INSIGHTS into the behaviour and beliefs of East Anglians have been provided by the latest Census results. Details of the 2001 Census were published yesterday, completing a £200million project to provide a picture of the lives of Britons.

By Jonathan Barnes

INSIGHTS into the behaviour and beliefs of East Anglians have been provided by the latest Census results.

Details of the 2001 Census were published yesterday, completing a £200million project to provide a picture of the lives of Britons.

The population of Suffolk had risen by 19,500 in the decade since the 1991 Census, to 668,553.

There were 133,813 single people while just over 300,000 of over 16s were married – accounting for 56%.

Just 40% of homes were occupied by married couples and the number of divorcees and separated people was 56,095 – more than 10% of adults.

Seventy-four per cent of the county's population declared themselves as Christians, while 97.3% were white and 93.9% born in the UK.

More than 16% said they followed no religion – above the national figure of about 14%. In Ipswich, one in five people had no religion – the highest in the region.

The county's workforce accounted for about 64% of the population – the national average was 60% -while 15.4% were retired and 4.7% students.

Essex's population had grown by 61,700 people since 1991, and stood at 1,310,835. More than half of over 16s – 55% - were married and more than 40% of homes were married couple households.

Employment levels were similar to Suffolk, with 74% of all people also Christians – above the national average of 71.7%. About 97% were white and 95% born in the UK.

Retired people amounted to 14.6% of the population and 16.4% had a limiting long-term illness – that figure was 17.1% in Suffolk.

About 28% of people in Essex had no qualifications, as did more than 30% of Suffolk residents.

Tendring had the highest proportion of retired people, with 21.4% of the population of 138,539 having given up work.

The top proportion of retired people in Suffolk was in the Waveney district, where 18.3% were retired, while 17.9% of Suffolk Coastal residents had also retired.

Public transport also proved much more popular in Essex than Suffolk, with about 13% of Colchester workers and 16.2% of those in Chelmsford getting to work that way.

Overall, 15.3% of workers in Essex travelled by public transport, with that figure just 5.8% in Suffolk, where 66.9% preferred their car. Just 2.5% of workers in Forest Heath used public transport to travel to work.