Photo: Philip Halling · CC BY-SA 2.0Below 97% of UK towns: 18% of households have dependent children
The typical household size is 2.1 people, against 2.4 across England’s towns. At 57%, the share of residents who describe themselves as Christian is higher than in 88% of UK towns. There were 4,850 households in Ludlow at the 2021 Census, home to 10,037 residents. For Ludlow, the census puts households in terraced houses at 31%.
What the Census says about Ludlow’s people
Older than most towns
Half of Ludlow’s residents are under 52.2 and half over, against 44.4 in the typical UK town. 32% 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) and ONS mid-year population estimates.
Slower growth than 77% of UK towns: Ludlow changed by +2% since 2011
ONS mid-year estimates, each year indexed to mid-2011 = 100. Ludlow’s figure is the small areas (2021 LSOAs) that make up the town.
People, mid-2011 = 100
Change by age, 2011 to 2024
About 11,000 people in 2011; 11,100 in 2024.
Change by age ran from +29% for the 65 and over to −13% for the 0 to 15. The biggest one-year rise was mid-2022 to mid-2023, 260 people.
Ludlow is older than 92% of UK towns: a median age of 52.2
Share of residents in each five-year age band, Census 2021.
With residents aged 15 to 24 at 9.2%, Ludlow is behind 68% of UK towns on that count. More residents aged 65 and over than in 94% of UK towns: 32%.
Median age of UK towns of 2,500+
■ Ludlow, 52.2. The typical town is 44.4.
Broad ages · share of residents
Women and men · all residents
52% women, 48% men
About 91 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.
3.4% of adults are full-time students, fewer than in 96% of UK towns
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 Ludlow, 29% of adults work in managerial and professional jobs and 30% in routine and semi-routine work, against 33% and 24% across England’s towns. For full-time students, the comparison across England’s towns is 7.9%. The census found that nearly one in ten residents lived at another address a year earlier in the town.
One-person households make up 39% in Ludlow, more than in 98% of UK towns
Household make-up at the 2021 Census. Each square is 1% of households.
Against Shropshire’s towns and England’s towns
People per household
England’s towns.
Shared households of unrelated adults make up 1.8%, against 4.3% across England’s towns. Elsewhere, 30% of households are one person living alone across England’s towns.
In Ludlow, 21% of households have no car or van, more than in 76% 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 detached houses: 28%, below 53% of UK towns. Across England’s towns, 24% of households have no car or van. The share of households in flats stands at 11%.
4.4% born outside the UK, fewer than in 72% 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
Where 21% of those born abroad across England’s towns arrived in 2017 or later, here the share is 15%. For Ludlow, the census puts residents whose main language is English at 98%. To put it in context, 18% of residents were born outside the UK across England’s towns.
Residents who describe themselves as White British: 95%, a higher share than 77% 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 Ludlow · Shropshire’s towns 88% · England’s towns 73%.
Religion · all residents
Next after White British come Other White (2.7%), Mixed or multiple (1.2%) and Chinese (0.2%). Compared with other places, residents with no religion are scarce here: 35%, fewer than in just over four fifths of UK towns. The wider picture: 73% of residents describe themselves as White British across England’s towns.
More unpaid carers than 65% of UK towns: 9.9% of residents
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
Across England’s towns, 39% of adults have never married or formed a civil partnership; in Ludlow, 32%. Some 333 people give 50 hours or more of unpaid care a week. The town has fewer married adults and civil partners than two thirds of UK towns, at 45%. Elsewhere, nearly one in ten residents give unpaid care across England’s towns.
Degree-level qualifications: 29% of adults
Highest qualification, residents 16 and over, Census 2021.
Highest qualification · residents 16 and over
Degree-level qualifications are held by 29% of adults in Ludlow (England’s towns: 34%), and no qualification by 20% (England’s towns: 18%).
29th oldest of 455 UK towns of 7,000 to 14,000 people
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 Stoke Gifford (27.8), the youngest, and Seaton (61), the oldest. Nearest to Ludlow in age: Dawlish (52), New Milton (52.1), Abergele (52.2) and Ponteland (52.5).
Ludlow is older than every town around it
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ludlow | 10,037 | — | 52.2 | 32% | 18% |
| Tenbury Wells | 3,936 | 6.6 mi | 50.8 | 30% | 24% |
| Craven Arms | 2,563 | 7.1 mi | 45.4 | 24% | 25% |
| Cleobury Mortimer | 2,963 | 9.7 mi | 46.5 | 24% | 28% |
| Leominster | 11,206 | 10.2 mi | 44.9 | 25% | 25% |
Health, work and homes have their own pages
What this data can and can’t tell you
- “Shropshire’s towns” and “England’s towns” mean their built-up areas. Census comparisons pool every built-up area in Shropshire (or England), summed the same way as Ludlow’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. Ludlow’s trend uses the small areas (2021 LSOAs) with most of their people inside it: 10,711 people in 2021, against 10,037 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 Ludlow’s residents
What is the population of Ludlow?
The 2021 Census counted 10,037 people in Ludlow’s built-up area. The ONS estimates the same small areas held 11,100 people in mid-2024, 2% more than in 2011.
What is the average age in Ludlow?
The median age was 52.2 at the 2021 Census, older than 92% of UK towns. 9.2% of residents were 15 to 24 and 32% were 65 or over.
How diverse is Ludlow?
95% of residents described themselves as White British in 2021, against 73% across England’s towns and 88% across Shropshire’s towns. 4.4% were born outside the UK.
What religion are people in Ludlow?
35% said they had no religion and 57% that they were Christian at the 2021 Census; 0.2% were Muslim and 6.4% didn’t answer.
Is Ludlow good for families?
18% of households had dependent children in 2021, against 29% across England’s towns. Schools are on Ludlow’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) · 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.