City of Bradford - Demographics

Demographics

As of the 2001 UK census, the City of Bradford had a population of 467,665. Of the 180,246 households in Bradford, 36.5% were married couples living together, 28% were one-person households, 10.8% were lone parents and 8.4% were co-habiting couples, following a similar trend to the rest of England. The population density was 1,290 inhabitants per square kilometre (3,341/sq mi) and for every 100 females, there were 92.8 males. Of those aged 16–74, 24.5% had no academic qualifications, lower than the 28.9% in all of England. 11.8% of Bradford residents were born outside the United Kingdom, higher than the England average of 9.2%.

In 2006, it was estimated that 74.9% of the city's population was White (72.2% White British, 0.7% White Irish and 2.1% as Other White), 2.9% Mixed Race, 20.5% Asian or Asian British, 1.6% Black and 0.6% from other races. 16.8% of the population are of South Asian origin, this being part of the 20.5% figure given above, representing the third highest proportion in England and Wales. Nearly half of all Asians living in Yorkshire and the Humber live in Bradford, with one district, Frizinghall, having the highest concentration of Pakistanis in England and Wales, making up 73% of the local population. Accordingly, 60.14 of the population of the city identified themselves as Christian in the 2001 census, 16.08 were Muslim, 1.02% Sikhs, 0.95% Hindus and 13.3% were identified as having no religion. The percentage of Jews, Buddhists and those following other religions each amounted to fewer than 0.5% of the city's population.

The ONS Regional Trends report, published in June 2009, showed that most of the urban core and 41% of the district as a whole were among the most deprived in the country, it also showed that 11% of the district as a whole were among the least deprived in the country. Bradford has one of the highest unemployment rates in England, with the economic inactivity rates of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups standing at over 50% of the working age population.

The crime rate in Bradford is significantly higher than the national average, but lower than that of similar cities such as Manchester or Leeds. In July 2006, the think tank Reform calculated rates of crime for different offences, relating this to populations of major urban areas (defined as towns over 100,000 population). The study ranked Bradford as the second most dangerous city in England and Wales with 98.3 serious offences per 1,000 population, behind Nottingham. The city was shown to have the highest level of gun violence in the country with 12.53 crimes per 10,000 residents, followed by Leeds (12.45) and Northampton (10.24), and was amongst the top 5 for incidents of burglary, rape, assault and vehicle crime.