It could have been a lot worse for local Christian churches, when Bath and district is compared with Norwich. In the ten years from from 2001 people generally referring to themselves as Christians fell from 72% to 59% in B&NES, while in Norwich they fell to 45%. The surrounding rural areas were in the 60% area, so the low profession of Christian belief by Norwich residents may be an 'urban thing' and Bath's figures may be raised by being counted together with rural North East Somerset.

There is, apparently, a missing age group in those attending many local Church services, the thirties and forties. Churches, in general, still get full houses for Christmas Carol Services etc.

First weddings, once normally in church, are now held at a wide variety of venues. A christening is now far from automatic. Funerals are normally in church and, in this area, generally well attended.

Those having no religion were 33% and those not answering the question totalled 9%. No other religion or sect apparently reached 1% in B&NES.

Strangely, no attempt seems to have been made to split Christians into their subgroups, CofE, RC, Methodists etc., even though their numbers are huge when compared to the majority of non-Christian sects.

There was a view a few years ago that the decline in church attendance had bottomed out. Evangelical and family-orientated churches have grown, but traditional attendance has declined, even with the influx of immigrants. Welton and Peasedown both have especially active churches.

Local Christians are generally not surprised by the figures. There is a long established decline in weekly churchgoing. An interesting question, how many women have walked away from male dominated churches, is not explored by the census data.

B&NES residents are a pretty homogenous group. 87% were born in England, 6% come from outside the EU, 4% from within the EU, including Ireland, 2% from Wales and 1% from Scotland. In the UK as a whole, we are a much more mixed bunch.

The population has grown by 3,500,000 – its biggest ever numerical and percentage increase in a decade. A 7.1% rise in the ten years up to 2011. (3.1% in the decade up to 2001.) The census found 500,000 more people than calculated from known immigration, births and deaths.

Of that 3.5 million, 1.9 million was down to net migration and 1.6 million to the surplus of births over deaths.

We now need one home for every 2.4 people, compared with one for every 4.3 people one hundred years ago. Not only have we had to house a big increase in population but whereas 100 years ago 100 people would need 22 houses, today 100 people need 42 homes. No wonder there is pressure to build homes on green fields.

The median age is 39 years, a hundred years ago it was 25 years, a huge increase. This is an indication of just how much longer we are living.

In England and Wales, the number over 65 is 16.4% of the population. In the South West it is 18.6% There are over 430,000 people alive today aged ninety plus. In 1911, there were just 13,000!

No wonder pension arrangements have had to be adjusted.

There is growth at the other end of the age spectrum too. There were over 3.5 million children under five in 2011, an increase of 13% on ten years earlier. That means more nurseries and primary school places.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the educational spectrum, figures issued by the University Clearing House, UCAS, last week, showed more girls than boys applying for universities.

Overall, fewer applications were being made with the easy-to-get-in institutions being hardest hit.

Good news, poorer students do not appear to have been put off by higher fees.