Wiltshire (district)

Wiltshire is a unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of Wiltshire, South West England. It was formed on 1 April 2009 following the abolition of Wiltshire County Council and the districts of Kennet, North Wiltshire, Salisbury, and West Wiltshire, all of which were replaced by Wiltshire Council, which is based at County Hall in Trowbridge. The remaining part of the ceremonial county is the Borough of Swindon, administered by a separate unitary authority. In 2024, the population was 523,700.

Salisbury, the district's only city, is its largest settlement, followed by Chippenham and Trowbridge.

History

Until 2009, Wiltshire had four districts – Kennet, North Wiltshire, Salisbury, and West Wiltshire – together with the Borough of Swindon, which had been made a separate unitary authority in 1997. Proposals were made to abolish the four districts and form a unitary area covering the whole of the county outside the Borough of Swindon. In April 2009, Wiltshire Council assumed the roles and responsibilities of the four former districts.

Main settlements

• Amesbury
• Bradford-on-Avon
• Calne
• Chippenham
• Corsham
• Cricklade
• Devizes
• Larkhill
• Ludgershall
• Malmesbury
• Marlborough
• Melksham
• Mere
• Royal Wootton Bassett
• Salisbury
• Tidworth
• Trowbridge
• Warminster
• Westbury
• Wilton

Demographics

Ethnicity

The population of the ceremonial county of Wiltshire (district) was historically ethnically homogeneous, White British, but is now becoming less homogeneous, with the largest ethnic group, White British, constituting 90.1% of the population in the 2021 census. This proportion has consistently declined in each modern census, down from 96.2% in the 2001 census.

In the 2021 census, the ethnic composition of Wiltshire (district) comprised: 94.3% White, 2.1% Asian, 1.1% Black, 1.7% Mixed, and 0.7% Other.

• White (94.3%): English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish or British (90.1%), Irish (0.5%), Gypsy or Irish Traveller (0.1%), Roma (0.1%), and Other White (3.6%).
• Asian (2.1%): Indian (0.6%), Pakistani (0.1%), Bangladeshi (0.2%), Chinese (0.3%), and Other Asian (1.0%).
• Black (1.1%): African (0.6%), Caribbean (0.3%), and Other Black (0.2%).
• Mixed (1.7%): White and Asian (0.5%), White and Black African (0.2%), White and Black Caribbean (0.5%), and Other Mixed or Multiple ethnic groups (0.5%).
• Other (0.7%): Arab (0.1%) and Any other ethnic group (0.6%).

<small>Note: Sub-group totals may not sum exactly to the group total due to rounding.</small>

<small>Note: The 2001 census figures for 'Asian' and 'Other' have been adjusted to reflect the 2011 reclassification of the Chinese ethnic group from 'Other' to 'Asian' to allow comparison across census years.</small>

Religion

In the 2021 census, the religious composition of Wiltshire (district) comprised: 50.2% Christian, 41.3% No religion, 0.7% Muslim, 0.5% Hindu, 0.5% Buddhist, 0.5% Sikh, 0.1% Jewish, 0.6% Other religion, and 6.0% Not stated.

References