North Somerset Info.....

Resident Population and Age

The resident population of North Somerset, as measured in the 2001 Census, was 188,564, of which 49 per cent were male and 51 per cent were female.

 

	North Somerset	England and Wales
Under 16	19.0	20.2
16 to 19	4.4	4.9
20 to 29	9.1	12.6
30 to 59	42.6	41.5
60 to 74	14.9	13.3
75 and over	9.9	7.6
Average age	41.5	38.6

Marital Status

	North Somerset	England and Wales
Single (never married)	23.3	30.1
Married or re-married	56.4	50.9
Separated	2.1	2.4
Divorced	8.8	8.2
Widowed	9.3	8.4

Ethnic Group

Percentage of resident population in ethnic groups:	North Somerset	England
White	98.6	90.9
of which White Irish	0.6	1.3
Mixed	0.6	1.3
Asian or Asian British	0.4	4.6
Indian	0.2	2.1
Pakistani	0.0	1.4
Bangladeshi	0.1	0.6
Other Asian	0.1	0.5
Black or Black British	0.1	2.1
Caribbean	0.0	1.1
African	0.0	1.0
Other Black	0.0	0.2
Chinese or Other Ethnic Group	0.4	0.9

Religion

	North Somerset	England and Wales
Christian	75.0	71.8
Buddhist	0.2	0.3
Hindu	0.1	1.1
Jewish	0.1	0.5
Muslim	0.2	3.0
Sikh	0.0	0.6
Other religions	0.4	0.3
No religion	16.6	14.8
Religion not stated	7.4	7.7

Health and provision of care

The 2001 Census asked people to describe their health, over the preceding 12 months as 'good', 'fairly good' or 'not good'.

	North Somerset	England and Wales
Good	69.0	68.6
Fairly good	22.4	22.2
Not good	8.6	9.2

It also asked questions about any limiting long-term illness, health problem or disability which limited peoples daily activities or the work they could do.

	North Somerset	England and Wales
Had a long-term illness	18.5	18.2

For the first time, the 2001 Census asked a question about any voluntary care provided to look after, or give any help or support to family members, friends, neighbours or others because of long term physical or mental ill-health or disability, or problems relating to old age.

	North Somerset	England and Wales
Provided unpaid care	10.3	10.0

There are two main benefits associated with health that are paid to people needing help with personal care. They are the 'Disability Living Allowance' and the 'Attendance Allowance'.

The Disability Living Allowance is a benefit paid to people under 65, who are disabled, and need help with personal care, and/or getting around. In August 2000, 5,265 people in North Somerset received this benefit.

The Attendance Allowance is paid to people over the age of 65, who are so severely disabled, physically or mentally, that they need supervision or a great deal of help with personal care. In May 2000, 5,140 people in North Somerset received this benefit.

Economic Activity

	North Somerset	England and Wales
Employed	63.9	60.6
Unemployed	2.1	3.4
Economically active full time students	2.4	2.6
Retired	16.1	13.6
Economically inactive students	2.8	4.7
Looking after home/family	6.0	6.5
Permanently sick or disabled	4.6	5.5
Economically inactive	2.1	3.1

Within North Somerset, 23 per cent of those unemployed were aged 50 and over, 5 per cent had never worked and 24 per cent were long term unemployed.

In August 2000, there were 1,030 Jobseeker Allowance claimants in North Somerset of which 24 per cent had child dependants. The Job Seeker Allowance (JSA) is payable to people under pensionable age who are available for, and actively seeking, work of at least 40 hours a week. Figures produced here are those only for people claiming income-based JSA.

In August 2000, there were 9,710 Income Support claimants in North Somerset, of which 2 per cent were aged under 20. Income support was introduced on April 11th 1988 and can be paid to a person who is aged 16 and over, is not working 16 hours or more a week, and has less money coming in than the law says they need to live on.

Students and Qualifications

	North Somerset	England and Wales
Total number of full-time students and schoolchildren aged 16 to 74	6,745	2,648,992
Percentage of total resident population	3.6	5.1
Total number aged 16 to 17	3,718	1,014,284
Total number aged 18 to 74	3,027	1,634,708

	North Somerset	England and Wales
Had no qualifications	23.5	29.1
Qualified to degree level or higher	19.2	19.8

Housing and Households

In North Somerset there were 79,985 households in 2001. 98 per cent of the resident population lived in households. The remainder of the population lived in communal establishments.

	North Somerset	England and Wales
One person households	29.2	30.0
Pensioners living alone	15.5	14.4
Other All Pensioner households	12.0	9.4
Contained dependent children	27.8	29.5
Lone parent households with dependent children	5.0	6.5
Owner occupied	79.4	68.9
Rented from Council	7.2	13.2
Rented from Housing Association or Registered Social Landlord	2.1	6.0
Private rented or lived rent free	11.3	11.9
Without central heating	5.2	8.5
Without sole use of bath, shower or toilet	0.3	0.5
Have no car or van	18.2	26.8
Have 2 or more cars or vans	38.2	29.4
Average household size (number)	2.3	2.4
Average number of rooms per household	5.7	5.3

	North Somerset		England & Wales
	Average price	Percentage of households living in this type of property	Average price	Percentage of households living in this type of property
Detached	180,462	34.7	178,806	22.8
Semi-detached	104,373	30.8	101,733	31.6
Terraced	88,866	15.2	89,499	26.0
Flat	68,885	18.2	120,185	19.2
All property types	117,901		119,436

Area Statistics

Levels Of Crime in North Somerset

	Violence against the person	Sexual offences	Robbery	Burglary from a dwelling	Theft of a motor vehicle	Theft from a motor vehicle
Total number of offences recorded North Somerset	1,687	68	91	1,219	671	2,305
Rate per 1,000 population North Somerset	8.9	0.4	0.5	6.4	3.5	12.1
Rate per 1,000 population England and Wales	11.4	0.7	1.8	7.6	6.4	11.9

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About this summary

1. These summary statistics are based on administrative ward boundaries legally in force at the end of 2002, which includes ward boundaries that became operative in a number of Local Authorities in May 2003, and some others that will become operative in May 2004.

2. The symbol ".." is used to indicate that the value is not available.

Copyright

This material is Crown Copyright.

Source: National Statistics website: www.statistics.gov.uk
Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO

These details are provided for information only, and were correct at time of publish, however they may change without prior notice.