Metropolitan Borough of Oldham - Demography

Demography

Further information: Demography of Greater Manchester

Oldham compared
2001 UK Census	Oldham	Greater Manchester	England
Total population	217,273	2,514,754	49,138,831
White British	86.1%	91.2%	90.9%
Asian	11.9%	5.6%	4.6%
Mixed	1.1%	1.3%	1.3%
Black	0.6%	1.2%	2.3%
Chinese and other	0.3%	0.8%	0.9%

As of the 2001 UK census, the borough of Oldham had a population of 217,273. Of the 87,824 households in Oldham, 36.8% were married couples living together, 29.5% were one-person households, 8.9% were co-habiting couples and 11.5% were lone parents. These figures were broadly in line with national averages, although the proportion of lone parent households was above the national average of 9.5%.

The population density was 1,526 /km2 (3,950 /sq mi) and for every 100 females, there were 93.6 males. Of those aged 16–74 in Oldham, 37.7% had no academic qualifications, significantly higher than 28.9% in all of England. The proportion of Oldham's residents born outside of the United Kingdom was below the national average (8.1% compared to 9.2%) The largest minority group was recorded as Asian, at 11.9% of the population.

The rise of the middle classes in Oldham has reflected the wider national trend, roughly steady from 1841 until 1921 and then increasing almost exponentially until 2001. However, the proportion of middle-class people was always 5–10% below the national average. Over the same period, the proportion of working class people in Oldham decreased steadily from 60% in 1841 to 23% 1991; since then there has been an increase in the percentage of working-class people to 34%. This was roughly the same pattern as the national averages, however Oldham has a greater proportion of working-class people than the whole of England. As of the 2007/2008 financial year, the crime rates in Oldham were broadly similar to the national averages. However, the number of theft from a vehicle offences and theft of a vehicle per 1,000 of the population was 10.6 and 4.5 compared to the English national average of 6.9 and 2.7 respectively.