Census 2011

Subject Index

Population
Age
Religion
Ethnicity, Language and Identity
Housing
Employment
Place of Work
Health
Living Standards

Introduction

27 March 2011 saw the 20th national census for the UK.  Number crunching all those returns takes some time, so the results are being released piecemeal from 2012 onwards.

The census collates the figures for a number of different areas, for Hartley the main ones they use are set out below, but they also cover other areas such as Health Authorities, Parliamentary Constituencies and civil parishes.

Unless otherwise stated, the information set out in the paragraphs below relates to the ward of Hartley and Hodsoll Street.

Population

Although England's population is rising rapidly, up from 49.1 million in 2001 to 53.0 million in 2011, the population of Hartley and Hodsoll Street slightly fell to 5,835.   Both Sevenoaks and Dartford Boroughs have seen increases in population.  Sevenoaks is up 5,000 to 114,893.  While Dartford, thanks to significant building of houses, has risen from 85,911 in 2001 to 97,365 in 2011.

The figures are further broken down to the 4 lower layer super output areas listed above.  The Wellfield area recorded the largest change with a fall in population of 51 since the last census.

Of the 5,835 in the ward, there are 2,816 males (48.3%) and 3,019 females (51.7%)

Age Profile

What is striking is the greying of the population in Hartley - the number of people over the age of 60 rose over the ten years from 28% to 35% of all residents, those aged 60-64 are now the largest age group.  

The commonest age was 62 with 116 people that age, followed by 64, 63, 67, 45, 68, 52, and 48 (all over 100).  In England, reflecting the baby boom of the 1960s, the commonest ages are 46, 45, 44, 47, 42 and 43.

The other parishes in general follow Hartley's pattern of fewer children and more older people, which may have an effect on future school and social service provision for example.  All except Ash show an increase in those aged 20-24, could this be caused by higher house prices stopping people getting on the housing ladder?

Religion

In line with the national trend there has been a significant rise in the numbers of people who say they have no religion.  The question is an optional one on the census and these figures do not include the 8% or so who declined to answer.    

Ethnicity, Language & Identity

Very little change since 2001.

The 2011 did ask a number of other questions.  It found 95.1% of people in Hartley and Hodsoll Street were born in the UK (98% of them in England) and 3.9% had been resident for more than 10 years.  About half of those not born in the UK had arrived as children.  

When it came to national identity within the UK, 72% of people in the ward said they were English only, 10% English and British, and 14% British only.  The proportion saying English only is significantly higher than England as a whole (60%).  Broken down by age, the young and old were slightly more likely to say they were English, while the middle aged had higher than average British scores.  This question was not asked at previous censuses, but it is believed that in the past many more people would have identified themselves as British.

English is the main language of 98.9% of the population aged over 3.  86% of those for whom English is not the mother tongue said they can speak the language well or very well.

Housing

The number people owning houses is much higher in Hartley and Hodsoll Street than England as a whole, of the 2,405 households almost half are owned with no mortgage,.  Given the age profile of the ward, it is not surprising that a greater proportion are also owned outright.

Owner occupation has risen rapidly over the last century. In 1911 only 14% of houses were owner occupied, this had risen to 65% in 1939 and 75% in 1981. Now it is 85%.

People in Hartley and Hodsoll Street do not move much. The census asked people to say whether they had moved within the last year. Only 98 (4.1%) of households moved completely, in addition 66 households "partially" moved, this means that some of their members moved away but others remained the same.  The owner occupied figures include the 29 shared owners, the private rented figure includes the rent free properties.

Employment

Under the influence of Bluewater, shop work is the main profession locally, followed by construction and human health.  Once the largest employer in the c19th, now only 16 people are employed in agriculture.

The figures relate to the 2,664 people aged between 16 and 74 in employment, the figures are further broken down by the 1,430 men and 1,234 women.  They show there are still considerable differences between the sexes when it comes to employment sectors.  For men the biggest employer is construction, while for women it is health and social work.

Of the 2,664 in employment, 68% work full time (over 30 hours) and 32% part time.

Place of work

The Office for National Statistics has just released another batch of figures from the 2011 census. This is the results of the question where people worked. The figures are not yet available for parish or council ward, the smallest area available are "Middle Layer Super Output Areas". Fortunately for us Hartley and Hodsoll Street council ward is co-terminous with Sevenoaks 004 MSOA.

The figures show that 375 work at home, 269 have no fixed place of work, while 2,028 commute.  By far the most important is North Kent, with nearly 600 commuting to Dartford, Bexley and Gravesend.  Local employment in Hartley, Longfield, New Ash Green and Fawkham is about 350.  While about 200 work in central London, well ahead of its new rival Canary Wharf.  In contrast, the numbers working in the remainder of Sevenoaks District is relatively low.

The figures can be further broken down by Age and Method of Travel.  I have included the latter here.  They show the overwhelming popularity of the car for travel to work, even for locations where a public transport option is available (e.g. Bluewater).  58% of those who work in Hartley take the car too.  The car statistics include a small number of people who use motorbikes or are car passengers.

The census also records 679 people who live elsewhere but work in Hartley and Hodsoll Street, by far the biggest number (122) come from New Ash Green,

Health

95% describe their health as "fair", "good" or "very good". 224 people (3.8%) describe it as "bad" and 54 people (0.9%) describe it as "very bad".

697 people (11.9%) provide at least 1 hour of unpaid care every week. Of those 113 are providing 50 hours or more per week.

Living Standards

Using the traditional ABCDE social classes, 31% of Hartley and Hodsoll Street are class AB (Managers, Professional), 35% are C1 (Supervisory, clerical and junior managerial/administrative/professional occupations), 21% are C2 (Skilled Manual) and 14% are DE (Semi-skilled or unskilled).

The vast majority of people (90%) living in Hartley and Hodsoll Street have passports and so presumably take part in foreign travel (among those aged 16 to 64 passport ownership rises to 95%). Only 1% of households now do not have central heating at all, gas accounts for three quarters of all central heating systems. The high level of car ownership has been mentioned above.

The census uses a measure called "occupancy rating" to tell whether a house is overcrowded. A minus figure indicates overcrowding. In Hartley and Hodsoll Street only 2.7% of houses have a minus occupancy rating, compared with 8.7% for England as a whole.