Demographics of Coventry explained

Place:	Coventry
Caption:	Population pyramid of Coventry
Size Of Population:	316,960 (2011)

Coventry, England is an ethnically and culturally diverse city. It is the fifteenth most populous city in the United Kingdom.

Population

Coventry's total population, according to the 2011 UK census, was 316,960. The population density was 3,408 people per square km.

Ethnicity

The following table shows the ethnic group of respondents in the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 censuses in Coventry.

There was likely around 3,000 to 5,000 'coloured' people in Coventry in 1958, half of these being Asians (2,000 Indians and 1,500 Pakistanis) and 400 Afro-Caribbeans.^[1]

Coventry has declined from a 88.1% White overall city to one with less than two-thirds of its population. Asian British people have risen from around 1 in 10 (9.7%) to around nearly 1 in 5 (18.5). Black British people have experienced an explosive growth, coming primarily from the increasing African population, they have risen from 1.6% to 8.9% from 1991 to 2021. The Mixed and Other ethnicities have also increased as well.

Ethnic Group	1971 estimations^[2]		1981 estimations^[3]		1991 census^[4] ^[5]		2001 census^[6]		2011 census^[7]		2021 census^[8]
Ethnic Group	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%

White Total	310,281	94%	292,411	90.9%	268,853	88%	252,643	83.98%	234,029	73.84%	226,246	65.5%
White: British	–	–	–	–	–	–	235,632	78.32%	211,188	66.63%	190,889	55.3%
White: Irish	–	–	–	–	13,540	4.59%	10,401	3.46%	7,305	2.30%	5,662	1.6%
White: Gypsy or Irish Traveller^[9]	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	151	0.05%	294	0.1%
White: Roma	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	1,116	0.3%
White: Other	–	–	–	–	–	–	6,610	2.20%	15,385	4.85%	28,285	8.2%
Asian or Asian British Total	–	–	23,576	7.3%	30,010	9.8%	36,093	12.00%	51,598	16.28%	63,915	18.5%
Asian or Asian British: Indian	–	–	18,489	5.7%	22,825	7.5%	24,177	8.04%	27,751	8.76%	32,096	9.3%
Asian or Asian British: Pakistani	–	–	3,034	0.9%	4,080		6,169	2.05%	9,510	3.00%	12,658	3.7%
Asian or Asian British: Bangladeshi	–	–	757		1,271		1,741	0.58%	2,951	0.93%	4,257	1.2%
Asian or Asian British: Chinese^[10]	–	–	538		806		2,183	0.73%	3,728	1.18%	4,571	1.3%
Asian or Asian British: Other Asian	–	–	758		1,028		1,823	0.61%	7,658	2.42%	10,333	3.0%
Black or Black British Total	–	–	4,310	1.4%	5,060	1.7%	5,412	1.80%	17,764	5.60%	30,723	8.9%
Black or Black British: African	–	–	347	0.1%	423		1,679	0.56%	12,836	4.05%	24,109	7.0%
Black or Black British: Caribbean	–	–	3,021		3,457		3,314	1.10%	3,317	1.05%	3,459	1.0%
Black or Black British: Other Black	–	–	942		1,180		419	0.14%	1,611	0.51%	3,155	0.9%
Mixed Total	–	–	–	–	–	–	5,163	1.72%	8,230	2.60%	11,731	3.4%
Mixed: White and Black Caribbean	–	–	–	–	–	–	2,453	0.82%	3,672	1.16%	4,597	1.3%
Mixed: White and Black African	–	–	–	–	–	–	271	0.09%	943	0.30%	1,663	0.5%
Mixed: White and Asian	–	–	–	–	–	–	1,605	0.53%	2,388	0.75%	3,182	0.9%
Mixed: Other Mixed	–	–	–	–	–	–	834	0.28%	1,227	0.39%	2,289	0.7%
Other: Total	–	–	1,345		1,676		1,537	0.51%	5,339	1.68%	12,706	3.7%
Other: Arab^[11]	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	2,020	0.64%	2,482	0.7%
Other: Any other ethnic group	–	–	–	–	–	–	1,537	0.51%	3,319	1.05%	10,224	3.0%
Ethnic minority: Total	19,968	6%	29,231	9.1%	36,746	12%	48,205	16%	82,931	26.2%	119,075	34.5%

Total	330,249	100%	321,642	100%	305,599	100%	300,848	100%	316,960	100%	345,321	100%

Notes for table above

Book: J. A.G. Griffith, Judith Henderson . Coloured Immigrants in Britain . 1960 . Oxford University Press . Internet Archive . 15.
Jones . P. N. . 1978 . The Distribution and Diffusion of the Coloured Population in England and Wales, 1961-71 . Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers . 3 . 4 . 515–532 . 10.2307/622127 . 622127 . 12157820 . 1978TrIBG...3..515J . 0020-2754.
Book: Ethnicity in the 1991 census: Vol 3 - Social geography and ethnicity in Britain, geographical spread, spatial concentration and internal migration . 1996 . London : HMSO . Internet Archive . 978-0-11-691655-6.
Book: Ethnicity in the 1991 census: Vol 3 - Social geography and ethnicity in Britain, geographical spread, spatial concentration and internal migration . 1996 . London : HMSO . Internet Archive . 978-0-11-691655-6.
As UK Census data post 2001 is unavailable through the ONS website, it has been recommended to use archival census collection websites to obtain data. Data is taken from United Kingdom Casweb Data services of the United Kingdom 1991 Census on Ethnic Data for England. (Table 6)
Web site: 2001 census - theme tables . NOMIS . 29 November 2015.
Web site: Download:local authorities: county / unitary . NOMIS . 29 November 2015.
Web site: Ethnic group - Office for National Statistics . 2022-11-29 . www.ons.gov.uk.
New category created for the 2011 census
In 2001, listed under the 'Chinese or other ethnic group' heading.
New category created for the 2011 census

Ethnicity of school pupils

Coventry's schools are in a majority-minority state with no-overall ethnic majority present, however of broad multi-ethnic groups, Whites make up the majority with 54.3% of the population.

Ethnic group	School year
	1971^[12]		2021/2022^[13]
	Number	%	Number	%

White Total	–	93%	31,770	54.3
White: British	–	–	25,797	44.1
White: Irish	–	–	167	0.3
White: Traveller of Irish heritage	–	–	44	0.1
White: Gypsy/Roma	–	–	540	0.9
White: Other	–	–	5,222	8.9
Asian / Asian British Total	–	–	12,780	22
Asian / Asian British: Indian	–	–	5,217	8.9
Asian / Asian British: Pakistani	–	–	3,072	5.3
Asian / Asian British: Bangladeshi	–	–	1,027	1.8
Asian / Asian British: Chinese	–	–	264	0.5
Asian / Asian British: Other Asians	–	–	3,200	5.5
Black / Black British Total	–	–	7,733	13.2
Black: Caribbean	–	–	340	0.6
Black: African	–	–	6,683	11.4
Black: Other Blacks	–	–	710	1.2
Mixed / British Mixed	–	–	4,330	7.4
Other: Total	–	–	1,257	2.1
Unclassified	–	–	626	1.1
Non-White: Total	–	7%		45.7%

Total:	–		58,496	100%

Languages

The most common main languages spoken in Coventry according to the 2011 census are shown below.^[14]

Rank	Language	Usual residents aged 3+	Proportion
1		261,117	86.14%
2		6,849	2.26%
3		6,161	2.03%
4		2,523	0.83%
5		2,479	0.82%
6		1,821	0.60%
7		1,445	0.48%
8		1,391	0.46%
9		1,340	0.44%
10		925	0.31%
11		895	0.30%
12		883	0.29%
13		784	0.26%
14		746	0.25%
15		674	0.22%
16		597	0.20%
17		572	0.19%
18		521	0.17%
19		497	0.16%
20		465	0.15%
	Other	10,445	3.45%

Country of birth

Coventry's population is 27.9% foreign born as of 2021.

Religion

The following table shows the religion of respondents in the 2001 and 2011 censuses in Coventry.

Religion	2001^[16]		2011^[17]		2021^[18]
Religion	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%
Christian	196,346	65.26%	170,090	53.66%	151,577	43.9%
Buddhist	784	0.26%	1,067	0.34%	1,257	0.4%
Hindu	7,757	2.58%	11,152	3.52%	13,724	4.0%
Jewish	222	0.07%	210	0.07%	259	0.1%
Muslim	11,686	3.88%	23,665	7.47%	35,800	10.4%
Sikh	13,960	4.64%	15,912	5.02%	17,297	5.0%
Other religion	733	0.24%	1,641	0.52%	1,908	0.6%
No religion	45,314	15.06%	72,896	23.00%	102,338	29.6%
Religion not stated	24,046	7.99%	20,327	6.41%	21,166	6.1%
Total	300,848	100.00%	316,960	100.00%	345,326	100%