Data from the 2011 UK and Wales census was recently released. The Office for National Statistics which oversees the process says the census "help paint a picture of the nation and how we live. They provide a detailed snapshot of the population and its characteristics, and underpin funding allocation to provide public services."

A number of reports have been compiled from the findings covering London. Notably these include the 'GLA Intelligence Unit' reports into the Labour Market, Housing, Ethnic Diversity and Health & Unpaid Care findings of the cencus.

Labour Market

Since March 2011, there were found to be 4.4 million 'economically active' people in London about 65% of the population aged 16 to 75. 5.5% were actively seeking work, and the remainder - 29.5 where 'economically inactive' a category which is defined as "students, people looking after family and home, long term sick and disabled, temporarily sick and disabled, retired people and discouraged workers."

Employment levels varied considerably with Newham having 57 per cent of the population aged 16-74 in employment, compared with 73.2 per cent in Wandsworth. Unemployment also varied between boroughs with the proportion who are unemployed at 3.1 per cent in Richmond upon Thames to 7.7 per cent in Barking and Dagenham.

Read more of this report here - http://data.london.gov.uk/datastorefiles/documents/2011-census-snapshot-...

Housing

London has 3.27 million households as of 2011, an increase of a quarter of a million in ten years. Of these 25% are private rented accommodation. The number of houses increased by near 2% yet the number of flats increased by 18.6%. The most 'overcrowded borough was Newham where 1 in 4 are classed as not having enough bedrooms for the households needs. Tower Hamlets saw the biggest increase with over 26000 new residents - an increase of nearly a third.

Read more of this report here - http://data.london.gov.uk/datastorefiles/documents/2011-census-snapshot-...

Ethnic Diversity Indices

The census found that just under 20% - 11 million - of people in England and Wales are from an ethnic group other than White British. Of this group 4.5 million live in London. in both Newham and Brent over 80 per cent of the resident population is non-White British.

The survey found that 26 of 30 of the top boroughs for ethnic diversity are in London. The other four are Slough, Luton, Leicester and Birmingham. Three London authorities are notably further down the list of diversity, these are Bexley, (ranked 63rd) Bromley (ranked 64th) and Havering (ranked 91st).

London’s most diverse boroughs are Newham and Brent. The least diverse boroughs are Havering and
Bromley.

Read more of this report here - http://data.london.gov.uk/datastorefiles/documents/2011-census-snapshot-...

Health and Unpaid Care

This report covers the census questions on London residents health and on residents providing unpaid health care. The 2011 census asked people to self-assess their health as ‘very good’, ‘good’, ‘fair’, ‘bad’ or ‘very bad’. Around half of London residents said their health was very good and around a third that it was
good.

A key finding was that fewer per cent of Londoners reported poor health than did nationally. 305,000 responded that their health was bad, and a further 100,000 stated it was very bad. This relates to 3.7 per cent and 1.2 per cent respectively for London compared to 4.3 per cent and 1.3 per cent for England and Wales. This can be explained by the fact that London has a higher proportion of younger people, and long term or serious health problems are more likely in older age.

Conversely 550,000 in London said there activities were limited a lot and over 600,000 said there was a little limitation on what they could do.

The borough of Islington had the poorest health, and Richmond the best. Regarding long term health problems which limited peoples activities, Wandsworth at 11.2%, Richmond and City of London had the fewest - the best across England & Wales, whilst Havering had the highest rate in London, 17.3% of residents, followed by Barking and Dagenham and Bexley. It's worth noting however that Barking and Dagenham had one of the biggest falls in people reporting ill health at 3.5% along with Hackney and Newham seeing similar decreases.

In London 690,000 people reported that they provided unpaid care to family, friends, neighbours or others for both physical or mental ill health or long term disability. The per cent providing such care has remained at near 8% since the 2001 census.

The percent of people providing unpaid care is lowest at just over 6% in Wandsworth and highest at just over 10% in Havering.

Read more of this report here - http://data.london.gov.uk/datastorefiles/documents/2011-census-snapshot-...

There is also much more data and information available at the London.gov.uk website here.