Women and girls outnumber men and boys in all but 13 local authority areas, new census figures for England and Wales show.

Colchester’s population is now 48.9 per cent male and 51.1 per cent female, meaning there is now a higher proportion of women in the area than ten years ago.

The City of London – a statistical anomaly considering its tiny size and population – has the lowest percentage of females (44.2%) compared with the percentage of males (55.8%).

Males also outnumber females in Rutland (51.5%), Richmondshire (51.1%), Tower Hamlets, Salford and Southampton (all 50.2%).

Luton, Cambridge and West Suffolk are the only other local authority areas where males outnumber females (all 50.1%).

In South Staffordshire and Charnwood, the male-female divide is split at 50% each – although rounded-up population figures show there are roughly 100 more males than females in each place.

East Staffordshire and Rushmoor have the exact same number of men and boys as women and girls.

The local authorities with the highest percentage of women are all in London – with Kensington and Chelsea (53.3%) ahead of Hammersmith (53.1%) and Camden (52.6%).