Photo: Rod Grealish · CC BY-SA 2.0Silloth is older than 94% of UK towns: a median age of 53.1
With residents who describe themselves as White British at 98%, Silloth is ahead of 99% of UK towns on that count. The 2021 Census put the town’s population at 2,542, in 1,185 households. The census found that just over a fifth of households have dependent children locally. 43% of households live in a terraced house, a higher share than in 96% of UK towns.
What the Census says about Silloth’s people
Older than most towns
Half of Silloth’s residents are under 53.1 and half over, against 44.4 in the typical UK town. 31% 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).
Residents aged 65 and over: 31%, a higher share than 92% of UK towns
Share of residents in each five-year age band, Census 2021.
Where 12% of residents are aged 15 to 24 across England’s towns, Silloth has 9.4%. On average, 18% of residents are 65 or over across England’s towns.
Median age of UK towns of 2,500+
■ Silloth, 53.1. The typical town is 44.4.
Broad ages · share of residents
Women and men · all residents
52% women, 48% men
About 94 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.
3.2% of adults are full-time students, fewer than in 97% of UK towns
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%.
By class, 22% of adults are in managerial and professional jobs and 38% in routine and semi-routine work (England’s towns: 33% and 24%). The census found that 7.9% of residents lived at another address a year earlier in Silloth.
Households here average 2.1 people, below 88% 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.
30% of households are one person living alone across England’s towns, against 33% in Silloth. The share of shared households of unrelated adults stands at 1.8%.
Below 70% of UK towns: 7.4% of households live in a flat or apartment
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
17% of households have no car or van, against 24% across England’s towns. Set beside that, 23% of households live in a flat or apartment across England’s towns. Households in detached houses: a fifth of the total.
2.5% of residents were born outside the UK, fewer than in 96% of UK towns
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 (1.5%), then in the Americas, Oceania and elsewhere (0.3%). Compared with other places, residents whose main language is English are common here: 99%, more than in 97% of UK towns. The wider picture: 18% of residents were born outside the UK across England’s towns.
Residents who describe themselves as Christian make up 59% in Silloth, more than in 92% 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: 98% of Silloth · Cumbria’s towns 95% · England’s towns 73%.
Religion · all residents
The share of residents with no religion trails 84% of UK towns: 35%. Across the comparison, 46% of residents describe themselves as Christian across England’s towns.
In Silloth, 29% of adults have never married or formed a civil partnership, fewer than in 75% 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
Where 8.7% of residents give unpaid care across England’s towns, Silloth has 10%. Unpaid carers giving 50 hours or more a week: 87. Married adults and civil partners are more common here than in just over half of UK towns. Adults who have never married make up 39% across England’s towns.
21% of adults have qualifications at degree level
Highest qualification, residents 16 and over, Census 2021.
Highest qualification · residents 16 and over
With 21% of its adults qualified to degree level, Silloth compares with 34% across England’s towns; another 25% hold no qualification (18%).
Ranked by age, 20th oldest of 219 UK towns this size
Median age, Census 2021. Hover a dot for its students and residents born abroad; click for its page.
Ages run from 20.6 in Keele to 60.8 in St Mary's Bay. Nearest to Silloth in age: Ormesby St Margaret (52.9), Brewood (53), South Brent (53.2) and Bosham (53.5).
Every nearby town is younger than Silloth
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 Silloth’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 Silloth’s residents
What is the population of Silloth?
The 2021 Census counted 2,542 people in Silloth’s built-up area.
What is the average age in Silloth?
The median age was 53.1 at the 2021 Census, older than 94% of UK towns. 9.4% of residents were 15 to 24 and 31% were 65 or over.
How diverse is Silloth?
98% of residents described themselves as White British in 2021, against 73% across England’s towns and 95% across Cumbria’s towns. 2.5% were born outside the UK.
What religion are people in Silloth?
35% said they had no religion and 59% that they were Christian at the 2021 Census; 0.1% were Muslim and 6.1% didn’t answer.
Is Silloth good for families?
21% of households had dependent children in 2021, against 29% across England’s towns. Schools are on Silloth’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.