Digest of Demographic Statistics This summary of the basic demographic statistics for Wakefield District is intended as an introduction and aide for Nova Wakefield District Limited staff and members. Because of the breadth of the topics covered, it will not always cover topics to the degree of detail and disaggregation that many users will require for their particular purposes. It is also likely that users will find that some topics of interest (such as crime or education and skills) are not covered at all. Wherever possible, links are provided to where further information can be found. Assistance on using these sources can be obtained from Nova Wakefield District Limited (telephone 01924 367418 or email [email protected] ). Similarly, if you are interested in topics or data not included here, please discuss this with Nova Wakefield District Limited. Background Wakefield District is a metropolitan district, one of five in the metropolitan county of West Yorkshire, the others being Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees and Leeds. (The other metropolitan counties are Tyne and Wear, South Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside and West Midlands.) The metropolitan county councils were abolished in the 1980s, and their powers and responsibilities were transferred to the metropolitan districts. So Wakefield Council has responsibility for all local authority services. In this respect, metropolitan districts are almost identical to London boroughs and to unitary authorities such as Derby and York, which are large population centres within non-metropolitan counties. In non-metropolitan counties, such as North Yorkshire, local services and responsibilities are shared between the district council and the county council. Accessing the Data The starting-points for a wide range of facts and figures are: 1. The "Wakefield Observatory" at http://observatory.wakefield.gov.uk/ This provides a huge range of data, mostly accessed interactively so that you can choose what data to have in a table, for what areas, etc. 2. Wakefield Council at http://www.wakefield.gov.uk/about-the-council/access-to- information/stats-facts-maps#.U3NI8tjjjIU Here you can download the "State of the District" report which is both quite comprehensive in its range of information covered, but also provides some description and discussion in the text. Through either of the above sources, you can access Ward Profiles, Area Profiles and Priority Neighbourhood Profiles. 3. There is also a large amount of data on the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) website at http://www.wakefieldjsna.co.uk/ 1 The JSNA is a statutory requirement for every local authority to produce, and focusses primarily on health and health needs, but also incorporates community, public health, care, etc. The JSNA includes a lot of demographic information and information about public perceptions. 4. The Office for National Statistics (ONS). This is the single largest source of official data on all demographic aspects and many other topics, but its website https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics is thought by many to be quite difficult to use. 5. Much easier to use is the Neighbourhood Statistics website http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/ . It is part of the ONS but is relatively simple to get data from, and allows you to extract neighbourhood, ward and district profiles, as well as specifying particular data- sets. 6. Perhaps the easiest of all is http://www.nomisweb.co.uk/ . This has data on the census, population estimates, labour statistics, businesses, etc. 2 1. Population The latest official figures for Wakefield District give a population in 2012 of 328,000. In population terms, Wakefield is the 20 th largest local authority in England and Wales, but the second smallest in West Yorkshire (after Calderdale). The table below shows ten-yearly population growth over the last three decades. Wakefield Change over ten years 1982 313,500 --------- 1992 314,800 +0.4% 2002 316,300 +0.5% 2012 327,600 +3.6% Source: ONS, Mid-Year Population Estimates https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/query/select/getdatasetbytheme.asp?opt=3&theme=&subgrp The table shows that after very slow growth in the 1980s and 1990s, the population of the district has grown substantially in the last decade or so. Despite this, Wakefield's population has grown more slowly than both the West Yorkshire and national rates, as the chart below shows. 115 Wakefield Population Change, 1981-2012 113 Indexed to 1981 = 100 111 Wakefield 109 West Yorks 107 England 105 103 101 99 97 95 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001 2006 2012 Source: ONS, Population Estimates Unit Wakefield City and its surrounding areas comprise less than half of this population, the rest being accounted for by the towns of Castleford, Normanton, Pontefract, Knottingley and Featherstone, together with the villages in the south east of the district. 3 Projected Population Change Official projections of population based on 2011 figures suggest a continuing sharp rise in population, nationally and locally, close to the rate over the last decade or so. However, overall projections are simply based on the continuation of recent trends, rather than on assessments of how things will change over coming years. Of greater interest are the projected rates of growth of different age-groups. Although the exact numbers cannot be relied on from population projections, the trends in different age-groups are almost certain to occur. The table below shows Wakefield's projected growth in numbers for different age- groups, and compares the percentage rate of growth with England. What is most noticeable from the table is that the population of broadly economically active age, i.e.16-64, is projected to grow fairly slowly. By contrast, the child population (under 16) is projected to grow much more rapidly, by about 10% by 2021 in Wakefield, and even faster nationally. Projected Population Change, 2011 – 2021 Change 2011-2016 Change 2011-2021 Wakefield England Wakefield England Number % % Number % % All ages 11,964 +3.7% +4.5% +24,026 +7.4% +8.6% 0-15 2,386 +4.0% +5.7% +5,939 +9.9% +12.6% 16-64 1,561 +0.7% +1.8% +4,127 +2.0% +3.7% 65-74 5,108 +16.7% +16.7% +6,198 +20.3% +20.3% 75+ 2,909 +11.6% +10.1% +7,762 +31.0% +27.2% Source: ONS, Interim 2011-based Subnational Population Projections http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/taxonomy/index.html?nscl=Sub-national+Population+Projections#tab- data-tables However, the most dramatic changes are projected in the older population. The number of people in Wakefield aged 65 and over is projected to increase by about 8,000 between 2011 and 2016, a rise of about 14%. By 2021, the population in this age-group is projected to have risen by almost 14,000 compared to 2011. Looking only at the 75+ age-group – for which a range of medical, care and other services become increasingly important – the increase in numbers over the ten-year period is projected to be almost 8,000, a rise of nearly one-third. Similar changes are projected regionally and nationally, although slightly lower. 4 Ethnicity The table below shows the make-up of Wakefield's population by broad ethnic group. Ethnic Group, 2011 Wakefield England White 95.4 85.4 Mixed/multiple ethnic groups 0.9 2.3 Asian/Asian British 2.6 7.8 Black/African/Caribbean/Black British 0.8 3.5 Other ethnic group 0.3 1.0 Source: ONS, 2011 Census https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/query/construct/summary.asp?mode=construct&version=0&dataset=608 Wakefield has a very small ethnic population compared to the national average, only 4.6% whilst the England overall figure is 14.6%. Within West Yorkshire, Wakefield has the smallest proportion: Calderdale's ethnic minority population exceeds 10% whilst Bradford's is about one-third. Leeds and Kirklees lie between these figures. "White-British" is by far the largest single ethnic group in Wakefield (92.8% of the total). The next largest is "Other White" (7,416 people, 2.3%), Pakistani (4,896, 1.5%), and African (1,955, 0.6%). Religion Figures from the 2011 census show that Wakefield has a higher than national average proportion of residents defining themselves as Christian, and a correspondingly lower figure defining their religion as Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Sikh or Other. As the table below shows, about one quarter said they had no religion, and a small minority declined to say. Religion of Wakefield Residents, 2011 Wakefield England Religion Number % % Christian 216,215 66.4 59.4 Muslim 6,475 2.0 5.0 Buddhist 573 0.2 0.5 Hindu 831 0.3 1.5 Jewish 117 0.0 0.5 Sikh 399 0.1 0.8 Other religion 973 0.3 0.4 No religion 79,497 24.4 24.7 Religion not stated 20,757 6.4 7.2 Source: ONS, 2011 Census https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/query/construct/summary.asp?mode=construct&version=0&dataset=616 5 2. Households Total Households The table below shows the total number of households in Wakefield District, and the ten-yearly change since 1991. The figures show the continuing rapid growth in numbers of households which, broadly speaking , translates into numbers of dwellings, putting pressure on housing land and house prices and rental rates. Growth in Numbers of Households Change over previous Total Households ten years 1991 123,483 2001 132,209 +7.1% 2011 140,414 +6.2% Source: ONS http://www.nomisweb.co.uk/query/construct/summary.asp?mode=construct&version=0&dataset=605 This growth results from two quite separate trends, population growth and the fall in average household size. For many years, the fall in household size was more important, with more people living in one-person households and families having fewer children.