One in five people in Cambridge and Oxford has a second address, Census figures show

Cambridge and Oxford have the highest percentage of people who used a second address, according to Census data.

Some 14.1 per cent of people in Cambridge used a second address in the UK for more than 30 days in 2021.

Only Oxford (15.6 per cent) had a higher percentage. Third was Exeter (13.5 per cent), another university city.

The Office for National Statistics said the figures reflected the number of students with term-time and out-of-term addresses.

A further 5.5 per cent of people in Cambridge had a second address outside the UK. In total, that means 19.6 per cent of Cambridge residents - nearly one in five - had a second address in 2021.

In Oxford, the total was 20.5 per cent, including 4.9 per cent with overseas second homes.

The data shows that 3.2 million people in England and Wales reported staying at a second address for more than 30 days in 2021.

Those spending time at second properties, such as holiday homes, students’ home addresses and partners’ addresses, equated to 5.3 per cent of the population, up slightly on the 5.2 per cent recorded in 2011.

Some 2.5 million usual residents in England and Wales have a second address within the UK and 736,000 have one outside it, according to the latest figures.

The most common types of second address were another parent or guardian’s address, which would have been selected for children whose parents lived apart (used by 1.1 million people), students’ home addresses (used by 655,000), and holiday homes (used by 447,000).

In 2011, 715,000 people had students’ home addresses as a second address, and the decline likely reflects a pandemic effect, the ONS said, as students were more likely to be staying at their family home in 2021 for the whole academic year.

The 2021 Census has also revealed how Cambridge had the fastest-growing population in the Eastern region, rising 17.6 per cent from just under 123,900 in 2011 to around 145,700 in 2021.