November 2005
Forthcoming meetings and other events
Wednesday 24 November 2005 - Finding Captain Swing - Last Thursday Lecture - Hampshire Record Office, Winchester.
Friday 26 November 2005 - St Paul's Christmas Fayre - St Paul's Church Hall.
Wednesday 21 December 2005 - TADS AGM and Christmas social evening - St Paul's Church Hall.
Wedenesday 18 January 2006 - William Cobbett, author of Rural Rides (1820) and supporter of the poor by Chris Hellier, curator of Farnham Museum - St Paul's Church Hall.
Wednesday 15 February 2006 - Occupied Jersey (1940-1945) by Mrs Patricia Foster - St Paul's Church Hall
Last month's meeting, 19 October 2005
2001 Census - Hampshire Trends - a talk by Robin Edwards, Principal Research Officer, Strategy and Information, Hampshire County Council Environment Department.
Questions, questions. All the time 'they' are wanting facts and figures about us. Well, that's from 1801 until so far 2001. Yes, it's the Census, which we must answer every 10 years (with the exception of 1941 because of WWII).
The HCC and Government Census want to know when?, where?, how much?, how long?, how old?, etc etc and then put all the pieces of this gigantic jig-saw together to solve our housing, travel, ethnicity, religion, education, qualification, population and migration etc. etc. problems (nb we are talking Hampshire, but not the Unitary Authorities of Southampton and Portsmouth unless specifically stated).
Obviously Robin Edwards encounters lots of statistics and deals with sensitive data in trying to achieve solutions. Census Day in England in 2001 was Sunday 29th April - deemed to be the time when people were less likely to be on holiday or nearly off to University. It is a 100% survey of households, residential and community establishments. 33 questions are about each person's demography and social economic characteristics and 9 are on household accommodation.
Occasionally someone changes the County Boundary - this happened in the Tadley area a few years ago, when we and Berkshire did some swapping. People are always suspicious of forms in any shape or format, and in 1991 a million people in England unaccountably 'disappeared'. The One Number Process was introduced in 2001 to redress the inaccuracies of 1991's under-enumeration!
Even 'small areas' and hamlets of 300 people are accountable and there are 4,086 such areas in Hampshire (2001). Big Brother can watch our American cousins across The Pond and they will divulge their salaries. Not us Brits. We will spill the beans on ethnicity, but not income! The next Census is in 2011 and we in Hampshire have 249 wards in 11 districts with 20,000+ cells of information in 161 tables for each area. Imagine that!
Like migrating birds we're never still, be we student, adventurer or pensioner. From Hampshire, some migrate to London, the South West or even abroad. And some people come to us from other counties or countries. Between 1991 and 2001 there was an 80,800 change in population. The Census can tell us what we already know: people live longer, we marry, divorce and have single households. In Hampshire we need 30,000 new houses for all sorts of reasons. We have more deaths than births in the New Forest and Havant areas.
The national and international migration of people to and from Hampshire (and no doubt other counties) is something of a grey area. Some 16 -20 year olds make for London and the South East; but when they become 35 - 44 year olds they tire of town life and make for the countryside to settle down. Older people often migrate to the South West or Europe, to retire.
Since 1991 - 2001 there are more 85+ year olds; 1965, just pre-Pill era, was the peak here for post-war births; 1976 saw the lowest number of live births. 2001 - 2011 will probably show more elderly people and a low birth rate. 2011 - 2021 will show a high increase in Hampshire's population of pensioners, 65-85+ years with concerns for PENSIONS, of course.
In Hampshire we have a mixed population with people from all over the globe. Rushmoor and Basingstoke have many Indians and Chinese. Southampton has many Black Africans, Chinese and Black Caribbean people. Portsmouth has a very high number of Bangladeshis. Mixed race people are counted as White. The Ethnic Minorities population in Hampshire is 2.20 % (in England as a whole it is 9.08 %).
In the 2001 Census the Government asked for the first time about religion. In Hampshire 71% said they were Christian; 15 % had no religion; 7% would not answer. The most Moslems, Hindus and Buddhists were in the Rushmoor area; the most Jews in Winchester; Sikhs in Eastleigh; and Fareham had the most of 'Other Religions' at 0.45%.
2001 showed us that we in Hampshire have many 'low-level qualifications' (vocational) in people between the ages of 16 and 74 years; but overall we're NOT too cerebrally-challenged! Winchester's population has 30 % with degrees; but in the New Forest the level of degrees is low because its elderly population did not have the educational advantages in times past.
Rushmoor and Gosport have big military populations with vocational qualifications. Hart has 92 % in full - time education (i.e. a young population) while Havant has less than 86 % (because of its elderly population). Hampshire's health is better than the national average, and we all have greater expectations than in 1991.
Rural areas are often affluent and some urban areas 'deprived'. Lone parents in urban areas are monitored to see if they need special funding ---- and the Census can help in these instances.
Cars! Many of us can't be parted from them according to the 2001 indications and there has been a 26.5 % increase since 1991. In Hampshire there are 701,294 cars (This excludes Portsmouth and Southampton) and 42 % of households own 2 plus cars and only 15 % have no car.
Rural areas have more cars because the public transport is deemed to be inadequate. Tadley is quite car-prosperous! As for peeling a car driver from his/her car: forget it, Robin said. Three quarters of Hampshire people go to work by car and the only way to reduce this would be to have more of us work from home. Free, or subsidised, public transport is NOT really successful.
We asked Robin if honesty checks are made during a Census - yes, validation surveys are carried out.
What now? Well, there are 99,000 extra Hampshire-ites since 1991.
55,800 new houses have been built, with still a shortfall of 23,200.
Mortality rates have fallen; migrants have increased; each household generates more waste and uses more water.
Hampshire recycles 30 % of its refuse (but Germany does 66 %).
All of Robin's data was mind-blowing and his maps and graphs show at a glance the answers to the questions. 'But what about the solutions?' I heard at least one TADS' member wonder 'Where is the county going to??'
Thanks Robin, for trying to guide us
Rosemary Bond
Other news
Programme Organiser 2006
Many thanks to all those members who have suggested possible speakers for future TADS meetings, HOWEVER at present TADS has no official programme for NEXT YEAR as we still need a Programme Organiser to take over from Bob Brown who has done this job for the last 20 years or so. There must be someone out there from our 80 or so members. Several talks are in the pipeline, we just need someone to consolidate them and Bob is still willing to help them along.
TADS calendar
Unfortunately due to pressure of time, there will NOT be a TADS Calendar for 2006.