Population | Durham City Neighbourhood Plan

C.1 The evidence for the social profile of Our Neighbourhood comes principally from the Super Output Areas of the April 2011 national census (Office for National Statistics, 2011), recording a total of 20,616 people living in Our Neighbourhood. 10,605 of these were boys or men, and 10,011 girls or women. Most of this discrepancy is accounted for by 514 male prisoners in Durham Jail. (The prison has a capacity of 1,017 but only 514 of them have been recorded in the census statistics.)

C.2 Over half (53%) of the residents were students, who numbered 10,916. Some of these are sixth-formers who had attained the age of 18, but the vast majority are at Durham University or New College. It should be noted that Durham University’s own figures show 12,733 for the Census year, but this difference can be explained by the fact that not all students live within Our Neighbourhood. The area with the highest concentration of students (87%) is the South Road group of colleges. Here there are 4,494 persons comprising 3,924 students and 570 long-term residents.

C.3 Since the 2011 Census the number of students in Our Neighbourhood has increased to an estimated over 16,000 out of a total of over 18,000 registered by the University in 2018/19. The number of the long-term residents is probably unchanged. Thus the total population of Our Neighbourhood amounts to some 26,000 in 2018/19.

C.4 The long-term (i.e. non-student) population of 9,700 in 2011 had roughly the same age balance as for the rest of County Durham, except that 11% are aged 75 or over as opposed to 8% in the County as a whole. 33% of the long-term residents are retired (25% in the County), and only 3% are sick or with disabilities (7% in the County). These comparisons indicate that Our Neighbourhood will have a greater demand for elderly accommodation of varying degrees of shelter and care, for day centres and for domiciliary care services but less proportionate need than in the County as a whole for provision for school places, playgrounds and so on. The nature of retailing and other leisure activities will also be affected by the greater proportion of elderly people. As to whether the lower proportion with sickness and disability will offset the health care needs for a more elderly population is not clear. Only 15.7% of the population is non-White British, but this is not typical of County Durham which has just 3.4% non White British. The main minority ethnic groups in Our Neighbourhood are Chinese (2.7%); Indian (1.3%); and Other Asian (1.2%), reflecting the international nature of the University.

C.5 In terms of the level of economic activity of the residents of Our Neighbourhood, 32.5% of residents (including students) are recorded in the 2011 Census as being economically active as against 57.3% in County Durham as a whole. This contrast can be explained on the basis of the presence of students, and to a lesser extent by the higher proportion of retired people.

Table C1: Economic activity of residents in Our Neighbourhood

Ward	Total persons 16-74 yrs old	Econ active full-time employees	Econ active part-time employees	Econ active self employed	Total econ active	% econ active
Elvet & Gilesgate	9,586	681	200	134	1,051	10.6%
Neville’s Cross	7,995	2,118	634	490	3,242	40.6%
Durham South*	4,908	633	2,108	312	3,053	62.6%
Our Neighbourhood*	22,489	3,432	2,942	936	7,310	32.5%
County Durham	303,796	50,595	143,922	25,309	219,826	57.3%