North West · Metropolitan district

Oldham Council

2028/29 view

Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council · ONS E08000004

Financial position as at 2028/29

Official website View sources

PEOPLE AND PLACE

Population and community profile

Latest official statistics

Population 251,560 2024

North West region 7,737,414

Five-year population change

+9,483 residents ↑ 3.9%

Oldham Council +3.9%

North West +5.1%

England +4.3%

Growth context

Oldham Council's population grew over five years. Its change was 1.2 percentage points below the North West and broadly in line with England.

2019–2024 ONS mid-year estimates

Working-age population 155,767 61.8% of residents · 2025 North West: 62.6%

Employment rate 64.3% Apr 2025–Mar 2026 North West: 73.8%

Workless households 18.0% 12,900.0% of residents · Jan–Dec 2025 North West: 16.3% · Great Britain: 14.4%

Population estimates and labour-market measures from ONS/Nomis.Official profile

ETHNIC COMPOSITION

How residents identified their ethnic group

Broad categories reported by usual residents.

Census 2,021

White68.1%

Asian24.6%

Black3.4%

Mixed or multiple2.5%

Other ethnic group1.4%

Self-identified Census categories. Percentages may differ slightly from detailed tables because broad categories are rounded.Official ONS profile

AGE PROFILE

Population by broad age group

Latest mid-year population estimate.

2025 ONS estimate

Aged 0–1555,885 residents 22.2%

Aged 16–64155,767 residents 61.8%

Aged 65+40,263 residents 16.0%

Counts and proportions use the same 2025 ONS population estimate shown above.Official profile

ECONOMIC WELLBEING

Work and economic participation

Latest published labour-market measures for residents and households.

ONS / Nomis

Economic inactivity 31.2% 45,900 people Apr 2025–Mar 2026 North West: 22.7% · Great Britain: 20.9%

Workless households 18.0% 12,900 households Jan–Dec 2025 North West: 16.3% · Great Britain: 14.4%

Claimant count 6.6% 10,275 claimants July 2026 North West: 4.1% · Great Britain: 3.9%

Jobs per working-age resident 0.66 103,000 jobs 2024 North West: 0.82 · Great Britain: 0.85

Survey estimates can move between releases. Claimant count is administrative data; economic inactivity and workless households are survey estimates.Official labour-market profile

PER RESIDENT

Putting council figures into context

Calculated from the latest population estimate and CouncilMetrics data.

2026/27 expenditure per resident £363 2026/27 Q1 · year to date

Tracked contract value per resident £3,127 51 published contracts

Residents per councillor 4,193 60 elected members

AIR QUALITY

How clean is the air?

Long-term particulate pollution across the council area, alongside measurements from local UK-AIR monitoring stations.

Defra 2,024

POPULATION-WEIGHTED ANNUAL MEAN

Fine particulate matter

7.5 µg/m³

PM2.5 · 2,024

Human-related sources 7.0 µg/m³

Other sources 0.5 µg/m³

Modelled population-weighted annual concentration across the local authority area. This is not a live sensor reading.

LONG-TERM TREND

PM2.5 over time

37.3%

12.0 7.4

2011 2024

Since 2011 ↓ 37.3%

5 years ↓ 19.2%

10 years ↓ 28.8%

CURRENT MONITORING

Latest station measurement

UK-AIR

NO2 25.4 µg/m³

Provisional

Shaw Crompton Way Automatic Urban and Rural Monitoring Network (AURN); UK Urban NO2 Network · Urban Traffic Latest measurement: 2026-09-23 01:00:00+01

This is a measurement from an individual monitoring station and should not be interpreted as the current concentration across the whole council area.

HEALTH IMPACT

Particulate air pollution

5.6% of mortality attributable to particulate air pollution

2024 Not compared

This OHID measure estimates the mortality burden associated with particulate air pollution. It is a health-impact measure, not a pollution concentration.

Annual PM2.5 is Defra Pollution Climate Mapping data. Monitoring readings are station-specific UK-AIR measurements and may be provisional. Defra source