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.

A subsequent meeting was held between a number of officers from Cornwall Council / Cllr Dick Cole and representatives from the ONS to discuss 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.” It did not include individuals who wrote Cornish and another UK identity.

These figures have just been released to provide a fuller statistical picture.

The initial press release stated that 99,754 people had described themselves as Cornwall-only or Cornish & British. The data 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

They have today issued figures (rounded up to the nearest five) that show a further 9,105 people identified as Cornish (with at least one other UK identity – English / Welsh / Scottish / Northern Ireland). Of these 7,405 are resident in Cornwall.

The present totals issued by the ONS state that 108,860 wrote-in Cornish on the census, of which 96,380 are resident in Cornwall. This means that 17% of residents in Cornwall recorded their nationality as Cornish.

Commenting on behalf of MK, Party Leader Cllr Dick Cole said:

“I am heartened that 108,860 people made the conscious decision to write-in Cornish on the 2021 census – this is a powerful statement of the strength of our national identity.

“This nonetheless represents a massive undercount of Cornish people, because we were denied a tick-box by the ONS and the UK Government.

“This must strengthen our resolve to press the ONS to include a Cornish tick-box in the next census and, more immediately, to challenge all Government departments and agencies to include ‘Cornish’ as an identity option on all official forms.”