Photo: Anthony Parkes · CC BY-SA 2.0Eccles is younger than 92% of UK towns: a median age of 36.8
Compared with 39% across England’s towns, nearly half of adults have never married or formed a civil partnership here. Lower than in 97% of UK towns: 7% of households live in a detached house. The 2021 Census put Eccles’s population at 41,116, in 18,276 households. Census figures put households in terraced houses at 30% locally.
What the Census says about Eccles’s people
Younger than most towns
Half of Eccles’s residents are under 36.8 and half over, against 44.4 in the typical UK town. 11% are 15 to 24 and 14% are 65 or over. Ages ↓
A town of flats
31% of households live in a flat or maisonette, more than in 95% of UK towns. 33% have no car or van. Homes & cars ↓
Growing faster than most
ONS mid-year estimates put Eccles at 35,600 in 2011 and 41,700 in 2024, up 17%, against 10% for England: faster growth than in 80% of UK towns. Since 2011 ↓
Written from the data on this page: ONS Census 2021 (output areas summed to the 2022 built-up area) and ONS mid-year population estimates.
Since 2011, Eccles has grown +17%, faster than 80% of UK towns
ONS mid-year estimates, each year indexed to mid-2011 = 100. Eccles’s figure is the small areas (2021 LSOAs) that make up the town.
People, mid-2011 = 100
Change by age, 2011 to 2024
About 35,600 people in 2011; 41,700 in 2024.
No year added more people than mid-2015 to mid-2016: 780. Of the age groups, 30 to 44 changed most (+33%) and 45 to 64 least (+8%).
Only 14% of residents are 65 or over in Eccles
Share of residents in each five-year age band, Census 2021.
Where 12% of residents are aged 15 to 24 across England’s towns, Eccles has 11%. For comparison, 18% of residents are 65 or over across England’s towns.
Median age of UK towns of 2,500+
■ Eccles, 36.8. The typical town is 44.4.
Broad ages · share of residents
Women and men · all residents
50% women, 50% men
About an even split. Across England, 51% of residents are women.
Eccles sits above 85% of UK towns for full-time students (6.1%)
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, 29% of adults are in managerial and professional jobs and 27% in routine and semi-routine work (England’s towns: 33% and 24%). The share of full-time students across England’s towns is 7.9%. Here, one in ten residents lived at another address a year earlier.
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in term time, so students were counted at their term addresses.
In Eccles, 37% of households are one person living alone, more than in 93% of UK towns
Household make-up at the 2021 Census. Each square is 1% of households.
Against Greater Manchester’s towns and England’s towns
People per household
England’s towns.
On shared households of unrelated adults, 4.5% here is much the same as across England’s towns. The comparison figure for one-person households is 30% across England’s towns. The census found that 27% of households have dependent children in Eccles.
Eccles: 33% of households have no car or van, above 97% of UK towns
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
31% of households live in a flat or apartment (England’s towns: 23%). Across England’s towns, the share of households without a car or van is 24%.
17% born outside the UK, more than in 90% 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%
When those born abroad arrived
Main language · residents aged 3 and over
The largest groups were born in EU countries (7.8%) and in the Middle East and Asia (5%). Fewer residents whose main language is English than in 93% of UK towns: 90%. Against that, 18% of residents were born outside the UK across England’s towns. Across England’s towns, just over a fifth of those born abroad arrived in 2017 or later; here, 23%.
Below 89% of UK towns: 75% of residents describe themselves as White British
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: 75% of Eccles · Greater Manchester’s towns 71% · England’s towns 73%.
Religion · all residents
The Muslim share of residents is 6.9%. Residents with no religion are rarer here than in 72% of UK towns. The wider picture: 73% of residents describe themselves as White British across England’s towns. Across England’s towns, the share of residents who describe themselves as Christian is 46%; Eccles has 49%.
Eccles ranks below 99% of UK towns on married adults and civil partners: 33%
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
Students and young renters account for much of that. On unpaid carers, Eccles sits lower than 64% of UK towns: 8.9%. Nearly half of the town’s adults have never married or formed a civil partnership and 33% are married, against 39% and 44% across England’s towns.
Among adults, 31% hold a degree-level qualification
Highest qualification, residents 16 and over, Census 2021.
Highest qualification · residents 16 and over
Across England’s towns, 34% of adults have a degree-level qualification; in Eccles, 31%, and 21% have none, against 18%. For 16%, A levels are the highest qualification so far, many of them students still working towards a degree.
From a median age of 34 in Barton upon Irwell to 41 in Weaste & Seedley
The town’s 6 neighbourhoods (ONS middle-layer areas with 500+ residents inside it, named by the House of Commons Library), youngest first. Census 2021.
Weaste & Seedley is the oldest area, with 18% aged 65 or over; Barton upon Irwell the youngest (median age 34). Families with children are most common in Peel Green (31% of households).
Of 173 UK towns its size (29,000 to 56,000 people), the 15th youngest
Median age, Census 2021. Hover a dot for its students and residents born abroad; click for its page.
At the ends of the range sit Canterbury (27.5), the youngest, and Rustington (56.2), the oldest. Nearest to Eccles in age: Royal Leamington Spa (36.3), Tipton (36.6), Aldershot (37) and Prestwich (37.2).
Eccles and its 7 nearest towns: 6 of them 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
- The Census was taken in a lockdown, in term time. 21 March 2021 fell in term time, and students were asked to give their term-time address, so most were counted where they study. Some may have been living with family that day.
- “Greater Manchester’s towns” and “England’s towns” mean their built-up areas. Census comparisons pool every built-up area in Greater Manchester (or England), summed the same way as Eccles’s figures, so households in open countryside are left out. The population trend compares with the whole county and nation.
- Estimates since 2021 are modelled. The ONS builds mid-year estimates from the Census, births, deaths and migration records. Eccles’s trend uses the small areas (2021 LSOAs) with most of their people inside it: 39,902 people in 2021, against 41,116 in the built-up area.
- 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 Eccles’s residents
What is the population of Eccles?
The 2021 Census counted 41,116 people in Eccles’s built-up area. The ONS estimates the same small areas held 41,700 people in mid-2024, 17% more than in 2011.
What is the average age in Eccles?
The median age was 36.8 at the 2021 Census, younger than 92% of UK towns. 11% of residents were 15 to 24 and 14% were 65 or over.
How diverse is Eccles?
75% of residents described themselves as White British in 2021, against 73% across England’s towns and 71% across Greater Manchester’s towns. 17% were born outside the UK.
What religion are people in Eccles?
37% said they had no religion and 49% that they were Christian at the 2021 Census; 6.9% were Muslim and 4.9% didn’t answer.
Is Eccles good for families?
27% of households had dependent children in 2021, against 29% across England’s towns. Families are most common in Peel Green (31% of households). Schools are on Eccles’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) · ONS mid-year population estimates for 2021 LSOAs, mid-2011 to mid-2024 · House of Commons Library MSOA names. 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.