The population of the United Kingdom grew steadily over the last decade to stand at 58,789,194 on Census Day 2001. This is an increase of 2.4 per cent (just under 1.5 million people) since 1991.



Ethnicity:

While 87 per cent of the population of England and 96 per cent of the population of Wales gave their ethnic origin as White British, the ethnic population of Britain has risen from 6 to 9 per cent over the last ten years.



And two areas of Britain have more blacks and Asians than white people for the first time ever: in Newham, east London, 39.4 of people are white, and in Brent, north west London, 45.3 per cent are white.



Religion:

A new question examining religion revealed 73 per cent of England and Wales to be Christian, 3 per cent are Muslim. England and Wales now has a Muslim population of more than 1.5m, making it the largest faith after Christianity.



And 0.7 per cent of the population declared themselves to be 'Jedi Knights', the aspiring Luke Skywalkers outnumbering both Jewish and Sikh respondents. Sorry to disappoint those who thought it would become a new religion - the Office for National Statistics caught on to this ruse some time ago.



Family life:

The number married couples living together has fallen by 10 per cent. In 1991, 55 per cent of homes were lived in by a husband and wife, but this figure had dropped to 45 per cent in 2001.



There are regional differences though: in some places such as East Dorset and South Staffordshire the proportion of married couples approaches six in ten households, but in much of inner London it is now less than one in four.



This might in part be explained by the fact that ten percent of people are now cohabiting. In 1991 only 5 per cent were.



Numbers of divorced people were 26.3 per cent in 1991 -that's up to 30.1 per cent ten years later.



There's been an identical rise in the number of single people: 26.3 per cent in 1991 were without partners - in 2001 30.1 per cent were single.



Work:

Women remain "clustered" in low paid occupations and are more likely to work part-time, while men tend to work long hours in jobs that pay more.



Health:

Those in England and Wales who said they were in good health in 2001 made up just 9.2 per cent. At the other end of the scale, Wales and the North East of England came out with around 12 per cent reporting poor health.



Housing:

Despite the frenzy over housing prices, the number of home owners has changed very little in ten years. In 2001 68.2% owned their own home, in 1991 it was 67.6 per cent.