A dramatic decline in English identity – but census organizers say there’s a good reason for it

Number of people in England who identify as English it dropped to 15 percent after census officials dropped that option from the list of choices.

In 2011, when asked “How would you describe your national identity?”, those living in England ranked English first, and British people ranked fifth.

However, for 2021 census, researchers from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reversed the order so that the first option was British, followed by English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish and others. Respondents could choose more than one option.

According to the ONS, this change was the main driver of the dramatic decline in the population share in England. identify as “English only”, with the number dropping from 32 million to 8.6 million over the past decade. This is equivalent to a drop from 60.4 per cent of the English population to 15.3 per cent.

Instead, the proportion of people identifying as “British only” rose from 10.2 million – or 19.2 per cent – to 32.1 million or 57 per cent.

The figures prompted one MP to declare: “We are now in the age of the shy Englishman and woman.”

New order “easier to respond to”

When asked why the order was changed in the multiple-choice questionnaire, the ONS said it was “to make it easier for people to answer”.

“Evidence from testing the questions showed that it would be easier and we’ve seen more people respond that way in our other surveys,” the statistician added.

However, Census form sent to people living in Wales retained the option of a ‘Welsh’ identity at the top of its form for both the 2011 and 2021 censuses.

This could partly explain why the ‘Welsh only’ identity remained about the same at 57.2 per cent in 2011 compared to 55.2 per cent in 2021. Asked why the order of choice was not changed for Welsh respondents, the statistician said : “There is insufficient evidence to recommend a similar change in Wales.”

The ONS said the growing trend for English people to identify as British – as opposed to English – could “partly effect real change” in society. However, he admitted it was “most likely due to changes in question structure”.

‘All negative history fell on the English’

Reacting to the data, Andrew Bridgen, MP for North West Leicestershire, said: “It is a sad fact that describing yourself as English has declined so rapidly, while defining yourself as a member of other nations of our great Union remains popular.

“However, this does not surprise me, because in my opinion, it is completely wrong that all the negative history of our islands is blamed on the English, and their glory is shared under the banner of ‘British’. We are now in the age of shy Englishmen and Englishwomen.”

Mr Bridgen added: “Just because people don’t describe themselves as English on the census doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t identify as English, maybe just privately, that would actually be a great example of English reserve.

“Perhaps a good performance of our national team at the World Cup would reverse this trend? At least until we exit the competition.”

The growing trend for English people to identify themselves as British rather than English has meant that in some areas dramatic changes in local identity have taken place.

In 2011, more than 75 per cent of people living in 12 local authorities, including Castle Point, Hartlepool, Knowsley, Bolsover and North East Derbyshire, identified as ‘English only’.

A decade later, in just three of the 313 local authorities – Castle Point, Tendring and South Staffordshire – more than a quarter of people identified as ‘English’.

Meanwhile, English identity outside of Wales was weakest in parts of London.

Less than one in twenty people in Brent, Newham and Tower Hamlets identify as “English only”.

In contrast, in all these places around 60 per cent of their population identified as British.