Population estimates in the West Midlands

The Office for National Statistics released the 2007 mid year population estimates and 2006 mid year population estimates by ethnic group at Government Office Region level and down to Local Authority District level last week.

Data for the total population is available by five year age bands and broad age group (children, working age, and older people), and can also be split by sex. The ethnicity data can only be split by sex and broad age group.

This data has been incorporated into our 2008 State of the Region demographic dataset (XLS, 2.9MB) and the mid year estimates InstantAtlas maps by region and local authority.

Headline figures for the West Midlands show that in line with national trends the working age population has increased by 3,000, whereas the number of children has decreased by 6,000 since 2006.

Information on the methodology used to calculate the estimates is available from Making a population estimate in England and Wales and Population Estimates by Ethnic Group Methodology Paper (PDF, 447KB) on the ONS website.  There is an ongoing programme of work to improve ONS’ population and migration estimates. Information on IMPS is available from the ONS website.