Photo: Jo and Steve Turner · CC BY-SA 2.0Below 99% of UK towns: 0.7% of households are unrelated adults sharing a home
The share of residents with no religion is 30%, against 37% across England’s towns. On households with dependent children, Dalston sits lower than 83% of UK towns: 23%. The village is home to 1,541 residents in 731 households, by the 2021 Census. Census figures put married adults and civil partners at 54% locally.
What the Census says about Dalston’s people
Older than most towns
Half of Dalston’s residents are under 51.4 and half over, against 44.4 in the typical UK town. 33% are 65 or over, against 18% across England’s towns. Ages ↓
Written from the data on this page: ONS Census 2021 (output areas summed to the 2022 built-up area).
Half of Dalston is over 51.4, older than 91% of UK towns
Share of residents in each five-year age band, Census 2021.
More residents are 65–69 than any other five-year age: 8% of residents, 1.7 times the share across England’s towns. The census found that 7.4% of residents are aged 15 to 24 in Dalston.
Broad ages · share of residents
Women and men · all residents
54% women, 46% men
About 86 men for every 100 women. Across England, 51% of residents are women. Women live longer than men, so towns with many older residents have more women.
Dalston sits below 93% of UK towns for full-time students (3.6%)
What adults did at the 2021 Census (the ONS’s NS-SEC classes), and where residents lived a year earlier.
Adults by occupation class · residents 16 and over
Address a year before the Census
Residents who lived somewhere else a year earlier. The bar runs to 25%.
Residents who moved in within the year make up 8.1%, against 11% across England’s towns. Across the comparison, 7.9% of adults are full-time students across England’s towns.
Households here average 2.1 people, below 92% of UK towns
Household make-up at the 2021 Census. Each square is 1% of households.
Against Cumbria’s towns and England’s towns
People per household
England’s towns.
The figure for one-person households is 35% in Dalston and 30% across England’s towns.
Only 5% of households live in a flat or apartment in Dalston
Accommodation type and cars or vans per household, Census 2021. Owning and renting are on Cost of living.
Type of home
Cars or vans · share of households
Here just over a third of households live in a detached house, where the figure across England’s towns is 21%. Across Dalston, just over a fifth of households live in a terraced house. On households without a car or van, Dalston sits lower than 51% of UK towns: 15%. For households in flats, the comparison across England’s towns is 23%.
Fewer residents born abroad than 88% of UK towns: 3.3%
Country of birth, year of arrival and main language, Census 2021.
Born outside the UK, by region · share of all residents; the bar runs to 25%
Main language · residents aged 3 and over
Residents born abroad were most often born in EU countries (1.1%), then in the Middle East and Asia (0.8%). The share of residents born outside the UK across England’s towns is 18%. More residents whose main language is English than in 91% of UK towns: 99%.
In Dalston, 97% of residents describe themselves as White British, more than in 96% of UK towns
How residents described themselves at the 2021 Census. Lines join the lowest and highest of the three figures.
Ethnic groups other than White British · all residents
White British, not charted: 97% of Dalston · Cumbria’s towns 95% · England’s towns 73%.
Religion · all residents
After White British, the most common groups are Other White (1.6%), Mixed or multiple (0.7%) and Indian (0.3%). Higher than in 98% of UK towns: 64% of residents describe themselves as Christian. By way of comparison, 73% of residents describe themselves as White British across England’s towns.
In Dalston, 24% of adults have never married or formed a civil partnership, fewer than in 96% of UK towns
Legal partnership status (residents 16 and over) and unpaid care (residents 5 and over), Census 2021.
Partnership status · residents 16 and over
Unpaid care given · share of residents 5 and over
Heavy unpaid care, 50 hours a week or more, falls to 43 residents. As a reference point, nearly two in five adults have never married or formed a civil partnership across England’s towns. Dalston has fewer unpaid carers than 56% of UK towns, at 9.1%.
A degree-level qualification for 35% of adults
Highest qualification, residents 16 and over, Census 2021.
Highest qualification · residents 16 and over
With 35% of its adults qualified to degree level, Dalston compares with 34% across England’s towns; another 15% hold no qualification (18%).
Of the 7 towns nearest Dalston, 3 are older
Nearby built-up areas coloured by median age, Census 2021. Tap a town for its page.
Health, work and homes have their own pages
What this data can and can’t tell you
- “Cumbria’s towns” and “England’s towns” mean their built-up areas. Census comparisons pool every built-up area in Cumbria (or England), summed the same way as Dalston’s figures, so households in open countryside are left out.
- Small counts are blurred. The ONS adds small random changes to Census counts to protect privacy, so the same total differs a little between tables, and the shares of a small town can move by a point or two.
Questions about Dalston’s residents
What is the population of Dalston?
The 2021 Census counted 1,541 people in Dalston’s built-up area.
What is the average age in Dalston?
The median age was 51.4 at the 2021 Census. 7.4% of residents were 15 to 24 and 33% were 65 or over.
How diverse is Dalston?
97% of residents described themselves as White British in 2021, against 73% across England’s towns and 95% across Cumbria’s towns. 3.3% were born outside the UK.
What religion are people in Dalston?
30% said they had no religion and 64% that they were Christian at the 2021 Census; 0.1% were Muslim and 5.3% didn’t answer.
Is Dalston good for families?
23% of households had dependent children in 2021, against 29% across England’s towns. Schools are on Dalston’s schools page.
Sources: ONS Census 2021, output areas summed to the ONS 2022 built-up area (TS002, TS003, TS004, TS007A, TS008, TS015, TS017, TS019, TS021, TS029, TS030, TS039, TS044, TS045, TS062, TS067). All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.