Photo: Jeff Gogarty · CC BY-SA 2.0One-person households: 38%, a higher share than 96% of UK towns
Detached houses are home to 10% of households, against 24% across Wales’s towns. Shared households of unrelated adults account for 1.4%. Households in terraced houses are more common here than in 93% of UK towns. Brynmawr’s 2,434 households held 5,250 residents at the 2021 Census.
What the Census says about Brynmawr’s people
Fewer people than in 2011
ONS mid-year estimates put Brynmawr at 5,500 in 2011 and 5,500 in 2024, down 1%, against 4% for Wales: slower growth than in 88% 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.
Brynmawr changed by −1% from 2011 to 2024, slower than 88% of UK towns
ONS mid-year estimates, each year indexed to mid-2011 = 100. Brynmawr’s figure is the small areas (2021 LSOAs) that make up the town.
People, mid-2011 = 100
Change by age, 2011 to 2024
About 5,500 people in 2011; 5,500 in 2024.
The 65 and over age group changed most (+21%) and the 16 to 29 least (−17%).
Brynmawr is older than 51% of UK towns: a median age of 44.7
Share of residents in each five-year age band, Census 2021.
The biggest five-year age group is 50–54, with 8.1% of residents. In Abergavenny, the oldest of Gwent’s towns by this measure, it is 27%.
Median age of UK towns of 2,500+
■ Brynmawr, 44.7. 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 Wales, 51% of residents are women.
Brynmawr sits below 83% of UK towns for residents who moved in within the year (7.1%)
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%.
Across Wales’s towns, 29% of adults are in managerial and professional jobs and 27% in routine work; in Brynmawr, 21% and 37%. For Brynmawr, the census puts full-time students at 4.7%. The share of residents who moved in within the year across Wales’s towns is 9.1%.
Brynmawr households average 2.1 people, smaller than in 88% of UK towns
Household make-up at the 2021 Census. Each square is 1% of households.
Against Gwent’s towns and Wales’s towns
People per household
Wales’s towns.
Households with dependent children make up 25%, against 27% across Wales’s towns.
Brynmawr: 24% of households have no car or van, above 85% 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
Households in flats: 15%, above 71% of UK towns. To put it in context, just over a fifth of households have no car or van across Wales’s towns.
Only 3.3% of residents were born outside the UK in Brynmawr
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 10%
When those born abroad arrived
Main language · residents aged 3 and over
Arrivals from 2017 on account for 20% of residents born abroad, beside 23% across Wales’s towns. To put it in context, 7.4% of residents were born outside the UK across Wales’s towns. The census found that 98% of residents have English as their main language in Brynmawr.
Speaking Welsh: 6.6% in Brynmawr
Welsh language skills, residents aged 3 and over, Census 2021.
Welsh language skills · residents aged 3 and over
6.6% of residents aged 3 and over, 337 people, said in 2021 that they can speak Welsh, fewer than in 97% of Welsh towns (Welsh towns: 16%). No town in Gwent beats Abertridwr and Senghenydd (14%).
95% of residents describe themselves as White British, more than in 76% 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: 95% of Brynmawr · Gwent’s towns 91% · Wales’s towns 90%.
Religion · all residents
By its share of residents who describe themselves as Christian (45%), Brynmawr is below 77% of UK towns. Measured more widely, nine in ten residents describe themselves as White British across Wales’s towns. For Brynmawr, the census puts residents with no religion at 47%.
40% of adults are married or in a civil partnership, fewer than in 91% 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
The number giving 50 or more hours of unpaid care a week is 192. By way of comparison, 43% of adults are married or in a civil partnership across Wales’s towns. Higher than in just over four fifths of UK towns: 38% of adults have never married or formed a civil partnership. Where one in ten residents give unpaid care across Wales’s towns, Brynmawr has 11%.
23% of adults hold a degree-level qualification
Highest qualification, residents 16 and over, Census 2021.
Highest qualification · residents 16 and over
In Brynmawr, 23% of adults hold a degree-level qualification, against 31% across Wales’s towns, while 27% have no qualification at all (20%).
Ranked by age, 209th youngest of 516 UK towns this size
Median age, Census 2021. Hover a dot for its students and residents born abroad; click for its page.
Bailrigg is the youngest (18.9); Barton on Sea the oldest (65.3). Nearest to Brynmawr in age: Whitfield (44.7), Milford and Witley (44.7), Loftus (44.8) and Gildersome (44.8).
Around Brynmawr, 2 of 7 towns have a higher median age
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
- “Gwent’s towns” and “Wales’s towns” mean their built-up areas. Census comparisons pool every built-up area in Gwent (or Wales), summed the same way as Brynmawr’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. Brynmawr’s trend uses the small areas (2021 LSOAs) with most of their people inside it: 5,250 people in 2021, against 5,250 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 Brynmawr’s residents
What is the population of Brynmawr?
The 2021 Census counted 5,250 people in Brynmawr’s built-up area. The ONS estimates the same small areas held 5,500 people in mid-2024, about as many as in 2011.
What is the average age in Brynmawr?
The median age was 44.7 at the 2021 Census, older than 51% of UK towns. 9.7% of residents were 15 to 24 and 21% were 65 or over.
How diverse is Brynmawr?
95% of residents described themselves as White British in 2021, against 90% across Wales’s towns and 91% across Gwent’s towns. 3.3% were born outside the UK.
What religion are people in Brynmawr?
47% said they had no religion and 45% that they were Christian at the 2021 Census; 0.6% were Muslim and 5.4% didn’t answer.
Is Brynmawr good for families?
25% of households had dependent children in 2021, against 27% across Wales’s towns. Schools are on Brynmawr’s schools page.
How many people speak Welsh in Brynmawr?
337 residents aged 3 and over, 6.6%, said they can speak Welsh at the 2021 Census, against 16% across Welsh towns.
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, TS032) · ONS mid-year population estimates for 2021 LSOAs, mid-2011 to mid-2024. 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.