Photo: John Salmon · CC BY-SA 2.0A larger share of households with dependent children than 96% of UK towns: 37%
Shared households of unrelated adults are rarer here than in 99% of UK towns. At the 2021 Census, 274 people lived in Bircham Newton, in 115 households. Households in flats: 2.6% of the total. In Bircham Newton, 97% of residents describe themselves as White British, beside 73% across England’s towns.
Bircham Newton is younger than 85% of UK towns: a median age of 39.1
Share of residents in each five-year age band, Census 2021.
More residents are 5–9 than any other five-year age: one in ten residents, 1.6 times the share across England’s towns. Just over one in ten residents are aged 15 to 24. Fewer residents aged 65 and over than in 71% of UK towns: 19%.
Broad ages · share of residents
Women and men · all residents
55% women, 45% men
About 80 men for every 100 women. Across England, 51% of residents are women. A large institution, such as a prison, barracks, boarding school, university or care home, can tilt a town’s split: the census counts the people living there as residents.
Bircham Newton ranks above 62% of UK towns on residents who moved in within the year: 9.3%
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%.
In Bircham Newton, 18% of adults work in managerial and professional jobs and 36% in routine and semi-routine work, against 33% and 24% across England’s towns. For comparison, 11% of residents lived at another address a year earlier across England’s towns. Census figures put full-time students at 4.8% here.
Only 24% of households in Bircham Newton are one person living alone
Household make-up at the 2021 Census. Each square is 1% of households.
Against Norfolk’s towns and England’s towns
People per household
England’s towns.
Across England’s towns, households average 2.4 people; in Bircham Newton, 2.5. The usual figure: 30% of households are one person living alone across England’s towns.
More terraced houses than 96% of UK towns: 43% of households
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
Where nearly a quarter of households have no car or van across England’s towns, Bircham Newton has 13%. Households in detached houses: nearly a quarter of the total.
Fewer residents born outside the UK than 99% of UK towns: 1.8%
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
The figure for residents whose main language is English is 100% in Bircham Newton and 90% across England’s towns. Across the comparison, 18% of residents were born outside the UK across England’s towns. Residents born abroad were most often born in EU countries (1.1%), then in Africa (0.4%).
64% of residents said they have no religion, a share 99% of UK towns don’t reach
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 Bircham Newton · Norfolk’s towns 88% · England’s towns 73%.
Religion · all residents
Residents who describe themselves as Christian: 33% here and 46% across England’s towns. For residents with no religion, the comparison across England’s towns is 37%.
More adults who have never married than 79% of UK towns: 37%
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
Unpaid carers giving 50 hours or more a week: 5. 43% of adults are married or in a civil partnership, a lower share than in 80% of UK towns. For comparison, 39% of adults have never married or formed a civil partnership across England’s towns. Bircham Newton sits close to the norm on unpaid carers: 7.8%, about the same as across England’s towns.
Degree-level qualifications reach 14% of adults
Highest qualification, residents 16 and over, Census 2021.
Highest qualification · residents 16 and over
Degree-level qualifications are held by 14% of Bircham Newton’s adults, against 34% across England’s towns; 29% have no qualification (18%).
Every nearby town is older than Bircham Newton
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bircham Newton | 274 | — | 39.1 | 19% | 37% |
| Snettisham | 2,709 | 6.9 mi | 59.1 | 41% | 17% |
| Dersingham | 4,753 | 7.1 mi | 58.6 | 41% | 17% |
| Heacham | 3,978 | 7.6 mi | 60.1 | 43% | 13% |
| Hunstanton | 4,230 | 8.3 mi | 61.3 | 44% | 12% |
| Fakenham | 8,390 | 8.4 mi | 49.4 | 29% | 21% |
| Wells-next-the-Sea | 2,151 | 9.5 mi | 58.5 | 39% | 16% |
| Gayton | 1,522 | 10.4 mi | 47.2 | 24% | 27% |
Health, work and homes have their own pages
What this data can and can’t tell you
- “Norfolk’s towns” and “England’s towns” mean their built-up areas. Census comparisons pool every built-up area in Norfolk (or England), summed the same way as Bircham Newton’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 Bircham Newton’s residents
What is the population of Bircham Newton?
The 2021 Census counted 274 people in Bircham Newton’s built-up area.
What is the average age in Bircham Newton?
The median age was 39.1 at the 2021 Census. 12% of residents were 15 to 24 and 19% were 65 or over.
How diverse is Bircham Newton?
97% of residents described themselves as White British in 2021, against 73% across England’s towns and 88% across Norfolk’s towns. 1.8% were born outside the UK.
What religion are people in Bircham Newton?
64% said they had no religion and 33% that they were Christian at the 2021 Census; 0% were Muslim and 2.9% didn’t answer.
Is Bircham Newton good for families?
37% of households had dependent children in 2021, against 29% across England’s towns. Schools are on Bircham Newton’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.