More people see themselves as English in Oldham than before the 2016 EU referendum, according to a national survey, and Britishness is also on the up in the area.

The Office for National Statistics’ Annual Population Survey, released this month, invites a sample of local people to declare their identity.

Participants can select as many options as they like from British, English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish or ‘other.’

In the year to June 2016, in the lead-up to the Brexit referendum, 58 per cent of residents surveyed in Oldham said that they identify as English - but this rose to 59 per cent in the year to December 2021.

Over the same period, the proportion of people identifying as British increased from 44 per cent to 50 per cent – meaning that English has remained the most popular answer, despite an increase in people identifying as British in Oldham.

It was a different story across England as a whole, where English identity has been on the decline.

Some 44 per cent of people identified as English in the year to December 2021, down from 52 per cent in the year to June 2016.

The proportion of people identifying as British has increased over the same period – rising from 49 per cent to 59 per cent across the country.

Sunder Katwala, director of the think tank British Future, said: "Most people in England have two flags and two identities, English and British.

"The strength of feeling for them ebbs and flows according to events – we will see a lot of Union Jacks during the Jubilee celebrations, but it will be the England flag flying for the World Cup in November.

"How you ask the question also affects the result. While seven in 10 said they were English in the last census, that will flip this time round as 'British' now comes first on the tick-box list."

John Denham, director of the Centre for English Identity and Politics at the University of Southampton, said the findings should be approached with caution.

He said: “There has been some movement towards identifying as more British than English - probably mainly due to demographic change.

“Young people are more likely to identify as British than older generations.”

But Mr Denham warns that the survey may exaggerate this shift, as participants do not tend to select more than one option for their national identity, and therefore will not capture the extent to which people in England identify as both English and British.

According to recent polling carried out for British Future, just 10 per cent of people described themselves as more British than English, while 44 per cent said they feel equally British and English.