On Tuesday 29th November, the Office of National Statistics issued a press release, which stated that “just under 100,000 people” identified as Cornish on the 2021 Census. Unfortunately, the press release included a number of errors and the published figures did not include everyone who wrote-in Cornish on their census forms.

MK leader Cllr Dick Cole has issued the following update:

Earlier today, a number of officers from Cornwall Council and I met with representatives from the Office of National Statistics to discuss our concerns about the press release.

It has been confirmed that the figures issued by the ONS were restricted to individuals who described themselves as “Cornish” or “Cornish & British.” The overall Cornish figure, as published, is 99,754 – of which 88,970 are residents of Cornwall. It can be broken down as follows:

Cornish-only in Cornwall: 79,938 

Cornish & British in Cornwall: 9,032

Cornish-only in England & Wales: 9,146 

Cornish & British in England & Wales: 1,638

However, the press release did not include figures for those individuals who had recorded their Cornish identity with other identities. It should be noted that, in the 2011 census, 17,782 people marked their Cornishness in tandem with an English, Welsh, Scottish or Northern Ireland identity.

In 2011, the figures for Cornwall, England and Wales were as follows:

Cornish only: 59,456

Cornish and British: 6,261

Cornish and at least one of English/Welsh/Scottish/Northern Ireland identities (with or without British): 17,782

Total Cornish: 83,499

At today’s meeting, it was agreed that the published figures for Cornish were incomplete, though some “sense-checking” concluded that the additional “mixed identities” would likely be less than in 2011. For example, I can confirm that for the 2021 Census, in Cornwall, 8,084 people are recorded as “UK identity: Any other combination of UK identities (UK only)” while 4,727 people are recorded as “UK identity: Other identity and at least one UK identity.” It is anticipated that a significant proportion of these individuals included a Cornish identity in their responses.

Cornwall Council has requested that the ONS publish additional information to show the full extent of Cornish responses, which we hope will happen in the near-future.

Everyone knows my view about the fact the ONS and UK Government refused a tick-box, and it is a reality that this means there will be a massive under-count of Cornish people. But it remains a very powerful statement of Cornish identity that over 100,000 people consciously wrote-in Cornish on the census forms.

The campaign for Cornish tick-boxes on all official monitoring forms continues.