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Information - 2001 Census

 Many of you will recall completing the census form in 2001, well now the Office of National Statistics Website has published detailed results based on local council wards.

In the council wards referred to below,"Hartley" is in fact Hartley, Hodsoll Street and Ridley, "Longfield" is Longfield, New Barn and Southfleet, and "Ash" is Ash and New Ash Green.

Numbers

The total populations are:

 
Hartley 5,871
Longfield 6,167
Ash 6,595

The distribution of population chart below makes interesting reading. While Hartley and Longfield have a similar age profile, the younger population of New Ash Green is vividly shown. Ash leads the other two wards right up to the 50-54 age group and then falls well behind its neighbours. Hartley has significantly greater numbers of people over the age of 80.

 

Census 2001 - Age profile of Hartley, Longfield and New Ash Green

Movement of People

It is said that people move on average every 6 years. If this is the case, then the population of our corner of Kent is much more settled, less than 8% of people have moved home in Hartley in the year before 2001. Incidently the census proves one local addage - that people move around in New Ash Green rather than away, for Ash ward has a far higher number of people moving within the ward in the previous year than Hartley and Longfield!

 
 

Hartley

Longfield

Ash

Total Population

5,871

6,168

6,594

Moved into area within last year

402

402

393

Moved within area within last year

56

51

169

Moved out of area within last year

388

424

433

Qualifications

Overall people in our area have on average more qualifications than Kent as a whole. Ash is the highest qualified ward of the three.

 

Qualification level

Hartley

Longfield

Ash

None

24.4%

25.4%

18.3%

1-4 GCSE/O Level equivalent

16.8%

17.4%

21.2%

5 GCSE/O Level equivalent

23.2%

22.7%

25.4%

2+ A levels or equivalent

7.7%

7.4%

9.4%

Degree/Qualified teacher/nurse/doctor etc

18.6%

17.1%

19.3%

Other eg. BTEC, City & Guilds

9.2%

10.1%

6.3%

Work

The three wards display similar figures, except a wide difference in the number of students and retired, which reflects the age profile above. In addition a slightly higher percentage of employers live in Hartley and Longfield.

 

 

Hartley Longfield Ash
Employee - Full Time 2,048 2,432 2,968
Employer 184 204 148
Self Employed 298 293 368
Unemployed 79 72 122
Students 222 213 332
Retired 865 910 373
Homemakers 282 291 311
Perm sick/disabled 124 104 103
Others 97 103 106
Total 4,199 4,622 4,831

The census then goes on to break down employment figures into a number of business sectors. The contrast with the census of a century ago is striking. Then most were employed in agriculture, now only 1-2% make their living from the land. No doubt influenced by developments like Bluewater, retailing is the main employer across all three wards, with manufacturing and general business being big employers too. The public sector is a big employer too, particularly in Education and Health.

 
Type of employment Hartley Longfield Ash
Agriculture & forestry 41 55 37
Mining & Quarrying 9 3 4
Manufacturing 338 415 436
Public Utilities 22 20 21
Construction 256 263 303
Retailing & repairs 413 490 604
Hotels & restaurants 67 70 115
Transport & Communications 158 222 256
Financial 215 242 250
Real Estate & business activities 392 424 568
Public Sector; defence 119 170 199
Education 225 229 332
Health & Social Work 230 290 288
Other community 118 131 200
Live in employees 3 3 5
Total 2,606 3,027 3,618

About 25% of those in employment work part time (up to 30 hours per week). Many local people work long hours, 529 Hartley residents (28% of those in full time work) said they worked for more than 48 hours a week during the 4 weeks before the census.

Hartley people travel furthest to work on average - 12 miles. And driving your own car to work is by far the biggest means of transport to work, apparently without any passengers. Ash appears to be the greenest ward with the highest numbers travelling by foot or on bicycle. And over the three wards 1,000 people do not have to commute to work at all!

 
Mode of transport Hartley Longfield Ash
Own Car 1,609 1,975 2,220
Car passenger 111 144 176
Train/underground 284 301 341
Bus/Coach/Taxi 114 256 243
Motorbike/moped 32 44 67
Bicycle 26 14 34
On foot 109 114 219
Work from home 313 300 330
Other 7 12 11
Total 2,605 3,027 3,618

Car Ownership

While we are on the subject of transport, the number of households without a car is highest in Hartley, but conversely the village has a greater proportion of households with more than 3 cars too:

 
Number of Cars per household Hartley Longfield Ash
Households 2,318 2,427 2,472
0 13.5% 8.0% 10.4%
1 34.3% 36.1% 39.9%
2 37.4% 42.3% 37.5%
3 11.2% 9.8% 9.1%
more than 4 3.5% 3.8% 3.0%

In all there were 3,671 cars or vans in Hartley and Hodsoll Street in 2001.

Social Class

Using the A-E social classes, so beloved by advertisers, we find that Ash turns out to be the most middle class of the three wards (ie. those with most ABC1s) with 65.6%, although Hartley has most of the AB social class. Hartley is by a small margin the most working class (ie those with most C2DEs) at 36.8%.

 
Social Class Hartley Longfield Ash
AB Higher and intermediate managerial/administrative/professional 31.5% 29.8% 29.9%
C1 Supervisory; clerical; junior managerial/administrative/professional 31.8% 34.3% 35.7%
C2 Skilled manual workers 13.1% 12.1% 15.5%
D Semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers 8.7% 9.8% 11.4%
E On state benefit; unemployed; lowest grade workers 15.0% 14.0% 7.6%

Housing

There are very few empty properties in Hartley and Ash (1%), but for some reason Longfield almost 3% standing empty in 2001.

The ownership statistics throw up some interesting comparisons. While the owner-occupied figure is similar for all three wards, far more are owned outright (ie without mortgage or shared ownership) in Hartley and Longfield - no doubt a reflection of Ash's younger population, while the number of council houses is far higher in Longfield because Sevenoaks has transferred most of its houses in Hartley and Ash to a Housing Association.

 
Type of ownership Hartley Longfield Ash
Owner-occupied 85.2% 88.9% 86.1%
Local Authority Rented 0.8% 6.1% 0.5%
Housing Assn Rented 9.3% 0.3% 7.9%
Private rented 3.1% 3.7% 4.7%
Rent Free 1.6% 1.1% 0.7%

Health

Ash (76%) has more people who said they were in good health on census day than Longfield and Hartley (both 71%) - perhaps a reflection of the relative age profile of each community. 958 people (16%) in Hartley said they had a long term limiting illness, compared with 15% in Longfield and 11% in Ash.

The census also highlights the large number of people who provide unpaid care. 612 people (10.5%) in Hartley are carers, 74 of whom for over 50 hours per week. In Longfield 11.6% of people are carers, while in Ash the figure is 8.1%

Religion

The census results show our three wards are overwhelmingly Christian, those with no religion at all being a distant second. Those of you who subscribed to the internet campaign to put "Jedi Knight" for this question were put in the "no answer" category, I think. The largest religions in the other category for our area are Hindu and Sikh. Longfield is clearly the most religious ward of the three.

 

Religion

Hartley

Longfield

Ash

Christian

79.1%

82.6%

75.1%

Other religion

1.8%

1.8%

1.1%

Athiest

12.0%

10.4%

17.8%

Did not answer

7.0%

5.2%

6.1%

Source: Office for National Statistics. (Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland.)