Key Facts Mid and East Antrim

midandeastantrim.gov.uk Mid and East Antrim is well SCOTLAND connected by road, rail, sea and air. MID AND EAST ANTRIM EDINBURGH GLASGOW Excellent Road

Infrastructure 2hrs

NORTHERN IRELAND Excellent Rail (35mins Drive) Network

Home of DUBLIN (2.5hrs Drive) Port of IRELAND (14-20 sailings daily) ENGLAND Belfast International WALES Airport - 20mins Belfast City Airport - 30mins LONDON

Airports Location & Ports Connectivity

Mid and East Antrim forms part No.1 in of the wider metropolitan area of for processing planning applications. On average 7 Belfast and is in close proximity weeks processing time to the two main airports and rather than NI target of 15 weeks Belfast Port, whilst being home to the Port of Larne.

The area also has access to 362Mpbs fibre broadband, which uses virtual hub technology to ensure no speed degradation over distance. Additional FDI funding support for external investors from Michelin Development

Invest in Mid & East Antrim | midandeastantrim.gov.uk Demographics

Population by Age Labour Market Structure

18.7% 19.3% (NI 16.4%) (NI 21%) 74.5% 25.5% Economically Economically Active Inactive TOTAL (NI 72.8%) (NI 27.2%) POPULATION 138,800 2% 71.2% 61.9% (NI 62.7%) Unemployment Employment Rate (NI 3%) Rate (NI 70%) 0–15 years 16–64 years 65+ years

Invest in Mid & East Antrim | midandeastantrim.gov.uk Tourism spend continues to increase with over Tourism 800,000 visitors to attractions in Mid & East Antrim in 2018. This is fuelled by key attractions such as: The Gobbins, Causeway Coastal Route, world class spa resort at the Galgorm and Magheramourne Quarry - the backdrop to television epic Game of Thrones.

For more than 800 years Castle (pictured above) has stood on the shores of Belfast Lough. It is one of the best preserved and most imposing medieval castles in Ireland. Mid & East Antrim LGD has the highest hotel annual room occupancy (jointly with 296,441 £51m Belfast LGD) in 2018. Tourism Trips expenditure in Mid & East Antrim in 2018 74% 966,916 Hotel Nights occupancy rate 2018

Northern Regional Education College

Ulster Key Facts University 78% 84% Queen’s of school leavers of working age University progress into population with a further or higher qualification. education.

st Mid & East Antrim has world class education 1 10,000 infrastructure provided through three institutions. Home to St Louis Students at Northern • Northern Regional College with 6 campuses Grammar School ranked Regional College across the area. number 1 for the last 3 specialising in industrial • University, the second largest university on years in Northern Ireland robotics, electronics, the island of Ireland for GCSE and A-Level metratronics and • Queen’s University, which is in the top 5 UK results. embedded systems universities for revenue generated from research design. commercialisation.

Invest in Mid & East Antrim | midandeastantrim.gov.uk 4,950 businesses in Mid and East Antrim representing 7% of all Northern Ireland businesses. Businesses by Sector Mid and East Antrim has a diverse business demography. 30% of the businesses are in the agri-food sector, 21% construction and manufacturing and 8% accommodation. The region also has growing professional, digital/ICT and creative industries sectors, the latter as a result of the Game of Thrones link.

Agri Food - 1,485 Accommodation - 580

Construction & Retail - 400 Manufacturing - 1,040

Key employers include:

Invest in Mid & East Antrim | midandeastantrim.gov.uk Employment by Overall Gross Value Added in Industry Sector Mid and East Antrim is £2.1bn in 2018

2% 4% Other Construction

19% MID Manufacturing AND EAST ANTRIM Mid & East Antrim Northern Ireland 75% £65,183 £38,529 Services per head per head We have a highly productive workforce with work based productivity almost twice the Northern Ireland average. In addition operating costs average 20% - 30% less than the rest of the UK and Europe.

GVA per Sector in Mid & East Antrim

Agri Food Manufacturing Construction Wholesale

£117m £746m £138m £253m (2017) (2017) (2017) (2017)

£121m £844m £124m £387m (2018) (2018) (2018) (2018)

Invest in Mid & East Antrim | midandeastantrim.gov.uk Total Sales in Mid & East Antrim

Total Total Total Domestic Sales Exports Sales £661m £599m £1.26bn

+ = £

Sales by Sector Sales by Destination

Advanced Engineering & Manufacturing - £807m Northern Ireland - £155m

Agri-Food - £168m Great Britain - £502m

Rest of the European Construction - £159m Union - £268m

Life Sciences - £73m Rest of World - £324m

Financial Services - £22m

Business Space Typical Rental Values

100,000 sq.ft. of £4 - £10 per sq. ft. office space available lower than 50% Belfast 820,000 sq.ft. of industrial space available lower than 60% Dublin

Invest in Mid & East Antrim | midandeastantrim.gov.uk midandeastantrim.gov.uk

Further information:

T 028 2563 3190 E [email protected]

(Caterpillar NI Ltd)