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Somerset: Facts & Figures

Somerset: Facts and Figures tells the story of Somerset by means of some key facts and figures about our county. These are drawn from a variety of national, regional and local data sources and together provide a taster of the more comprehensive range of intelligence can be found elsewhere on the Somerset Intelligence website.

This digest of statistics, current at September 2018, is grouped in themes as follows:-

Map of Somerset Districts

People and Neighbourhoods

An estimated 562,225 people live in Somerset (June 2019) (NOMIS MYE)
The population rose by an average of 4,000 per year over the last 5 years (June 2019) (NOMIS MYE)
48% of the population live in a Rural area (England: 18%) (Census 2011)
17.6% of the current population are children (0 to 15 years) (June 2019) (NOMIS MYE)
Almost 1 in 4 of the residents of the county are over the age of 65 (24.6% in 2019) (NOMIS MYE)
West Somerset has the highest % of people aged 65+ in the UK (33.7% in 2017) (NOMIS MYE)
There were 5,224 live births in Somerset in 2018 (NOMIS MYE)

6% of Somerset residents (31,761) were born outside the UK (Census 2011)
Apart from the UK, the most common country of birth was Poland (Census 2011)
Between 2016 and 2019, 9,131 migrant workers applied for a National Insurance number (Stat-Xplore)
In the year to June 2019, 3,548 more people moved to Somerset from elsewhere in the UK than left the county. However, amongst those of university-age (18-20), there was a net flow out of Somerset of 902 (ONS)
539 Traveller caravans were counted in Somerset in January 2020 (GOV)
27% of Somerset people claimed no religious affiliation in 2011 (Census 2011)

The county comprises:-

4 Districts (Mendip, Sedgemoor, Somerset West & Taunton, and West Somerset)
54 County Electoral Divisions
138 District electoral wards
330 Parishes (excluding Taunton, which is ‘unparished’) and 276 parish or town councils

Somerset covers 3,452 square kilometres (1,333 square miles)
430,171 people are eligible to vote in local government elections (Dec 2019) (ONS)

Approximately 150,000 residents volunteer at least once a month (Community Life Survey 2016/17)
47,806 Somerset people live in one of the 20% most deprived areas in England, but 61,253 live in one of England’s 20% least deprived areas. (This compares to 40,000 and 74,000 in 2015) (IMD)

Crime and Community Safety

Avon & Somerset Constabulary has 11 Police stations in Somerset(A&S Police)
Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue (DSFRS) has 24 Fire stations (3 whole-time and on-call, 21 on-call only) in Somerset (D&S Fire)
In Somerset in 2015/16, there were:-

7,118 emergency incidents reported to DSFRS
292 dwelling fires
2,230 Home safety visits and 132 schools talks made by DSFRS

The number of reported casualties on Somerset’s roads in 2018 was 1,377. This represents a 6% decrease since 2017 (Somerset Road Safety)

Health and Wellbeing

Somerset has:-

1 Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)
74 GP practices
2 NHS Hospital Trusts (Musgrove Park, Taunton and Yeovil)
12 NHS community hospitals
103 pharmacies
75 NHS opticians
81 NHS dentists
68 Nursing/Care homes

Life expectancy in Somerset is 80.4 for males and 84.1 for females (December 2018) (ONS)
Cancers and circulatory diseases are the main causes of death in Somerset (52% of the total) (2017). This has decreased slightly in recent years, partly due to coding changed introduced in 2014 (SCC)
There were 4,919 Somerset patients on GP registers in 2018/19 diagnosed with a mental health condition (PHE Fingertips)
In 2011, 58,382 people in Somerset indicated that they provided unpaid care, of which 12,313 did so for at least 50 hours per week (Census 2011)
81% of Somerset people say their health is good or very good (Census 2011)

About 14% of the adult population of Somerset currently smokes (2019) (PHE Fingertips)
65.8% of adult Somerset residents are overweight or obese 2018-19 (PHE Fingertips)
22.3% of Somerset reception children and 31.5% of children in Year 6 are overweight or obese (2018/19) (NCMP)
14.5% of Somerset children under 16 were considered to be living in poverty in 2019 (GOV)
There are 475 looked after children in Somerset (at 31 March 2017) (Somerset Intelligence)

14,234 adults received a package of care in 2015/16 (Somerset Intelligence)
53% of clients with a Learning Disability are able to live in their own home or with family members (2017/18) (SCC Adults Social Care)

Environment and Transport

Around 15% of Somerset is either at or just above sea-level.
The highest point is Dunkery Beacon, at 520m above sea level
Somerset contains:-
1 National Park (Exmoor),

4 Areas of Outstanding National Beauty: the Quantock Hills, Mendip Hills, Blackdown Hills, and part of Cranborne Chase);
127 Sites of Special Scientific Interest

3.2 million passengers used the 10 railway stations in Somerset in 2018/19. Usage has risen by 23% since 2010 (Office of Rail and Road)
6.3 million bus passengers a year (2018/19), down from 9.8 million in 2009/10 (GOV)
959 licensed taxis and private hire vehicles, down 11% since 2015 (March 2019) (GOV)
Somerset has 4,230 miles (6,808km) of roads (2019) (GOV)
Somerset collects 258,882 tonnes of waste a year (2018/19) (GOV)
52% of Somerset County Council’s household waste is sent for reuse, recycling or composting (2018/19) (GOV)

Economy and Jobs

Somerset’s economy is worth £11.6 billion (2018) (ONS)
The county has 24,510 businesses (2019) (ONS)
78% of Somerset’s businesses have fewer than 5 employees (2019) (ONS)
82.7% of people aged 16-64 are employed (2019) (NOMIS)

Median gross annual pay for Somerset is £29,112 (UK £30,353) (ASHE NOMIS)
Somerset has a high concentration of employment in the aerospace and food and drink sectors compared with the national level (Somerset Economic Assessment)
4,650 MoD personnel work in Somerset (April 2019) (GOV)
In 2018/19 there were 4,280 apprenticeship starts in Somerset (GOV)

Education, Skills and Learning

There are 268 state-funded schools (including 110 Academies), 4 FE colleges, 4 Free school and 32 Independent schools in Somerset (January 2020) (GOV)
71,190 pupils attend state-funded schools and 8,124 attend Independent schools (January 2020) (GOV)
62.2% of pupils achieved a standard 9-4 pass in English and Maths GCSEs in 2018/19 (GOV)
81% of students achieved at least 2 A-levels (2018/19) (GOV)
35.2% of Somerset residents aged 16-64 have a Level 4 (degree or equivalent) qualification (2019) (NOMIS)
39% of Somerset pupils go into Higher Education institutions (2017/18) (GOV)
10,193 pupils with Special Educational Needs (SEN), 13% of all pupils (January 2020 School Census)
83.5% of schools in Somerset were judged by Ofsted to be good or outstanding in their most recent overall effectiveness judgement (August 2019) (GOV)

Housing

There are about 227,000 households in Somerset in 2011 (Census 2011)
19,744 people claim Housing Benefit (Feb 2020) (Stat-Xplore)
Median house prices vary from £472,500 in the wards of Tower (South Somerset) and The Pennards & Ditcheat (Mendip), to less than £150,000 in parts of Bridgwater (Sept 2019) (ONS)
Lower quartile house prices in Mendip are 10 times the lower quartile earnings (England: 7 times) (2019) (ONS)
There were 560 long-term vacant dwellings in 2019 (GOV)
3,146 dwellings in the county are second homes (2019) (GOV)
A total of 265 households were accepted as being homeless and in priority need, with a further 339 identified as being threatened with homelessness (Oct-Dec 2019) (GOV)
18,700 people in 8,200 households were on the Homefinder Somerset Social Housing register at 31^st March 2017 (Homefinder)

Somerset: Facts & Figures 2018

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76% of Somerset’s businesses have fewer than 5 employees