Ashlar House and Ashlar Cottage · Photo: Trappedinburnley · CC BY-SA 4.0Fence is older than 88% of UK towns: a median age of 50.6
Here 65% of residents describe themselves as Christian, where the figure across England’s towns is 46%. Households without a car or van account for 7.8%. On married adults and civil partners, Fence sits higher than 89% of UK towns: 55%. The 2021 Census put the village’s population at 1,585, in 707 households.
What the Census says about Fence’s people
Older than most towns
Half of Fence’s residents are under 50.6 and half over, against 44.4 in the typical UK town. 30% 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).
30% of residents are 65 or over, more than in 91% of UK towns
Share of residents in each five-year age band, Census 2021.
Compared with 12% across England’s towns, nearly one in ten residents are aged 15 to 24 here. Measured more widely, 18% of residents are 65 or over across England’s towns.
Broad ages · share of residents
Women and men · all residents
53% women, 47% men
About 90 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.
Fence sits below 90% of UK towns for full-time students (3.8%)
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%.
42% of Fence’s adults are in managerial and professional jobs and 18% in routine and semi-routine work, against 33% and 24% across England’s towns. As a reference point, 7.9% of adults are full-time students across England’s towns. The census found that 7.6% of residents lived at another address a year earlier locally.
Shared households of unrelated adults: 1.6%, a lower share than 90% of UK towns
Household make-up at the 2021 Census. Each square is 1% of households.
Against Lancashire’s towns and England’s towns
People per household
England’s towns.
Set against 29% across England’s towns, 27% of households have dependent children in Fence. One-person households are rarer here than in 59% of UK towns. Shared households of unrelated adults make up 4.3% across England’s towns.
A larger share of households in terraced houses than 77% of UK towns: 27%
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
Compared with 21% across England’s towns, a third of households live in a detached house here. The census found that nearly one in ten households live in a flat or apartment in Fence. Set beside that, 24% of households live in a terraced house across England’s towns.
2.7% of residents were born outside the UK, fewer than in 95% 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 whose main language is English make up 99%, against 90% across England’s towns. Set beside that, 18% of residents were born outside the UK across England’s towns. The largest groups were born in EU countries (1.3%) and in the Middle East and Asia (1.1%).
Residents with no religion make up 27% in Fence, less 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 Fence · Lancashire’s towns 82% · England’s towns 73%.
Religion · all residents
97% of residents describe themselves as White British (England’s towns: 73%). Residents with no religion make up 37% across England’s towns. The groups that follow White British are Other White (1.5%), Mixed or multiple (0.6%) and Pakistani (0.4%).
In Fence, 25% of adults have never married or formed a civil partnership, fewer than in 92% 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
At 50 hours or more a week, 34 people give unpaid care. Across the comparison, nearly two in five adults have never married or formed a civil partnership across England’s towns.
The share of adults with a degree-level qualification: 38%
Highest qualification, residents 16 and over, Census 2021.
Highest qualification · residents 16 and over
Degree-level qualifications are held by 38% of Fence’s adults, against 34% across England’s towns; 14% have no qualification (18%).
No nearby town is as old as Fence
Nearby built-up areas coloured by median age, Census 2021. Tap a town for its page.
| Town | People | Away | Median age | 65+ | Homes with children |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fence | 1,585 | — | 50.6 | 30% | 27% |
| Brierfield | 10,723 | 1.4 mi | 35.8 | 16% | 37% |
| Barrowford | 5,887 | 1.8 mi | 47.4 | 25% | 25% |
| Nelson | 33,808 | 2 mi | 33.4 | 12% | 40% |
| Burnley | 78,266 | 2.8 mi | 38.7 | 17% | 30% |
| Sabden | 1,582 | 3.3 mi | 48.1 | 22% | 24% |
| Padiham | 10,121 | 3.4 mi | 40.3 | 19% | 28% |
| Colne | 18,914 | 4 mi | 42 | 20% | 27% |
Health, work and homes have their own pages
What this data can and can’t tell you
- “Lancashire’s towns” and “England’s towns” mean their built-up areas. Census comparisons pool every built-up area in Lancashire (or England), summed the same way as Fence’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 Fence’s residents
What is the population of Fence?
The 2021 Census counted 1,585 people in Fence’s built-up area.
What is the average age in Fence?
The median age was 50.6 at the 2021 Census. 8.4% of residents were 15 to 24 and 30% were 65 or over.
How diverse is Fence?
97% of residents described themselves as White British in 2021, against 73% across England’s towns and 82% across Lancashire’s towns. 2.7% were born outside the UK.
What religion are people in Fence?
27% said they had no religion and 65% that they were Christian at the 2021 Census; 1.1% were Muslim and 5.7% didn’t answer.
Is Fence good for families?
27% of households had dependent children in 2021, against 29% across England’s towns. Schools are on Fence’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.