Blaenau Gwent People and Places
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Blaenau Gwent People and Places 0 3.1 Blaenau Gwent as an area Blaenau Gwent is a place of heritage and dramatic change, with a sense of its past but its eyes firmly on the future. The area is relatively small geographically, being at most 15 miles north to south, and 8 miles east to west. Blaenau Gwent is defined physically by high hillsides dividing the three main valleys. These valleys are home to towns and villages which seem to merge together into one. However, each community proudly maintains its own character and traditions. Although the towns give the county borough a busy, urban feel, Blaenau Gwent is actually a largely rural area. Wherever you are, beautiful countryside is never far away. The map below looks to give a visual representation of Blaenau Gwent, highlighting some of our distinctive local features. 1 A short history of our area Before the early 1800s, the area that is now Blaenau Gwent was a quiet rural area dominated by tiny villages and farmland. The Welsh was the only language, and English was little understood. The start of the industrial revolution in Great Britain was significant to the area, as people looked to take advantage of the plentiful supply of resources that could be found. In the first instance this took the form of ironworks, quickly followed by coal mining and steel making. As the industries grew, so did the demand for labour and the population of Blaenau Gwent grew remarkably. Between the early 19th and early 20th century the population rose from around 1,200 to well over 120,000. As our communities thrived, so did the need for services required to deal with this social and cultural explosion, examples being education, health, shops and leisure opportunities. This led to the growth of a network of communities and neighbourhoods, which make up the towns and neighbourhoods that we know today. The people of Blaenau Gwent had a strong work and community ethic, and this was shown by them campaigning together to make improvements to their quality of life. Examples of this include the first ever board of health set up in England and Wales, campaigning for electoral reform, abolishing company-run shops, and the reduction in working hours, many of which influence the way people live their lives today. Blaenau Gwent has a rich heritage which is reflected in our monuments, buildings, landscapes and people. 2 Present day Blaenau Gwent The period from the late 1980s has seen the formation of Blaenau Gwent as it is known today. It became a county borough council in 1996 following local government reorganisation, changing from a district of Gwent County. In the last 20 years the people of Blaenau Gwent have faced many challenges, with the closure of all the coal mines in the late 1980s, and the Ebbw Vale Steelworks in 2002 leading to many job losses. In an attempt to reduce the effect of this, significant effort has been put into changing the focus of our economy towards the manufacturing and services industry. However, over the period there has been an overall loss of jobs and many of our young people and families have had to move away in search of further education and employment. This is highlighted by a 5% reduction in the population between 1991 and 2011. This is in contrast to Wales overall where there has been a 4% increase. We cannot underestimate the effect of these issues. Even so, in the last 20 years the area has seen significant structural and environment improvement, following major levels of capital investment, and the greening of our valleys as nature recovers from the long-term scaring caused through our historical industries. 3 Blaenau Gwent population Understanding the population of an area and how this might change can provide an insight into both the assets and challenges that are likely to exist or arise, and the types of policies and initiatives that might be most appropriate. In 2015 the population of Blaenau Gwent was 69,544. Figure BG01 shows the mid-year estimate of the number of people usually resident across the Gwent in 2015. As can be seen Blaenau Gwent is the smallest local authority area in Gwent. Figure BG01 Population Change Historically, the overall population in Blaenau Gwent has fallen since it peaked in 1921. The 1921 Census showed a population over 125,000 people lived in the Blaenau Gwent Area, significantly above the current population. More recently the rate of decline has been more stable falling by just 3.4% or 2,437 people in the 20 year period between the 1991 Census (72,251) and Census 2011 (69,814). The rate of decline in the ten year period between 2001 and 2011 was the lowest rate of decline in population over a ten year period since 1921. 4 Population Density Figure BG02 below shows the population density across the Gwent region in 2015. The population density in Blaenau Gwent was 638 people per square kilometre, compared with 149 per square kilometre for Wales. Blaenau Gwent’s the density of people living in the area is similar to neighbouring areas, all of which are significantly above the Welsh average. Figure BG02 Map BG03 shows the population density of each of the 47 lower super output area (LSOA) in Blaenau Gwent. The darker areas of the map represent those areas with a higher population density. Further analysis shows some area’s density levels to be similar to those in city areas. Map BG03 5 Population by Gender As is the case across Wales and the UK, the 2015 mid-year estimates show that there are slightly more females (51%) than males (49%) in Blaenau Gwent. There is also little difference from the Welsh average when considering gender split across each of the key age bands, varying by no more than 2%. Population by Age Blaenau Gwent, like the majority of places in the UK, has an overall population which is ageing. Generally, this is because less people are being born than before, and those people that are alive are living longer. The information below shows key trends in population by three distinct age groups (0-15, 16 to 64 and 65 and over): 17.5% of the population of Blaenau Gwent were aged 0 - 15 years in 2015, a slightly lower proportion than the 17.9% seen for Wales. The proportion of the people aged 0-15 is decreasing (2011, 17.9%). 63.1% of the population were aged 16 - 64 years in Blaenau Gwent in 2015, which was the highest proportion of all the local authority areas in the Gwent region and above the Wales rate which was 61.9%. The proportion of the people aged 16-64 is decreasing (2011, 64.2%). 19.5% of the population were aged 65 years or over in the Gwent region on 30 June 2015. This compares with 20.2% for Wales. The proportion of the people aged 65 and over is increasing significantly (2011, 17.9%). 6 Disability The 2011 Census showed that 28% of all people who live within Blaenau Gwent stated they had a limiting long-term health problem or illnesses, where day-to-day activities were limited. This was higher than Wales overall (23%), and was the 2nd highest level in Wales (behind Neath Port Talbot with 28%). More recent statistics from the Annual Population Survey (June 2016) shows that Blaenau Gwent continues to have significantly above average levels of disability with a total of 31.6% of working age people being defined as disabled (EA core or work-limiting disabled) compared to 22.8% for Wales. These comparably high levels of disability in Blaenau Gwent leads to a high proportion of people claiming disability-related benefits, with 12.0% of working aged people in Blaenau Gwent claimed EAS or Incapacity Benefit, compared to 8.4% across Wales (May 2016). Race The 2011 Census statistics showed Blaenau Gwent’s Black and Ethnic Minority population to be just under 1,900. This equates to 2.6% of the total population and well below the Welsh average of 6.7%. In 2001 the percentage of people in Blaenau Gwent from minority ethnic groups was 1.8%, approximately 1,300 people, which shows a notable increase from 2001 to 2011. Even so, Blaenau Gwent still has one of the lowest levels of people from minority ethnic groups in England and Wales. Religion and Belief The 2011 Census showed that half of people in Blaenau Gwent stated their religion to be Christian (50%), below the Welsh average of 59%. This has shown a notable decrease since the 2001 Census, with respective levels of 64.0% and 71.0% 7 Just over 1% of people in Blaenau Gwent stated that they were of another religion such as Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Jewish and Sikh. Just over 41% of the Blaenau Gwent population stated they have no religion, above the Welsh average of 37%. This is a notable increase compared to 2001, with respective levels of 25% and 19%. A further 8% of people in Blaenau Gwent did not state their religion. Sexual Orientation Statistics on sexual orientation for Blaenau Gwent are not available with any level of accuracy. However, the Integrated Household Survey includes data on sexual identity for Wales on a calendar year basis. In 2014 this survey showed that in Wales, 93.9% of people identified as heterosexual or straight, 1.5% as gay/lesbian or bisexual, and 0.4% as ‘other’ while 1.1% of people did not answer this question (1.1% simply didn't respond and 3.0% didn't know or refused to answer the question, compared to 1.8% and 2.9% respectively in 2013).