Demography
The United Kingdom Census 2001 reported a resident population for Sheffield of 513,234, a 1.9% decline from the 1991 census. The city is part of the wider Sheffield Urban Area, which had a population of 640,720. The racial composition of Sheffield's population was 91.2% White, 4.6% Asian, 1.8% Black, and 1.6% Mixed. In terms of religion, 68.6% of the population are Christian and 4.6% Muslim. Other religions represent less than 1% each. The number of people without a religion is above the national average at 17.9%, with 7.8% not stating their religion. The largest quinary group is 20- to 24-year-olds (9.4%), mainly because of the large university student population.
| Sheffield Compared | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| UK Census 2001 | Sheffield | South Yorkshire | England |
| Total population | 513,234 | 1,266,338 | 49,138,831 |
| Foreign born | 6.4% | 8.9% | 9.2% |
| White | 91% | 95% | 91% |
| Asian | 4.6% | 2.6% | 4.6% |
| Black | 1.8% | 0.9% | 2.3% |
| Christian | 69% | 75% | 72% |
| Muslim | 4.6% | 2.5% | 3.1% |
| Hindu | 0.3% | 0.2% | 1.1% |
| No religion | 18% | 14% | 15% |
| Over 75 years old | 8.0% | 7.6% | 7.5% |
| Unemployed | 4.2% | 4.1% | 3.3% |
| Population Change | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
| 1801 | 60,095 | — |
| 1821 | 84,540 | +40.7% |
| 1841 | 134,599 | +59.2% |
| 1861 | 219,634 | +63.2% |
| 1881 | 335,953 | +53.0% |
| 1901 | 451,195 | +34.3% |
| 1921 | 543,336 | +20.4% |
| 1941 | 569,884 | +4.9% |
| 1951 | 577,050 | +1.3% |
| 1961 | 574,915 | −0.4% |
| 1971 | 572,794 | −0.4% |
| 1981 | 530,844 | −7.3% |
| 1991 | 528,708 | −0.4% |
| 2001 | 513,234 | −2.9% |
| 2007 (Est.) | 530,300 | +3.3% |
The population of Sheffield peaked in 1951 at 577,050, and has since declined steadily. However, the mid-2007 population estimate was 530,300—representing an increase of about 17,000 residents since 2001.
Although a city, Sheffield is informally known as "the largest village in England", because of a combination of topographical isolation and demographic stability. It is the largest city in the U.K. that does not form the basis of a conurbation., and is relatively geographically isolated, being cut off from other places by a ring of hills. (Local folklore insists that, like Rome, Sheffield was built "on seven hills".) The land surrounding Sheffield was unsuitable for industrial use, and now includes several protected green belt areas. These topographical factors have served to restrict urban spread, resulting in a relatively stable population size and a low degree of mobility.
In 1956, Hunt stated that "Modern Sheffield, a flourishing industrial city with over half a million inhabitants and a world-wide reputation, still retains many of the essential characteristics of the small market town of about five thousand people from which it has grown in the space of two and a half centuries." A 1970 survey has supported Hunt's characterisation, with more Sheffield residents able to identify a "home area" within the city than people from other large county boroughs were, and greatly more Sheffield residents expressing an unwillingness to leave their city than people from other large county boroughs did. This latter unwillingness was noted, by the survey analysis, as far more characteristic of the response that would be obtained by surveying a "a small urban or rural authority rather than a large county borough".
Sidney Pollard's analysis of the 1851 Census data caused him to describe Sheffield as "the most proletarian city in England" at the time, it having more people per 100,000 employed in manufacturing occupations (187.6 for Sheffield, as compared to 146.1 for Leeds) and fewer people per 100,000 employed in professional occupations (41 for Sheffield, as compared to 65.8 for Birmingham, and 43.1 for Leeds). He attributed this to the cutlery trade in the city, which was organised not on polarised Capital-versus-Labour lines, but as a complex network of contracts between cutlery workshops, craftsmen, and merchants, whose positive influence on community cohesion and equality lasted through the rise of the steel industry in the city later in the 19th century. Even by 1981, social polarisation (as defined by the Census and Registrar-General) in Sheffield was far lower than in many other cities, with only 4.1% of the population having professional occupations, as opposed to 62.1% classified as skilled or unskilled manual labourers.
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