Demographic breakdown of West Lancs

West Lancashire is one of 12 districts in Lancashire and stretches from the outskirts of Liverpool to the south of the River Ribble, with Southport to the West and Wigan and Chorley to the east. In 2020, the district had a population of 114,496 and is made up of a number of small towns, villages and rural farmland.

West Lancashire has a diverse population in terms of age and in 2020, 19.4% of the population were under 18; 58.3% were aged 18-64 and 22.3% were aged over 65 years. West Lancashire has a generally ageing population and 2.8% are over 80. The borough has, on average, more of the population of pensionable age than for the North West or English authorities. The borough is also home to Edge Hill University which has more than 13,000 students, most of whom live in the area – the population of Ormskirk has a high level of 18-24 year olds. In the 2011 census, the ethnicity of residents was almost entirely White, at 98.1%. The census reflected very small numbers of residents with other ethnicities: Asian / Asian British at 0.8%; Black / Black Asian at 0.2%; Mixed Race at 0.2% and Other at 0.1%. In the 2011 Census, 76% of residents declared themselves to be Christian, with 17% stating that they do not follow a religion. The remaining 7% of the population have beliefs that include Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, Sikhism and Other.

The gender of the borough is relatively balanced overall with 52% of the population identifying as female. Data on the numbers of our population that are transgender is not available to us but, based on a national estimate of 20 per 100,000 head of population, we might expect to have around 20 residents who were assigned a different gender at birth.

Within West Lancashire, 46.6% of people are married, 34.6% are single, 0.2% are in same sex civil partnerships, 2.7% are separated, 9% are divorced and 6.9% are widowed. 

The 2011 Census showed that more than 20% of West Lancashire residents consider that their day-to-day activities are limited to some extent by a long-term health problem or a disability; this is significantly higher than the national average. Almost 12,000 residents have a hearing impairment and just under 2,000 adults have a visual impairment.  More than 2,000 resident adults have a learning disability.  12% of the population (12,682) are found to have a common mental health disorder including depression and anxiety.

Data on the sexual orientation of the residents of West Lancashire is not currently available. Lesbian, Gay and Bi-sexual estimates at a national level vary from 1.5% to 5% of the population, which would mean between 1,700 and 5,600 residents of our borough are lesbian, gay or bisexual.

Data will be updated when the Census data for 2021 is available to us.