Demography
People from Worthing are known as Worthingites.
According to the Office of National Statistics, Worthing's population increased to an estimated 100,200 in 2008. Worthing is the most densely populated local authority area in East and West Sussex, with a population density in 2001 of 30.04 people per hectare. Worthing underwent dramatic population growth both in the early 19th century as the hamlet had newly become a town and again in the 1880s. The town experienced further growth in the 1930s, and again when new estates were built, using prisoner of war labour, to the west of the town from 1948. The main driver of population growth in Worthing during the 1990s and first decade of the 21st century has been in-migration into Worthing; in particular Worthing is the most popular destination for people moving from the nearby city of Brighton and Hove, with significant numbers also moving to the borough from London.
| Year | 1801 | 1811 | 1821 | 1831 | 1841 | 1851 | 1861 | 1871 | 1881 | 1891 | 1901 | 1911 | 1921 | 1931 | 1939 | 1951 | 1961 | 1971 | 1981 | 1991 | 2001 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 2,151 | 3,824 | 4,922 | 5,654 | 6,856 | 7,615 | 9,744 | 11,873 | 14,002 | 19,177 | 24,479 | 31,301 | 37,906 | 45,905 | 55,584 | 67,305 | 77,155 | 88,467 | 90,686 | 98,066 | 97,540 |
| Source: A Vision of Britain through Time | |||||||||||||||||||||
According to the UK Government's 2001 census, Worthing is overwhelmingly populated by people of a white British ethnic background at 97.2% – significantly higher than the national average of 90.9%. Other ethnic groups in the district, in order of population size, are multiracial at 0.9%, Asian at 0.9% and black at 0.3% (the national averages are 1.3%, 4.6% and 2.1%, respectively). Worthing is the most ethnically diverse local authority area, (from a low overall base population) within the coastal districts of West Sussex (i.e. Chichester, Arun, Worthing and Adur) with a black and ethnic minority population equating to 4.6% of the total population.
Worthing has a younger population than the other three districts of coastal West Sussex, albeit older than the South East average. In 2006, 26.7% of the population were between 25 and 44 years old, which is a higher proportion compared to the other districts in the coastal West Sussex area. Over the last 20 years, Worthing has seen the sharpest decline in its population aged 65 years or more with its proportion of the total population falling by 8.1% (7,000 in real terms), at a time when this age group has actually grown across the South East region and elsewhere. In contrast there have been comparatively significant increases in older families (4.5%) and family makers (4.3%) within the borough. In 2010 the estimated median age of the population of Worthing was 42.8 years, 3.2 years older than the average for the UK of 39.6 years.
According to the 2001 United Kingdom Census, 97,568 people lived in the borough of Worthing. Of these, 72.14% identified themselves as Christian, 0.75% were Muslim, 0.34% were Buddhist, 0.26% were Jewish, 0.22% were Hindu, 0.11% were Sikh, 0.46% followed another religion, 16.99% claimed no religious affiliation and 8.73% did not state their religion. The proportion of Christians was slightly higher than the 71.74% in England as a whole; Buddhism and other religions were also practised more widely in Worthing than nationally. Islam, Hinduism, Judaism and Sikhism had significantly fewer followers than average: in 2001, 3.1% of people in England were Muslim, 1.1% were Hindu, 0.7% were Sikh and 0.5% were Jewish. The proportion of people with no religious affiliation was much higher than the national figure of 14.59%.
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