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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 Feb 2023, is grouped in themes as follows:-

People and Neighbourhoods

An estimated 576,900 people live in Somerset (Nov 2023) (NOMIS MYE)
The average annual population rise in Somerset from 2017 to 2022 is 3,600 (NOMIS MYE)
48% of the population live in a Rural area (England: 18%) (Census 2011)
16.9% of the current population are children (0 to 15 years)(NOMIS MYE)
Almost 1 in 4 of the residents of the county are over the age of 65 (25% in 2021) (NOMIS MYE)
There were 5,063 live births in Somerset in 2021 (NOMIS MYE)
8.5% of Somerset residents (48,794) were born outside the UK (Census 2021), there are 2.5% percentage change in somerset residents born outside the UK compared to censes 2011 (census_2021)
Apart from the UK, the most common country of birth was Poland, followed by Romania (Census 2021)
In 2022/23 3,686 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)
697 Traveller caravans were counted in Somerset in July 2023 (GOV)
41.5% of Somerset people claimed no religious affiliation (Census 2021)

The county comprises:-

It is comprised of four former district authority: Mendip, South Somerset, Sedgemoor and Somerset West and Taunton
55 County Divisions
330 Parishes (excluding Taunton, which is ‘unparished’) and 276 parish or town councils
There are 18 (Local community networks) LCNs in Somerset

Somerset covers 3,452 square kilometres (1,333 square miles)
437,457 people are eligible to vote in local government elections (Dec 2022) (ONS)
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 24 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)
Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service (DSFRS) attended 4,293 fire incidents in 2022/23.
DSFR also attended 6,606 fire false alarms and 879 dwelling fires in 2022/23.

The number of reported casualties on Somerset’s roads in 2022 was 1,030. This represents a approximately 25% decrease since 2018(road-casualties)

Health and Wellbeing

Somerset has:-

One Integrated Care board (ICB)
81 GP Practices
17 NHS community hospitals
100 pharmacies
39 NHS opticians
67 NHS dentists
389 Care homes with nursing

Life expectancy in Somerset is 80.2 for males and 83.8 for females (December 2021)(fingertips)
50% of deaths in Somerset are caused by cancer and circulatory diseases (2020) (fingertips)
There were 5,146 Somerset patients on GP registers in 2022/23 diagnosed with a mental health condition (fingertips)
In 2021, 49,937 people in Somerset indicated that they provided unpaid care, of which 14,744 did so for at least 50 hours per week(Census 2021)
81% of Somerset people say their health is good or very good (Census 2021)
66.3% of adult Somerset residents are overweight or obese 2021/22 (fingertips)
9.4% of Somerset reception children and 20.6% of children in Year 6 are overweight or obese (2021/22)(SINePost)
About 12.6% of the adult population of Somerset currently smokes (2021/22) (fingertips)
14.2% of Somerset children under 16 are from relatively low-income families in 2021 (GOV.UK)
There are 564 looked after children in Somerset (at 31^st March 2023) (GOV.UK)
8144 adults received long term care in 2022/23.
83.9% of clients with a Learning Disability are able to live in their own home or with family members (2022/23)

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

In 2022/23, the total number of passengers using the 10 railway stations in Somerset reached approximately 3.17 million, reflecting an increase from 2.75 million in 2013/14(Office of Rail and Road)
4.8 million bus passengers a year (2022/23), down from 8.6m million in 2013/14 (GOV)
There are 830 licensed taxis and private hire vehicles, a decrease from 959 in 2019 (April 2023) (GOV)
Somerset has 4,214.6 miles (6,786.7km) of roads (July 2023) (GOV)
Somerset collects 264,976 tonnes of waste a year (2020/21) (GOV)
52% of Somerset County Council’s household waste is sent for reuse, recycling or composting (2020/21) (GOV)

Economy and Jobs

Somerset’s economy is worth £12.4 billion (2021) (ONS)
The county has 25,190 businesses (Sept 2023) (ONS)
77% of Somerset’s businesses have fewer than 5 employees(sept 2023) (ONS)
79.3% of people aged 16-64 are employed (2023)(NOMIS)
Median gross annual pay for Somerset is £32,235 (NOMIS)
The industry sectors with the most businesses in Somerset are Construction (14.7%) Agriculture, forestry & Fishing (14.1%), and Professional, scientific & technical (12%) (SINePost newsletter)
4,610 MoD personnel work in Somerset (April 2023)(GOV)
In 2022/23 there were 3,710 apprenticeship starts in Somerset (GOV)

Education, Skills and Learning

There are 266 state-funded schools (including 132 Academies), 4 FE colleges, 5 Free school and 34 Independent schools in Somerset (2022/23)
72,603 pupils attend state-funded schools and 8,441 attend Independent schools (2022/23) (GOV)
60.2% of pupils achieved a standard 9-4 pass in English and Maths GCSEs in 2022/23
89.5% of students achieved 2 or more A-levels in 2022/23, based on a total of 1,806 A-level students attending state-funded schools and colleges.
28% of students in state-funded schools and colleges went on to attend a UK higher education institution (based on the students who left 16-18 study in 2020/21 and their destinations in 2021/22).
30.5% of Somerset residents aged 16+ have a Level 4 (degree or equivalent) or above qualification (Census 2021)
43.7% of Somerset pupils go into Higher Education institutions (2021/22) (GOV)
In Somerset schools funded by the state , there were 12,559 pupils with special educational needs. This makes up 17.4% of all pupils.
81% of schools in Somerset were judged by Ofsted to be good or outstanding in their most recent overall effectiveness judgement (August 2023) (GOV)

Housing

There are about 250,120 households in Somerset in 2021 (census_2021)
15,307 people claim Housing Benefit (Aug 2023) (Stat-xplore)
The median house price in Somerset is 285,000 (2022/23),the median house price in Mendip area (321,000)is higher compared to other areas in Somerset.(ONS)
The lower quartile house prices in Mendip are 9.6 times the lower quartile earnings, and for Somerset West and Taunton, the ratio is 9.2 times. Meanwhile, the corresponding ratios for Sedgemoor and South Somerset are 8.8 and 8.3, respectively, with the national average for England being 8.3 times (as of 2022) (ONS)
There were 2700 long term vacant dwellings (2023) (GOV)
2,888 dwellings in the county are second homes (2023)(GOV)
A total of 382 households were accepted as being homeless and in priority need, with a further 308 identified as being threatened with homelessness (April-June 2023) (GOV)
There were 22,376 people in 10,256 households on the Homefinder Somerset Social Housing register at Jan 2024.

Somerset: Facts & Figures 2018

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You can see Care Quality Commission ratings for all places in Somerset where they regulate care on our CQC ratings dashboard.