Britain is changing: the country is ageing but places are ageing at very different rates. This demographic divergence means North Norfolk (average age 54) is already older than Japan while some places are actually getting younger (looking at you Nottingham - average age 30)
The story you hear all the time: we're an older country as longevity plus the baby boomer bulge push up the average age
1947 = 35.1
2001 = 38.6
Now = 40.2
1947 = 35.1
2001 = 38.6
Now = 40.2
The quite interesting story: underneath the national headlines areas are very different age wise. Brighton (typical age 35.4yrs) neighbours Lewes (47.7yrs).
60 local authorities (16%) are older than Japan (46.4yrs) while 23 (6%) are younger than very young Chile (33.8yrs)
60 local authorities (16%) are older than Japan (46.4yrs) while 23 (6%) are younger than very young Chile (33.8yrs)
The really interesting story: we're not just ageing at different rates - we're demographically diverging with the oldest places ageing fastest - and the youngest places actually getting younger
In 2001 15 areas had an average age 10% higher than average, and 17% 10% lower. By 2018 those figures surged to 33 and 39, respectively.
Our oldest places are ageing fast because no-one's getting born (slight overstatement) - in the 10 places ageing fastest, women aged 15-44 years old make up 14-15% of the population, way below the 19% average. Plus young people (from here or abroad) arent moving there
The slowest ageing (or actually getting younger) places are seeing lots of youthful migration (of the student and other kinds) - or if they're poorer, diverse urban areas they're seeing lots of births.
Crucially: this is not the lazy old story about old places being left behind economically. It's middle income places getting older fastest while poor (Barking) and rich (other parts of London) that are staying relatively young
This demographic divergence matters for how we fund social care and grow local economies. It's also having a huge effect on our politics - older and younger places are becoming the new safe seats for the Tories and Labour respectively
Read the full report from @charliejmccurdy - it's both light relief from Brexit and VERY important for the future of our country resolutionfoundation.org/publications/a…
