What is the 2021 Census ward-level ethnic breakdown for Liverpool city?
Executive summary
The 2021 Census shows Liverpool remains majority White but with clear inner‑city concentrations of ethnic diversity; headline city‑level figures report 84.0% of residents in the broad "White" category and 77.3% identifying as White British (or 77% on the city council summary), while ward‑level breakdowns are published by ONS/Nomis and Liverpool Council but are not included in the material provided here [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. What the city figures say — two compatible snapshots
ONS‑derived visualisations for Liverpool list 84.0% of people in 2021 as identifying within the broad "White" category and record increases in Asian and Black category shares compared with 2011, while more granular tabulations and council summaries emphasise a White British share near 77% — differences reflect whether "White" is reported as an aggregated group or broken into subgroups such as White British, Other White and White Irish [1] [2] [3].
2. Ward data exists — but it is not in the supplied extracts
Liverpool City Council has committed to publishing ward profiles showing results for the 64 Liverpool wards and the ONS/Nomis service hosts Census 2021 ward‑level tables, meaning a full ward‑by‑ward ethnic breakdown is publicly available; however, the material included in this briefing does not contain the ward‑level numbers themselves, so a complete list of percentages by ward cannot be reproduced from the supplied sources [4] [5] [6].
3. Where diversity is concentrated within the city
Reporting and historical census visualisations consistently show non‑White communities concentrated in inner‑city wards — Toxteth, Granby/Princes Park and central neighbourhoods feature prominently in descriptions of Liverpool’s ethnic geography — a pattern repeated in multiple local summaries that tie higher ethnic diversity to inner‑city wards [7] [2].
4. Why headline percentages vary and what that means for ward analysis
Apparent contradictions — for example the council headline noting 77% White English/Welsh/Scottish/Northern Irish/British while ONS visuals say 84% White overall — are methodological, not political: one figure is the aggregated "White" category, the other isolates White British; any ward‑level analysis must be read the same way (i.e., decide whether to map aggregated White vs subgroups) and note that the census is a snapshot from March 2021 and will not reflect changes since [1] [3] [8].
5. How to obtain the ward‑level ethnic breakdown and interpret it
For a verbatim ward‑by‑ward table scholars and practitioners should query ONS/Nomis area profiles or Liverpool Council’s interactive ward reports (both sources host the 64 ward profiles derived from the 2021 Census), being mindful to download the specific ethnicity table (ONS 19+1 or 18+1 formats) to preserve subgroup definitions and to check if figures are given as counts or percentages before comparing wards [5] [4] [9].
6. Caveats, alternative readings and hidden framing to watch for
Local authorities and commentators sometimes foreground particular aggregates to make policy points — highlighting White British decline or emphasising an overall White majority can be used to advance different narratives — and users should recognise that ward patterns correlate with deprivation and age structure, meaning ethnicity intersects with socioeconomic geography rather than being evenly distributed across the city [2] [8].