Photo: Gareth James · CC BY-SA 2.0More terraced houses than 97% of UK towns: 45% of households
Where nearly a quarter of households live in a detached house across Wales’s towns, Ebbw Vale has 13%. In 2021, the Census found 19,635 residents locally, living in 8,723 households. For Ebbw Vale, the census puts unpaid carers at 12%. This Gwent town has more residents with no religion than 98% of UK towns, at 57%.
What the Census says about Ebbw Vale’s people
Fewer people than in 2011
ONS mid-year estimates put Ebbw Vale at 20,600 in 2011 and 20,500 in 2024, down 1%, against 4% for Wales: slower growth than in 87% 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.
Slower than most: −1% since 2011, behind 87% of UK towns
ONS mid-year estimates, each year indexed to mid-2011 = 100. Ebbw Vale’s figure is the small areas (2021 LSOAs) that make up the town.
People, mid-2011 = 100
Change by age, 2011 to 2024
About 20,600 people in 2011; 20,500 in 2024.
By age, the 65 and over group changed most (+16%) and the 16 to 29 group least (−17%).
A median age of 43.1: Ebbw Vale is younger than 61% of UK towns
Share of residents in each five-year age band, Census 2021.
With residents aged 65 and over at 20%, Ebbw Vale is behind 63% of UK towns on that count. Here, just over one in ten residents are aged 15 to 24.
Median age of UK towns of 2,500+
■ Ebbw Vale, 43.1. The typical town is 44.4.
Broad ages · share of residents
Women and men · all residents
51% women, 49% men
About an even split. Across Wales, 51% of residents are women.
Above 69% of UK towns: 5.3% of adults are full-time students
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%.
Managerial and professional jobs take in just over a fifth of adults here, routine and semi-routine work 36% (Wales’s towns: 29% and 27%). The benchmark for full-time students across Wales’s towns: 8%. For Ebbw Vale, the census puts residents who moved in within the year at 7.5%.
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in term time, so students were counted at their term addresses.
Smaller households than 67% of UK towns: 2.2 people on average
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.
One-person households are about as common here as across Wales’s towns: 32%. In Ebbw Vale, 1.9% of households are unrelated adults sharing a home. Households with dependent children are rarer here than in 51% of UK towns.
Only 9.8% of households live in a flat or apartment in Ebbw Vale
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
21% of households have no car or van, about the same as across Wales’s towns. Across Wales’s towns, households in flats come to 14%.
In Ebbw Vale, 3.2% of residents were born outside the UK, fewer than in 88% 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 10%
When those born abroad arrived
Main language · residents aged 3 and over
17% of the town’s residents born abroad came in 2017 or later, set against 23% across Wales’s towns. The wider picture: 7.4% of residents were born outside the UK across Wales’s towns. Most residents from abroad were born in EU countries (1.9%) or in the Middle East and Asia (0.7%). Few places have as many residents whose main language is English: 98% here, more than in 53% of UK towns.
Welsh, spoken by 5.6% of Ebbw Vale’s residents
Welsh language skills, residents aged 3 and over, Census 2021.
Welsh language skills · residents aged 3 and over
Some 1,065 people here aged 3 and over said in 2021 that they can speak Welsh, 5.6% of the total, against 16% across Welsh towns: fewer than in 99% of them. Abertridwr and Senghenydd leads Gwent with 14%.
Ebbw Vale ranks below 97% of UK towns on residents who describe themselves as Christian: 36%
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: 96% of Ebbw Vale · Gwent’s towns 91% · Wales’s towns 90%.
Religion · all residents
Set against 90% across Wales’s towns, 96% of residents describe themselves as White British in Ebbw Vale. Across Wales’s towns, the share of residents who describe themselves as Christian is 43%. Besides White British, the main groups are Other White (2.1%), Mixed or multiple (0.8%) and Indian (0.4%).
A lower share of married adults and civil partners than 87% of UK towns, at 41%
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
Adults who have never married make up 39%, against 38% across Wales’s towns. For comparison, 43% of adults are married or in a civil partnership across Wales’s towns. 803 residents care, unpaid, for at least 50 hours a week.
23% of adults have a degree-level qualification
Highest qualification, residents 16 and over, Census 2021.
Highest qualification · residents 16 and over
26% of Ebbw Vale’s adults have no qualification (20% across Wales’s towns), and 23% have one at degree level (31%).
From a median age of 41 in Ebbw Vale South & Cwm to 46 in Rassau & Beaufort
The town’s 3 neighbourhoods (ONS middle-layer areas with 500+ residents inside it, named by the House of Commons Library), youngest first. Census 2021.
Rassau & Beaufort is the oldest area, with 23% aged 65 or over; Ebbw Vale South & Cwm the youngest (median age 41). Families with children are most common in Ebbw Vale North & Glyncoed (28% of households).
132nd lowest median age among 310 UK towns of 14,000 to 27,000
Median age, Census 2021. Hover a dot for its students and residents born abroad; click for its page.
Ages run from 25 in Aberystwyth to 57.2 in South Hayling. Nearest to Ebbw Vale in age: Abbots Langley and Kings Langley (43.1), Weybridge (43.1), Sleaford (43.2) and Shepshed (43.2).
A younger town than 4 of the 7 around it: Ebbw Vale
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.
- “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 Ebbw Vale’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. Ebbw Vale’s trend uses the small areas (2021 LSOAs) with most of their people inside it: 20,041 people in 2021, against 19,635 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 Ebbw Vale’s residents
What is the population of Ebbw Vale?
The 2021 Census counted 19,635 people in Ebbw Vale’s built-up area. The ONS estimates the same small areas held 20,500 people in mid-2024, about as many as in 2011.
What is the average age in Ebbw Vale?
The median age was 43.1 at the 2021 Census, younger than 61% of UK towns. 11% of residents were 15 to 24 and 20% were 65 or over.
How diverse is Ebbw Vale?
96% of residents described themselves as White British in 2021, against 90% across Wales’s towns and 91% across Gwent’s towns. 3.2% were born outside the UK.
What religion are people in Ebbw Vale?
57% said they had no religion and 36% that they were Christian at the 2021 Census; 0.4% were Muslim and 5.6% didn’t answer.
Is Ebbw Vale good for families?
27% of households had dependent children in 2021, against 27% across Wales’s towns. Families are most common in Ebbw Vale North & Glyncoed (28% of households). Schools are on Ebbw Vale’s schools page.
How many people speak Welsh in Ebbw Vale?
1,065 residents aged 3 and over, 5.6%, 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 · 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.