MIDDLEWICH’S population has risen by almost 500 in the last decade, Census figures have revealed.

New statistics from the 2011 Census show that the town’s population has grown from 13,101 to 13,595.

Further details about how Middlewich has changed in 10 years have not yet been released but the latest figures show the new make-up of Cheshire East as a whole.

The biggest industry for the borough’s workers is in wholesale and retail trade making up 16.3 per cent of the 64.5 per cent of adults who are employed.

In the 2001 Census, the most common job was in manufacturing.

The ethnic make-up of the borough has also changed with the proportion of white British residents falling from 96.2 per cent to 93.6 per cent.

The most common countries for Cheshire East residents to be born outside of the UK are Poland (3,868 or one per cent of the Cheshire East population) and India (1,416 or 0.4 per cent).

The last decade has also seen a boost for education with the number of people with a degree rising from 23.8 per cent to 32 per cent.

Meanwhile, the proportion of those with no qualifications has fallen from 24.7 per cent to 19.6 per cent.

The number of people who class themselves as Christian has dramatically fallen from 80.3 per cent to 68.9%.

This is a result of the number of residents stating they have no religion almost doubling, from 12.2 per cent to 22.7 per cent.

But this does not appear to have had a negative impact on the proportion of people getting married.

A total of 52.1 per cent of Cheshire East residents have tied the knot compared to 46.6 per cent nationally with 563 adults in same-sex civil partnerships.

The average household in borough contains 2.3 people and there are now 9,337 homes consisting of lone parents with dependent children - an increase from 7,121 in the previous census.

Clr David Brown, cabinet member for strategic communities, said: “Nationally, Census 2011 has revealed some very interesting statistics which show that England and Wales has changed dramatically over the past decade.

“The first set of figures, released in July, showed that we have a rapidly growing older population in Cheshire East and now we see statistics which dig a little deeper into trends emerging in our communities.”