The Surrey Context: Demographics

Overview of Surrey’s population

Understanding the population of Surrey, including the trends seen in demographics and the differences within the population, is key to ensuring the needs of communities are met.

Please follow this link to the Surrey population data visualisations relevant to this section of this chapter, these dashboards are also embedded below.

Population estimates

Please follow the link or explore the ‘Current population estimates’ page of the Surrey population tableau dashboard below.

At the last census the population of Surrey was 1,203,100 (2021).

The dashboard shows that the largest local authorities by population are Reigate and Banstead (150,849) and Guildford (143,645), and the smallest is Epsom and Ewell (80,921). Further population projections can be found on Surrey-i.

Surrey Heartlands ICS has a population of 1,056,346, and Frimley ICS has a population of 764,349 (this includes people who are residents of other counties). Population estimates for ICS’s are based on residents of the relevant geographical area/s and will be different from the population of registered patients.

Age

Within Surrey’s population, people aged 45 to 49 and 50 to 54 years old are the two largest five-year cohorts.

Surrey’s population is broadly similar to England, with a slightly greater proportion of 5 to 19 year-olds, a much smaller proportion of 20 to 34 year-olds and a greater proportion of the population aged 40 to 59 years old than in England. This results in an older working-age population in Surrey, which has implications for the workforce and for population health and care needs. The lower proportion of 20 to 34 year-olds is seen for both males and females and likely reflects a greater proportion of children and parents/ carers in Surrey than other areas in England.

Of Surrey’s population:

• 5.5% (65,635) are 0 to 4 year-olds, ranging from 4.6% in Mole Valley to 6.0% in Woking, Reigate and Banstead, and Elmbridge

• 14.9% (179,567) are 5 to 16 year-olds, ranging from 13% in Runnymede to 16.9% in Elmbridge

• 8.7% (104,328) are 17 to 24 year-olds, ranging from 6.4% in Elmbridge to 14.4% in Guildford

• 52.1% (626,392) are 25 to 64 year-olds, ranging from 49.7% in Waverley to 54.6% in Woking

• 18.9% (227,188) are 65 years and over, ranging from 16.6% in Woking to 23.8% in Mole Valley

Population projections

Please follow the link or explore the ‘population projections’ page of the Surrey population tableau dashboard below.

2018 predictions estimate the population in Surrey will increase from 1,189,934 in 2018 to 1,227,467 in 2043. This prediction suggests the older population will increase, but also that the proportion of the population across age groups between 0 and 74 years old will become more similar. The increase in the population groups aged 45 and over in Surrey is likely to impact more on health and social care services due to increased risks of developing long term conditions and other needs.

Religion, languages spoken and ethnicity in Surrey

Please follow the link or explore the ‘Religion, language and ethnicity’ page of the Surrey population tableau dashboard below. The dashboard also allows users to explore the data for health-based geographies including PCNs, place-based partnerships, ICS.

Religion

The majority (50.1%) of the population in Surrey reported their religion as Christianity, which is higher than the proportion in England (46.3%). Over one third of the population (36.6%) reported no religion, which is similar to the national picture. Islam (3.2%) and Hinduism (2.0%) were the next most common religions in Surrey. Data collection about religion was declined in 6.3% of the population.

Religion and beliefs can influence attitudes towards medicine and health care there can also be concerns about discrimination that affect trust about how people of different religions and beliefs would be treated in different health care settings.

Main language and proficiency in English

The majority (93.1%) of Surrey residents speak English as their first language, this ranges from 96.9% in Tandridge to 88.8% in Woking.

Language is also very important in communicating health information, and may be a barrier to understanding, in populations where proficiency in English is not as high as others.

In the 2021 Census, nearly 80,799 Surrey residents reported that they speak a language other than English as their main language. The most common other languages spoken in Surrey were Polish (7,871 speakers) and Romanian (6,239 speakers). Most of those who spoke another main language, reported that they can speak English “well” or “very well”, but 8,505 people cannot speak English well and a further 1,421 reported that they cannot speak English at all in Surrey.

Further analysis on main language and proficiency in English can be found on Surrey-i.

Ethnicity

The most recent data on ethnicity uses 2021 Census data and can be found on Surrey-i. There are known differences in health outcomes based on ethnicity with those from minority ethnicity communities more likely to experience health inequality.

Surrey is less diverse than England as a whole with 76.6% of the population reporting their ethnic group as white British (English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish or British) compared with 73.5% in England. In the South East, 78.8% were recorded as white British.

A further 107,351 (8.9%) of the Surrey population belonged to other white ethnic groups; ‘Irish’, ‘Gypsy or Irish Traveller’, ‘Roma’ and ‘other white’. A higher proportion of people in Surrey (8.9%) were recorded in other white ethnic groups than in England (7.5%) with fewer in all other ethnic groups (14.5% compared with 19.0%).

The next highest reported ethnicity group was Asian; 7.7% of the Surrey population reported their ethnicity as Asian, within which more detailed ethnicity was reported as ‘Indian’ (2.9%) followed by ‘Pakistani’ (1.5%). Around three percent (3.4%) of the population reported mixed ethnicity and 1.7% reported their ethnicity as black. Surrey has the lowest proportion of black residents compared to the South East region and England.

Using 2021 Census estimates, 174,469 (14.5%) of people in Surrey are from a minority ethnicity group that is not white.

Woking is the most ethnically diverse area in Surrey with 32.7% of its population from minority ethnic groups including white minority groups. Waverley is the least diverse with 86.8% reporting their ethnicity as white English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish or British.

Spelthorne has the highest proportion of people from Indian ethnic groups (7.3%) and Woking has the highest proportion of people from Pakistani ethnic groups (7.0%).

Further detail on ethnicity of the population of Surrey is provided in the Overview of People section of this chapter.