Bradford has more Pakistani residents than any other place in England and Wales, new census data reveals.

Twenty per cent of people in the district – a total of 107,000 people – identified themselves as an Asian or British Asian of Pakistani descent, according to figures released yesterday by the Office for National Statistics.

This compares to two per cent nationally.

The number of people classing their ethnicity as Pakistani has risen by six per cent in the past ten years – the biggest rise in the country.

And eight per cent of Bradford’s population was born in Pakistan.

Three per cent of people in Bradford gave their ethnicity as Indian, two per cent as Bangladeshi and another two per cent gave other Asian ethnicities, meaning Asian people account for 27 per cent of Bradford’s population.

The latest release of information gathered in last year’s census paints a picture of our district’s changing ethnic and religious make-up.

A quarter (25 per cent) of people in Bradford are now Muslim, the fourth highest proportion of Muslims in England and Wales.

Christians make up 46 per cent of the district’s population, while one in five (21 per cent) said they were not religious.

Six per cent of people chose not to answer the optional question about which religion they followed, and more than 1,000 people (0.2 per cent) said they were Jedi Knights – the fictional religion featured in the Star Wars films.

Bradford also has the youngest population in Yorkshire and the Humber.

The average age of people in our district was 34, compared to the regional average of 39. Craven reported the oldest residents, with an average age of 47.

In Bradford, 17 per cent of people said they had a long term health problem or disability which limited their day-to-day activities. One in ten said they provided unpaid care for someone with an illness or disability.

The government uses the census statistics to allocate funding for services such as education, transport and health.

Coun David Green, leader of Bradford Council, said: “The Census results are very important because they are used to plan, commission and deliver services such as transport, housing, healthcare and education.

“The amount of funding many public authorities, including Bradford Council, receive from central government is also underpinned by Census population estimates.

“It will take some time to digest the information and to work out how to integrate the implications of the statistics into our planning for future services.”

Guy Goodwin, director of the census, said: “These statistics help us all plan for the future using accurate information at a local level.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg of census statistics. Further rich layers of vital information will be revealed as we publish more detailed data for very local levels over the coming months.”