Demographics
The Essex County Standard of September 4, 2009 said that "Government estimates" made Colchester the largest borough in the county: its officially acknowledged population is second highest among non-London boroughs, behind Northampton.
According to the Office for National Statistics as of 2008, Colchester had a population of approximately 181,000. Average life expectancy was 78.7 for males. and 83.3 for females.
Based on ethnic groups, predominantly of 92.1% of the population is White (86.9% British, 0.7% Irish and 4.5 other), Asians were the second largest making up 2.5% (1.1% Indian, 0.3% Pakistani and 0.3% Bangladeshi, other 0.8%), Blacks constituted 1.5% (0.4% Caribbean, 0.9% African, 0.1% other), those of mixed race made up 1.7% and the remaining were Chinese and other ethnic groups (2.2%).
In the 2001 census, 71.6% identified themselves as Christian, while 18.5% had no affiliation to a religion. Of other religions, 0.8% identified as Muslim, 0.5% Hindu, 0.4% Buddhist, 0.2 Jewish, 0.4% others, and 7.8% did not answer. There are more than 100 churches located in Colchester: other religious places of worship include the Colchester Islamic Cultural Association and the Jewish Community Synagogue.
Read more about this topic: Borough Of Colchester