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Demographics of Cornwall

demographics of England

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionOct 3, 2024
Entity authorityQ5256127
Source-derived summary

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England in the United Kingdom. At the 2011 census it had a population of 532,000. Cornwall is the homeland of the Cornish people, and many within Cornwall identify with a Cornish ethnic or national identity, although, due to Cornwall's political status as part of England and the United Kingdom, as well as in-migration from other parts of the UK and EU, additional identities such as English, British, and European may also be adopted.

Ethnicity

In the 2021 census, the following results were given for ethnic identity.

White (Cornish/English/Welsh/Scottish/Northern Irish/British): 93.6%

White (Irish): 0.4%

White (Gypsy or Irish Traveller): 0.1%

White (Roma): 0.1%

White (Other White): 2.6%

Mixed (White and Black Caribbean): 0.3%

Mixed (White and Black African): 0.2%

Mixed (White and Asian): 0.4%

Mixed (Other Mixed): 0.3%

Asian/Asian British (Indian): 0.1%

Asian/Asian British (Pakistani): 0.0%

Asian/Asian British (Bangladeshi): 0.1%

Asian/Asian British (Chinese): 0.2%

Asian/Asian British (Other Asian): 0.3%

Black/African/Caribbean/Black British (African): 0.1%

Black/African/Caribbean/Black British (Caribbean): 0.1%

Black/African/Caribbean/Black British (Other Black): 0.0%

Other (Arab): 0.1%

Other (Other): 1.0%

National identity

In the 2011 census, the following results were given for national identity. "Cornish" was not provided as a tickbox on the census form, which it has been argued results in an undercount of Cornish national identity, although it was allocated a separate category in the results.

Cornish identity

Overall, most people in Cornwall identify as having no Cornish identity.

Some form of Cornish identity: 13.8%

Cornish only identity: 9.9%

Cornish and British only identity: 1.0%

Cornish and English/Welsh/Scottish/Northern Irish identities: 2.9%

No Cornish identity: 86.2%

Country of birth

In the 2011 census, the following results were given for country of birth:

United Kingdom: 95.6%

England: 92.7%

Wales: 1.4%

Scotland: 1.2%

Northern Ireland: 0.3%

United Kingdom not otherwise specified: 0.0%

Ireland: 0.3%

Other EU countries: 1.8%

EU member states in March 2001: 1.0%

EU accession states April 2001 to March 2011: 0.8%

Other: 2.4%

Household language

In the 2011 census, the following results were given for household languages other than English:

At least one person in the household have English as their main language: 2360

No people in household have English as their main language: 2155

Overall, 98% of people in Cornwall aged 16 or over have English as their main language.

Religion

Cornwall has the 4th-highest proportion of people who say they are pagan in England and Wales.

In the 2021 census, the following results were given for religion:

No religion: 46.3%

Christian: 45.4%

Religion not stated: 6.7%

Other religion: 0.8%

Buddhist: 0.4%

Muslim: 0.2%

Hindu: 0.1%

Jewish: 0.1%

Sikh: <0.1%

Among those with 'Other religion', the following results were given:

Pagan/Wicca/Heathen/Druid: 49.1%

Other: 25.5%

Spiritualist/Spiritual: 21.5%

Mixed Religion: 2.5%

Satanism: 1.4%

Results combined into 'other' include Humanist, Spiritual, Wicca, Taoist, Druid, Rastafarian, Pantheneismm Baha’i, own belief system, believe in God, Satanism, Witchcraft, Heathen, Animism, Shamanism, Scientology, Universalist, Deist, Theism, New Age, Shinto, Zoroastrian, Occult, Eckankar, Mysticism, Traditional African Religion, Ravidassia, Church of all religion, reconstructionist, Thelemite, Vodun, Confucianist, Jain, Native American Church, Unification Church, Brhama Kumari, Chinese Religion and Druze.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Demographics of Cornwall” is demographics of England. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Demographics, Cornwall and demographics, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2011, 2021, 2001—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Demographics, Cornwall and demographics is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “demographics of England” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 3, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q5256127. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2011, 2021 and 2001.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  2. Expand the search: follow Demographics of Cornwall primary sources, Demographics of Cornwall archive and Demographics research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Demographics of Cornwall” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.