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Age, national statistics socio-economic classification (ns-sec) and sex

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Last updated:
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Important information:

As Census 2021 was during a unique period of rapid change, take care when using Labour Market data for planning purposes.

Read more about this quality notice.

Important information:

Estimates for single year of age between ages 90 and 100+ are less reliable than other ages. Estimation and adjustment at these ages was based on the age range 90+ rather than five-year age bands.

Read more about this quality notice.

Summary

This dataset provides 2021 Census estimates that classify all usual residents in England and Wales by age, national statistics socio-economic classification (ns-sec) and sex. The estimates are as at census day, 21 March 2021.

Variable and dataset information

Area type

Census 2021 statistics are published for a number of different geographies. These can be large, for example the whole of England, or small, for example an output area (OA), the lowest level of geography for which statistics are produced.

For higher levels of geography, more detailed statistics can be produced. When a lower level of geography is used, such as output areas (which have a minimum of 100 persons), the statistics produced have less detail. This is to protect the confidentiality of people and ensure that individuals or their characteristics cannot be identified.

Lower layer Super Output Areas

Lower layer Super Output Areas (LSOAs) are made up of groups of Output Areas (OAs), usually four or five. They comprise between 400 and 1,200 households and have a usually resident population between 1,000 and 3,000 persons.

Coverage

Census 2021 statistics are published for the whole of England and Wales. However, you can choose to filter areas by:

  • country - for example, Wales
  • region - for example, London
  • local authority - for example, Cornwall
  • health area – for example, Clinical Commissioning Group
  • statistical area - for example, MSOA or LSOA

Age

A person’s age on Census Day, 21 March 2021 in England and Wales. Infants aged under 1 year are classified as 0 years of age.

National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SeC)

The National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SEC) indicates a person's socio-economic position based on their occupation and other job characteristics.

It is an Office for National Statistics standard classification. NS-SEC categories are assigned based on a person's occupation, whether employed, self-employed, or supervising other employees.

Full-time students are recorded in the "full-time students" category regardless of whether they are economically active.

Sex

This is the sex recorded by the person completing the census. The options were “Female” and “Male”.

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Important information:
35,623 out of 35,672 areas available
Protecting personal data will prevent 49 areas from being published.

How to improve your results

Try one or more of the following steps.

  • Select a larger area type.
  • Select fewer categories in Age, National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SeC) or Sex.
  • Remove variables from this dataset.

Variables

Population type
All usual residents
Area type
Lower layer Super Output Areas
Coverage
England and Wales
Age
14 Categories
  • Aged 15 years and under
  • Aged 16 to 17 years
  • Aged 18 to 19 years
  • Aged 25 to 29 years
  • Aged 30 to 34 years
  • Aged 35 to 39 years
  • Aged 55 to 59 years
  • Aged 60 to 64 years
  • Aged 65 years and over
Show all 14 categories
National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SeC)
10 Categories
  • L1, L2 and L3: Higher managerial, administrative and professional occupations
  • L4, L5 and L6: Lower managerial, administrative and professional occupations
  • L7: Intermediate occupations
  • L8 and L9: Small employers and own account workers
  • L10 and L11: Lower supervisory and technical occupations
  • L12: Semi-routine occupations
  • L14.1 and L14.2: Never worked and long-term unemployed
  • L15: Full-time students
  • Does not apply
Show all 10 categories
Sex
2 Categories
  • Female
  • Male
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Get the data

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Contact us

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Protecting personal data

Sometimes we need to make changes to data if it is possible to identify individuals. This is known as statistical disclosure control.

In Census 2021, we:

  • swapped records (targeted record swapping), for example, if a household was likely to be identified in datasets because it has unusual characteristics, we swapped the record with a similar one from a nearby small area (very unusual households could be swapped with one in a nearby local authority)
  • added small changes to some counts (cell key perturbation), for example, we might change a count of four to a three or a five – this might make small differences between tables depending on how the data are broken down when we applied perturbation

Read more in Section 5 of our article Design for Census 2021.

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Version history

Release date Reason for update
Version superseded
Version superseded
Original release
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Related content

Census 2021 dictionary
Definitions, variables and classifications to help when using Census 2021 data.

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Dataset link

Bookmark or copy the link to return to this dataset

ons.gov.uk/datasets/create/filter-outputs/66f2bf92-ab61-48d5-8f70-ce7795743863

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