Wokingham Borough Council: local authority assessment

Published: 21 August 2025 Page last updated: 21 August 2025

Assessment published: 21 August 2025

About Wokingham Borough Council

Demographics

Wokingham Borough Council is a unitary local authority in the Southeast of England in the ceremonial county of Berkshire. The borough is named after the main town of Wokingham.

There are approximately 178,200 residents in the Wokingham local authority area. The borough population increased by around 15% between 2011 and 2021, one of the highest increases in England (average 6.3%). There was an increase of 28.2% in people aged 65 years and over in Wokingham, an increase of 11.0% in people aged 15 to 64 years, and an increase of 18.0% in children aged under 15 years. Broad age group related population predictions expect the number of people aged over 65 to continue to rise in the borough and is expected to reach 23.8% (from 17.8% in 2020) by 2043.

Wokingham has an index of multiple deprivation score of 1 (with 10 being the highest and most deprived) and was the second least deprived local authority in the country according to 2019 data. There are, however, pockets of deprivation throughout the borough which can be lost in the averages provided by these figures.

Most Wokingham borough residents are White (79.92%), according to 2021 Census information which was a decrease of 8.5 percentage points since the 2011 Census. 12.88% of people are Asian or Asian British, which was a 5.5 percentage point increase since 2011. 3.14% of people are from a Mixed or Multiple background, and 2.43% are from a Black, Black British, Caribbean or African background, which also represented increase from the 2011 Census. Life expectancy and healthy life expectancy at birth and at 65 are above England averages for men and women according to 2023 data. Women can expect to live 70.8 years in good health, which is higher than the England average of 61.9 years. Men in Wokingham can expect to live 69.7 years in good health, which is higher than the England average of 61.5 years. There is a 5-year gap in life expectancy for women and a 6-year gap in life expectancy for men living in more deprived areas of Wokingham, based on data related to 2018-2020.

Wokingham Borough Council is part of Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West (BOB) Integrated Care Board. It is one of 5 local authorities in the integrated care board area. Wokingham is part of the Berkshire West place within the BOB Integrated Care Board. Wokingham is served by a variety of hospitals including Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, Frimley Park Hospital and Wokingham Community Hospital.

Control of Wokingham Borough Council has been led by the Liberal Democrat party since 2022. There are 54 Councillors representing 18 wards across the borough.

Financial facts

The financial facts for Wokingham Borough Council are:

The local authority estimated that in 2023/24, its total budget would be £266,238,000.00. Its actual spend for that year was £288,107,000.00, which was £21,869,000.00 more than estimated.
The local authority estimated that it would spend £65,947,000.00 of its total budget on adult social care in 2023/24. Its actual spend for that year was £66,352,000.00, which was £405,000.00 more than estimated.
In 2023/24 23.03% of the budget was spent on adult social care.
The local authority has raised the full adult social care precept for 2023/24, with a value of 2%. Please note that the amount raised through adult social care precept varies from local authority to local authority.
Approximately 2425 people were accessing long-term adult social care support, and approximately 2155 people were accessing short-term adult social care support in 2023/24. Local authorities spend money on a range of adult social care services, including supporting individuals. No two care packages are the same and vary significantly in their intensity, duration and cost.

This data is reproduced at the request of the Department of Health and Social Care. It has not been factored into our assessment and is presented for information purposes only.