Census Population Data Kent Districts 2011 – 2021

Yesterday 28.06.22, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) released the Census data for 2021. This was a snapshot of the UK population and other information recorded by those who filled in the data and returned it.

For Kent (not including Medway) the data shows the population of all 12 districts grew by 112,360 people, between 2011 and 2021. The number of households grew by 42,662 in the same period.

It’s is clear from the ONS Census data, Dartford grew the most in population terms. It saw the second highest growth, only Tower Hamlet’s in London had a higher population growth between 2011 and 2021. Also the data reveals that disgruntled from Tunbridge Wells saw the least population growth of any of the twelve districts cited.

The number of households in the twelve Kent districts grew from 605,638 to 648,300. The district which saw the lowest growth of households was folkestone & Hythe District Council with 1.94%, yet it has had the highest council tax (Band D) of any district for the last nineteen years according to data produced by the Minstry for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities.

As for population density, ONS have taken a rather novel approach of showing this data.

There are three people for every football pitch-sized piece of land in England. The image below is for Folkestone & Hythe.

There were 434 residents per square kilometre in England in 2021, up from 407 per square kilometre in 2011. Population density varies from area to area. We can see the difference between local authority areas if we measure the land in football pitches and work out how many people there would be on each one.

The data for Kent districts shows quite a large disparity with Dartford sending out a football team of eleven per footbal pitch and four districts having just two persons per football pitch.

Over the next few weeks we will drill down into the data even more, combining it with housing data, environmental data, GP data and traffic volume data to see if the claims that each of the twelve districts is becoming ‘overcrowded‘ as some claim is true, or if there is room for more growth as others claim.

We live in the Garden of England, and it would appear from the initial data, that growth has most certainly occurred, but how this has affected our green space, our mental health, physical health an other issues will only come to light once the drilling down commences.

The Shepway Vox Team

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