There were 2,647,013 of us usually resident in the North East of England (including Tees Valley) when the Census took place in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (but not Scotland) on 21 March 2021. Just over half of us, 51.1%, were female and 48.9% were male. In England as a whole the population was 56,490,048, of whom 51% were female and 49% male.
Today North East Bylines continues its exploration of statistics relating to the North East by examining data from the Census that has been published over the more than two years since Census Day to discover what it tells us about ourselves and the region. The statistics were accurate on Census Day.
In Part 4 of this series we find that people in the North East are, on average, the unhealthiest, least highly educated and among the oldest in England.
Age
The North East has, on average, one of the oldest populations in England in terms of both a proportionately low number of children and a large number of elderly. Only 5.1% of the region’s population is aged four and under compared with 5.4% for England as a whole. Only the South West has a smaller proportion in this age bracket, with 4.8%. London has the most with 6.0%.
It is a similar picture in the next two age groups, 5-9 and 10-15, with the North East again below average with 5.7% and 6.9% respectively while the South West has 5.5% and 6.7%. The averages for England are 5.9% and 7.2%. The West Midlands has most in both age brackets with 6.2% and 7.5% respectively.
At the other end of the age spectrum the North East has an above-average proportion of people in all three age brackets over 65. The region’s total in these three ranges is 20.4%, second again only to that retirement home for the elderly, the South West, where it is 22.4%. The national average is 18.3%, but it is skewed downwards by the London figure of just 11.9%.
The figures leave the North East with a below-average proportion of its population of working age. Just 61.9% of people in the region are aged 16-64 compared to the England average of 63%. However, the North East does not have the lowest proportion of working age people; the South West has only 60.6% and the Eastern region 61.6% while the West Midlands ties with the North East on 61.9%.
London is again an outlier: 68.8% of its population is of working age. What is more, the difference is particularly marked among young adults. London has 18.1% in the 25-34 age group compared with the national average of 13.6% and in the North East only 12.4%, though again the South West has even fewer with 12.1% and the South East has the same proportion as the North East.
Within the North East, the semi-rural counties of Northumberland and Durham have the fewest young people aged 15 and under, with only 16.1% of the population in this range in Northumberland and 16.8% in Durham, compared with the regional average of 17.7% and the national average of 18.5%. Middlesbrough has the most young people with 20.8% followed by Stockton with 19.6%.
This is a significant potential economic advantage for these two boroughs and the wider Tees Valley, provided these young people benefit from a good education. This is discussed below and later in this series.
The North East council district with the highest proportion of over-65s is Redcar & Cleveland with 23.3% followed by Northumberland with 22.7%. Newcastle is a bottom-end outlier with only 14.9% of over 65s, perhaps partly because many retirees who can afford to have moved to Northumberland, boosting its number, and partly because the city’s population is imbalanced by a high number of students.
The proportion of Newcastle’s population aged five and over counted as schoolchildren and students (measured as a single group) is 29.1%, well above the regional average of 18.8%, even though the figure for the region as a whole is below the national average of 20.4% and the lowest for all English regions apart from the South West with 18.7%.
Newcastle has the proportionately largest working-age population in the North East with 67.9% of its population aged 16-64, which is well above the regional average of 61.9%. The lowest proportion is in Northumberland with 58.4%. The average for England is 63.0%.
Education
Not only does the North East have comparatively few people of working age, few young people coming through and more elderly people, but the population is the least highly educated in England.
Only 28.6% of all those aged over 16 are qualified to level 4 (degree or equivalent), the lowest in England, well below the region with the highest proportion of graduates, London, with 46.7%. The national average is 33.9%. Newcastle has the highest proportion of graduates in the region with 34.6% and Sunderland has the lowest with 24.6%.
At the other end of the scale 20.3% in the North East have no qualifications at all, which is more than the national average of 18.1% but better than the West Midlands and Yorkshire & Humber, where 21.1% and 20.6% respectively are unqualified. North Tyneside has proportionately the fewest non-qualified residents in the North East with 17.5% and Middlesbrough has the most with 23.9%.
Health and disability
The general health of people in the North East is the worst of any region of Engand and proportionately more people suffer from a disability, as we saw in Part 3 of this series.
Only 44.6% of all residents of the region are in generally very good health compared with the national average of 48.5%. Every other region has a better health record, headed by London with 53.6%. At the bottom of the scale,1.6% in the North East are in very bad health compared with the national average of 1.2%. The South West, notwithstanding its large number of retirees, has the lowest proportion of residents in very bad health with 0.9% of all residents.
Newcastle has the highest proportion of people within the region in very good health with 48.4% and Redcar & Cleveland has the lowest with 42.5%. Hartlepool and Sunderland have the highest proportions of people in very bad health, both on 1.9% Darlington has the fewest people in very bad health with 1.2%.
The proportion of people in the North East with a long-term health problem or disability such that their day-to-day activities are limited a lot is again the highest in England, with 9.9%. The national average is 7.3% and in London, the lowest, it is only 5.7%.
The proportion with no long-term mental or physical health conditions is lower in the North East than any other region: 71.5% compared with the national average of 75.9%. The proportion in London, the region with the highest disability-free rate, is 81.5% – 10% better than in the North East.
*In Part 5 North East Bylines will examine other aspects of regional identities: ethnicity, national identity, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity.
