The Briars · Photo: David Dixon · CC BY-SA 2.0Above 88% of UK towns: 33% of households live in a terraced house
One-person households are more common here than in 75% of UK towns. Whitworth is home to 6,713 residents in 3,014 households, by the 2021 Census. For Whitworth, the census puts residents who describe themselves as White British at 96%. The average household has 2.2 people, against 2.4 across England’s towns.
Residents aged 65 and over: 20%, a lower share than 62% of UK towns
Share of residents in each five-year age band, Census 2021.
Half of Whitworth’s residents are over 45, older than in 54% of UK towns. On the census count, 9.5% of residents are aged 15 to 24. By way of comparison, 18% of residents are 65 or over across England’s towns. No age band is larger than 55–59: nearly one in ten residents, 1.3 times the share across England’s towns.
Median age of UK towns of 2,500+
■ Whitworth, 45. 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 England, 51% of residents are women.
Fewer full-time students than 69% of UK towns: 4.4%
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 England’s towns, the share of residents who moved in within the year is 11%; Whitworth has 9.1%. The usual figure: 7.9% of adults are full-time students across England’s towns.
A smaller share of shared households of unrelated adults than 79% of UK towns: 1.8%
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.
The share of households with dependent children is 27%, against 29% across England’s towns. Against that, 4.3% of households are unrelated adults sharing a home across England’s towns.
Whitworth: 19% of households have no car or van, above 69% 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
Nearly a quarter of households live in a flat or apartment across England’s towns, against 12% in Whitworth. On households in detached houses, Whitworth sits lower than nearly three quarters of UK towns: 20%. Across England’s towns, 24% of households have no car or van.
In Whitworth, 3.3% of residents were born outside the UK, fewer than in 87% 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
9.1% of the town’s residents born abroad came in 2017 or later, set against 21% across England’s towns. Compared with other places, residents whose main language is English are common here: 99%, more than in 89% of UK towns. On average, 18% of residents were born outside the UK across England’s towns. Among residents born abroad, the largest groups were born in EU countries (2%) and in the Middle East and Asia (0.7%).
Residents with no religion make up 43% in Whitworth, more than in 62% 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: 96% of Whitworth · Lancashire’s towns 82% · England’s towns 73%.
Religion · all residents
Other than White British, most residents describe themselves as Other White (2.1%), Mixed or multiple (0.9%) and Pakistani (0.4%). For residents with no religion, the comparison across England’s towns is 37%. Residents who describe themselves as Christian make up 51%, against 46% across England’s towns.
37% of adults have never married or formed a civil partnership, a share 78% of UK towns don’t reach
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 44% of adults are married or in a civil partnership across England’s towns, Whitworth has 43%. Few places have as many unpaid carers: 10% here, more than in 69% of UK towns. Adults who have never married make up 39% across England’s towns. For 215 residents, unpaid care runs to 50 hours or more a week.
28% of adults hold a degree-level qualification
Highest qualification, residents 16 and over, Census 2021.
Highest qualification · residents 16 and over
Degree-level qualifications are held by 28% of Whitworth’s adults, against 34% across England’s towns; 19% have no qualification (18%).
Ranked by age, 225th youngest of 473 UK towns this size
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 Red Lodge (30.9), the youngest, and Barton on Sea (65.3), the oldest. Nearest to Whitworth in age: Paddock Wood (44.9), Staplehurst (44.9), Rogerstone (45) and Rusthall and Langton Green (45.1).
Whitworth is younger than 2 of its 7 nearest neighbours
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
- “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 Whitworth’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 Whitworth’s residents
What is the population of Whitworth?
The 2021 Census counted 6,713 people in Whitworth’s built-up area.
What is the average age in Whitworth?
The median age was 45 at the 2021 Census, older than 54% of UK towns. 9.5% of residents were 15 to 24 and 20% were 65 or over.
How diverse is Whitworth?
96% of residents described themselves as White British in 2021, against 73% across England’s towns and 82% across Lancashire’s towns. 3.3% were born outside the UK.
What religion are people in Whitworth?
43% said they had no religion and 51% that they were Christian at the 2021 Census; 0.5% were Muslim and 5% didn’t answer.
Is Whitworth good for families?
27% of households had dependent children in 2021, against 29% across England’s towns. Schools are on Whitworth’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.