Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many households in (1) Greater London, and (2) the United Kingdom, had a household reference person born (a) in the United Kingdom, and (b) outside the United Kingdom, in 2010 and 2025.
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
Please see the letter attached from the Permanent Secretary for the Office for National Statistics.
Lord Green of Deddington
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
29 June 2026
Dear Lord Green,
As Permanent Secretary of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking how many households in (1) Greater London, and (2) the United Kingdom, had a household reference person born (a) in the United Kingdom, and (b) outside the United Kingdom, in 2010 and 2025 (HL1157).
The information is derived from census data and is therefore available for 2011 and 2021.
However, there is no single UK-wide census dataset. The census is conducted separately by the statistical agencies for England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, and outputs are published independently.
As a result, the data presented here relates to England and Wales only (with London shown separately), rather than the UK as a whole.
Table 1 below shows the number of households with a Household Reference Person (HRP) born in and outside of the UK for London and for England and Wales. The figures for London include all 32 boroughs and the City of London. For the 2011 Census, the data was not available as part of the standard outputs. As a result, it was produced separately through our commissioned tables service. The 2011 dataset is from 2011 Census commissioned table CT0237.
The 2021 Census data in table 1 below was obtained using the ONS’s ‘Create a custom dataset’ tool. We will place a copy of this dataset, HL1157 2021 Census custom dataset, HRP England and Wales & London, in the House of Commons Library.
Yours sincerely,
Darren Tierney
Table 1: The number of households with a Household Reference Person (HRP) born in and outside of the UK in London and in England and Wales
Households | 2011 | 2021 |
HRP born in UK (London) | 1,880,514 | 1,760,641 |
HRP born outside UK (London) | 1,385,659 | 1,663,249 |
HRP born in UK (England and Wales) | 19,987,889 | 20,281,288 |
HRP born outside UK (England and Wales | 3,378,155 | 4,501,911 |
Sources: ONS, 2011 Census Commissioned table CT0237 and ONS, HL1157 2021 Census custom dataset, HRP England and Wales & London