Church of St Chad · Photo: Peter Wood · CC BY-SA 2.0Half of Prees is over 50.8, older than 89% of UK towns
Across England’s towns, 46% of residents describe themselves as Christian; in Prees, 61%. Census figures put households in detached houses at 54% here. Compared with other places, households with dependent children are scarce here: 22%, fewer than in 91% of UK towns. The village had 1,013 residents in 459 households at the 2021 Census.
What the Census says about Prees’s people
Older than most towns
Half of Prees’s residents are under 50.8 and half over, against 44.4 in the typical UK town. 27% 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).
Prees: 27% of residents are 65 or over, above 80% of UK towns
Share of residents in each five-year age band, Census 2021.
More residents are 55–59 than any other five-year age: 9.4% of residents, 1.4 times the share across England’s towns. Residents aged 15 to 24 account for 9.3%. Set beside that, 18% of residents are 65 or over across England’s towns.
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.
Prees ranks above 69% of UK towns on full-time students: 5.3%
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%.
Managerial and professional jobs account for 33% of Prees’s adults, routine and semi-routine work for 25%, against 33% and 24% across England’s towns. On the census count, 8.6% of residents lived at another address a year earlier. Elsewhere, 7.9% of adults are full-time students across England’s towns.
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in term time, so students were counted at their term addresses.
One-person households make up 27% in Prees, less than in 70% 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.
In Prees the average household is 2.3 people, beside 2.4 across England’s towns. Across England’s towns, the share of one-person households is 30%. Shared households of unrelated adults are more common here than in 53% of UK towns.
Only 8.4% of households have no car or van in Prees
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
With households in terraced houses at 11%, Prees is behind 85% of UK towns on that count. For comparison, nearly a quarter of households have no car or van across England’s towns. The share of households in flats stands at 4.9%.
Only 3.1% of Prees’s residents were born outside the UK
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 born abroad were most often born in EU countries (1.1%), then in the Middle East and Asia (0.9%). Few places have as many residents whose main language is English: 99% here, more than in 83% of UK towns. Typically, 18% of residents were born outside the UK across England’s towns.
Residents with no religion make up 32% in Prees, less than in 90% 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 Prees · Shropshire’s towns 88% · England’s towns 73%.
Religion · all residents
Of the other groups, the largest are Other White (1.8%), Mixed or multiple (1.6%) and Pakistani (0.1%). Against that, 37% of residents said they have no religion across England’s towns. Prees has more residents who describe themselves as White British than 83% of UK towns, at 96%.
Below 70% of UK towns: 29% of adults have never married or formed a civil partnership
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
30 residents give 50 hours or more of unpaid care each week. Married adults and civil partners are more common here than in 66% of UK towns. The benchmark for adults who have never married across England’s towns: 39%. Unpaid carers make up 10%, against 8.7% across England’s towns.
Adults with a degree-level qualification: 27%
Highest qualification, residents 16 and over, Census 2021.
Highest qualification · residents 16 and over
At degree level, Prees counts 27% of its adults, against 34% across England’s towns; at the other end, 17% have no qualification (18%).
Around Prees, 3 of 7 towns have a higher median age
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prees | 1,013 | — | 50.8 | 27% | 22% |
| Prees Higher Heath | 1,226 | 1.4 mi | 53.2 | 31% | 21% |
| Wem | 6,287 | 3.7 mi | 47.6 | 27% | 22% |
| Whitchurch | 9,856 | 5 mi | 47 | 24% | 24% |
| Market Drayton | 12,062 | 7.2 mi | 45.8 | 25% | 26% |
| Shawbury | 1,962 | 7.5 mi | 37.5 | 17% | 33% |
| Audlem | 1,833 | 9.2 mi | 58.2 | 39% | 19% |
| Malpas | 1,361 | 9.5 mi | 51.3 | 32% | 20% |
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.
- “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 Prees’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 Prees’s residents
What is the population of Prees?
The 2021 Census counted 1,013 people in Prees’s built-up area.
What is the average age in Prees?
The median age was 50.8 at the 2021 Census. 9.3% of residents were 15 to 24 and 27% were 65 or over.
How diverse is Prees?
96% of residents described themselves as White British in 2021, against 73% across England’s towns and 88% across Shropshire’s towns. 3.1% were born outside the UK.
What religion are people in Prees?
32% said they had no religion and 61% that they were Christian at the 2021 Census; 0.2% were Muslim and 6.1% didn’t answer.
Is Prees good for families?
22% of households had dependent children in 2021, against 29% across England’s towns. Schools are on Prees’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.