Census sheds light on city's women

The census survey – taken in March 2021 – shows that, of the 274,171 people in Sunderland, 141,078 are women and account for 51.5% of the city's population.

It also shows that women made up 59.7% of unpaid carers in the area - looking after someone because of long-term physical or mental health conditions and old age without compensation.

This is similar to the trend across England and Wales where there are approximately 2.8 million female unpaid carers and approximately 1.9 million male unpaid carers.

Additionally, women in Sunderland were more likely to have a disability than men – with 24% stating they were disabled in the census, compared to 22.1% of men.

The survey also highlighted women in the area were more likely than men to identify with a sexuality other than heterosexual – with 3,355 women (2.9%)

identifying as lesbian, gay or bisexual compared to 2,470 men (2.3%).

The data also shows 94.9% of women in the area identified as white, 0.9% as black, 2.9% as Asian, 0.9% as mixed and 0.4% as another ethnicity.

The data came in the week of International Women's Day and women's rights charity The Fawcett Society says more concerted action is needed to tackle gender inequality.

The charity’s chief executive, Jemima Olchawski, said: "This Government must urgently reform the childcare system so that it is affordable, accessible, and works for women and employers must make flexible work the default position.”