BLAENAU Gwent is the only council area in Wales to have a smaller population now than it did ten years ago, Census figures reveal.

While population decline in Torfaen and Caerphilly was reversed in the ten years to 2011, and the populations of Newport and Monmouthshire continued to rise, Blaenau Gwent experienced a decrease of 0.3 per cent, or around 200 people.

Yet that represented a considerable slowing in the area’s population decline, following a reduction of more than three per cent (around 2,300 people) during 1991-2001.

The impact of pit closures and the scaling down of heavy industries epitomised by the closures of the likes of Ebbw Vale steelworks have hit valleys areas such as Blaenau Gwent hard, as people have moved away to find new work.

It is among only 17 areas in the whole of England and Wales to experience population decline.

The first set of Census 2011 figures published yesterday, reveal that the population of Wales has topped three million for the first time.

The official figure is 3,063,500, which represents a five per cent increase since 2001, and is the biggest tenyear increase since 1911-21.

Cardiff’s 11.6 per cent increase was the biggest of Wales’ 22 council areas.

Monmouthshire’s 7.4 per cent increase (up 6,300 to 91,300) was Wales’ fourth biggest, and the largest of Gwent’s five council areas.

Monmouthshire now has a bigger population than neighbouring Torfaen for the first time, with the latter’s 2011 figure of 91,100 just 200 up on that of 2001.

Torfaen’s increase was the smallest of the 21 council areas in Wales to register a population rise, reversing a decline of around 500 during 1991-2001.

Caerphilly experienced a 5.5 per cent (9,300 people) increase in the ten years to 2011, against a small decline during 1991-2001, while Newport continued to increase in population, up 5.9 per cent (8,100) since 2001.

Overall, 576,700 people now live in Gwent’s five council areas, up 4.2 per cent (23,700) on a decade ago.

All but two areas ofWales – Cardiff and Swansea – saw increases in the proportion of their populations aged 65 and over, and Blaenau Gwent had a three per cent fall in its 0-14 years population, the biggest inWales.

Stephen Penneck, director general of the Office for National Statistics, which has collated Census data, said the figures will be used by planners and policymakers in work such as planning school places, care home requirements, and transport links. More data will be published later this year.

FACTFILE 

● The rounded down population figure for Wales is 3.06m, with women, who have a longer life expectancy, just outnumbering men (1.56 million to 1.5 million).

● The difference between births and deaths led to a small increase in population, but migration accounted for 90 per cent of the 153,300 increase in Wales’ population during 2001-11.

● There are 563,000 people aged 65 and over in Wales, 57,000 more than in 2001. This represents 18 per cent of the population.

● There are 25,000 people aged 90 and over, up 6,000 (31 per cent) on 2001.

● There are 178,000 underfives in Wales, 11,000 more than in 2001.

● Newport, Torfaen, Caerphilly and Blaenau Gwent are respectively the second, third, fourth and fifth most densely populated areas in Wales, though they are a long way behind first placed Cardiff.

● There are 80,000 more households in Wales than in 2001. Even Blaenau Gwent, where the population fell, registered an increase in households, and the trend suggests individual households have fewer people in them.