Punjabi is third-most spoken language in England

Punjabi is the third-most spoken language in England and Wales, according to new figures from the 2011 Census that also include other Indian languages.

Nearly one in 10 people in England and Wales - 8 per cent - reported speaking a different main language to English or Welsh in the census, findings from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have shown.

Punjabi is the third-most spoken language across the country, with 273,000 speakers, mainly in the West Midlands, where it is the second-most spoken language.

The list also includes other Indian languages with Urdu in fourth place, spoken by 269,000 people, followed by Bengali (221,000), Gujarati (213,000) and Tamil as well.

Polish is the second-most commonly reported main language with 546,000 speakers, reflecting more than half a million Poles who migrated to England and Wales during the last decade.

Redcar and Cleveland local authority had the highest percentage of people with English as their main language at 99 per cent of the population, with Ealing listing the highest proportion of Polish speakers.

In all but three of the London boroughs - the City of London, Richmond Upon Thames, and Hillingdon - more than 100 languages were listed as main languages.

Of the four million residents of England and Wales who spoke a main language other than English, 1.7 million said they could speak English very well, 726,000 could speak English but not well and 138,000 could not speak English at all.

The least common main language in England and Wales was listed as Manx-Gaelic with 33 speakers, followed by 58 Gaelic-Scottish speakers.