2. Bradford Data Review: The people of Bradford

Bradford has a unique and highly diverse profile. This is crucial to understand for arts organisations looking to generate social and cultural impact in the community. The data provided can be used by arts organisations to think about where and with whom they might want to work to make the biggest difference, and also to support funding bids and to align their organisational goals and impact plans.

This data has been collated from multiple sources.

Bradford district has 546,400+ residents, making it England’s fifth largest metropolitan authority by
Population. This reflects a 4.6% growth since 2011. The gender split is 49% male, 51% female. It ranks fifth in the UK for local government population, after Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, and Manchester.

Much of the data in this section comes from the 2021 Census, carried out by the Office for National Statistics.

Key headlines include:

• Bradford is the fifth largest metropolitan authority in England, with a population of 545,600.
• Life expectancy is 77.3 for men and 81.5 for women, considerably less than the current UK average of 87.3 years for males and 90.2 years for females.
• There are 199,296 households in the Bradford district. Most households own their own home (29.3% outright and 35.7% with a mortgage). The percentage of privately rented households is 18.1%. 29.6% of households were single-person households.
• The district has an ethnically diverse population, with a large South Asian community, including people of Pakistani, Indian and Bangladeshi descent. Other ethnic groups in Bradford include White British, Black Caribbean, and Black African.
• The population of Bradford is young, with a median age of 36 years, compared with a median age of 40 years for England.
• The district has a higher than average proportion of people with disabilities, and a lower than average level of educational attainment compared to the rest of England.

Next: Diversity