288	0.9%
White: Gypsy or Irish Traveller[note 1]	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	359	0.08%	273	0.1%
White: Roma	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	966	0.2%
White: Other	–	–	–	–	–	–	10,124	2.66%	21,950	5.13%	39,163	8.3%
Asian or Asian British: Total	–	–	6,583	1.6%	8,479	2.1%	13,008	3.42%	23,655	5.52%	31,269	6.7%
Asian or Asian British: Indian	–	–	2,420		2,969		4,595	1.21%	6,547	1.53%	8,302	1.8%
Asian or Asian British: Pakistani	–	–	2,422		2,931		4,050	1.06%	6,863	1.60%	9,064	1.9%
Asian or Asian British: Bangladeshi	–	–	334		602		1,230	0.32%	2,104	0.49%	2,616	0.6%
Asian or Asian British: Chinese[note 2]	–	–	867		1,165		2,149	0.56%	3,886	0.91%	5,466	1.2%
Asian or Asian British: Other Asian	–	–	540		812		984	0.26%	4,255	0.99%	5,821	1.2%
Black or Black British: Total	–	–	8,599	2.2%	9,507	2.4%	8,831	2.32%	25,734	6.01%	27,890	5.8%
Black or Black British: African	–	–	678		786		2,310	0.61%	12,085	2.82%	18,149	3.8%
Black or Black British: Caribbean	–	–	5,918	1.5%	6,409	1.6%	5,585	1.47%	6,727	1.57%	6,803	1.4%
Black or Black British: Other Black	–	–	2,003		2,312		936	0.25%	6,922	1.62%	2,938	0.6%
Mixed: Total	–	–	–	–	–	–	7,934	2.08%	15,438	3.61%	21,116	4.5%
Mixed: White and Black Caribbean	–	–	–	–	–	–	3,871	1.02%	7,389	1.73%	7,714	1.6%
Mixed: White and Black African	–	–	–	–	–	–	755	0.20%	1,533	0.36%	2,621	0.6%
Mixed: White and Asian	–	–	–	–	–	–	1,652	0.43%	3,402	0.79%	5,556	1.2%
Mixed: Other Mixed	–	–	–	–	–	–	1,656	0.44%	3,114	0.73%	5,225	1.1%
Other: Total	–	–	2,135		2,595		1,312	0.34%	3,815	0.89%	9,050	1.9%
Other: Arab[note 3]	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	1,272	0.30%	2,540	0.5%
Other: Any other ethnic group	–	–	–	–	–	–	1,312	0.34%	2,543	0.59%	6,510	1.4%
Ethnic minority: Total	9,499	2.3%	17,317	4.3%	20,581	5.2%	31,085	8.2%	68,642	16%	89,325	18.9%
Total	406,042	100%	399,081	100%	396,999	100%	380,615	100%	428,234	100%	472,467	100%

Notes for table above

1. New category created for the 2011 census
2. In 2001, listed under the 'Chinese or other ethnic group' heading.
3. New category created for the 2011 census

Distribution of ethnic groups in Bristol according to the 2011 census.

• 
  White
• 
  White-British
• 
  White-Irish
• 
  White-Other
• 
  Asian
• 
  Asian-Indian
• 
  Asian-Pakistani
• 
  Asian-Bangladeshi
• 
  Asian-Chinese
• 
  Black
• 
  Black-African
• 
  Black-Caribbean
• 
  Other-Arab

Ethnic group	School year[8][9]
	1971[10]		2021/2022
	Number	%	Number	%
White: Total	–	96.1%	42,959	67.9%
White: British	–	–	37,628	59.5%
White: Irish	–	–	175
White: Traveller of Irish heritage	–	–	44
White: Gypsy/Roma	–	–	110
White: Other	–	–	5,002
Asian / Asian British: Total	–	–	5,380	8.5%
Asian / Asian British: Indian	–	–	1,337
Asian / Asian British: Pakistani	–	–	1,969
Asian / Asian British: Bangladeshi	–	–	524
Asian / Asian British: Chinese	–	–	396
Asian / Asian British: Other Asians	–	–	1,154
Black / Black British: Total	–	–	6,649	10.5%
Black: Caribbean	–	–	905
Black: African	–	–	4,731
Black: Other Blacks	–	–	1,013
Mixed / British Mixed	–	–	5,999	9.5%
Other: Total	–	–	977	1.5%
Unclassified	–	–	1,309	2.1%
Non-White: Total	–	3.9%	19,005	32.1%
Total:	–	100%	63,273	100%

Languages

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

Rank	Language	Usual residents aged 3+	Proportion
1	English	374,709	91.46%
2	Polish	6,080	1.48%
3	Somali	5,004	1.22%
4	Urdu	1,432	0.35%
5	French	1,403	0.34%
6	Spanish	1,329	0.32%
7	Punjabi	1,306	0.32%
8	Arabic	1,103	0.27%
9	Bengali (with Sylheti and Chatgaya)	983	0.24%
10	Italian	964	0.24%
11	Portuguese	850	0.21%
12	German	732	0.18%
13	Hungarian	664	0.16%
14	Malayalam and Tamil	663	0.16%
15	Russian	536	0.13%
16	Tagalog/Filipino	531	0.13%
17	Kurdish	516	0.13%
18	Romanian	503	0.12%
19	Greek	494	0.12%
20	Slovak	493	0.12%
	other	9,403	2.30%

Religion

The following table shows the religion of respondents in the 2001, 2011 and 2021 censuses in Bristol.

Religion	2001[12]		2011[13]		2021[14]
	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%
No religion	93,322	24.52	160,218	37.41	242,864	51.4
Holds religious beliefs	251,989	66.20	233,234	54.47	197,180	41.7
Christian	236,239	62.07	200,254	46.76	152,126	32.2
Muslim	7,664	2.01	22,016	5.14	31,776	6.7
Buddhist	1,614	0.42	2,549	0.60	2,710	0.6
Hindu	2,131	0.56	2,712	0.63	3,545	0.8
Sikh	1,778	0.47	2,133	0.50	2,247	0.5
Jewish	823	0.22	777	0.18	1,228	0.3
Other religion	1,740	0.46	2,793	0.65	3,546	0.8
Religion not stated	35,304	9.28	34,782	8.12	32,423	6.9
Total population	380,615	100.0	428,234	100.0	472,467	100.0

Distribution of religions in Bristol according to the 2011 census.

• 
  Christianity
• 
  Islam
• 
  Judaism
• 
  Hinduism
• 
  Sikhism
• 
  Buddhism
• 
  Other religion
• 
  No religion

See also

• England portal

• 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