The female population has always been slightly higher than 50% and the male population slightly lower (back as far as 1900). It varies from year to year but in 2021 it was 30,439,748 female individuals out of 59,641,828, that's 51.0% the mid-year population 'estimate' produced annually by the ONS. The difference between the two populations amounted to almost 1.5 million female individuals. So much for 50:50! Link here for 2001-21 time series mid-year estimates of this dataset.

Census 2021 was held on on 21 March 2023 showing 30,420,100 female individuals as opposed to 29, 177,200 male individuals in England and Wales but the same 51.0 49.0% ratio..

In fact, this data has been collected since 1838 and we are hoping that the 1838-1981 ONS Population estimates disaggregated by sex: female and male.

For the time being, 1971- 2022 appears as a screen capture below with percentages added by Clare B Dimyon. A small percentage but a large numerical value, especially when you are waiting for the loo in public toilets when the plumbing code specifies 50:50 provision for female and male.