The population of Barrow Borough is made up of a diverse range
of people who make different and valuable contributions to life in
the area. This includes disabled people, women, people from
different socio-economic back grounds, religions and faiths, black
and minority ethnic (BME) backgrounds, lesbians, gay men and
transgendered people.
We know that some people in the Borough face discrimination
every day. Because of race, gender, age, disability, sexual
orientation and other characteristics, people are denied
life-chances, find access to services more difficult, and suffer
inequality.
To help us understand the problems that people may face we have
developed Equality Profiles for some of the groups most likely to
face discrimination and disadvantage, and we use these and other
sources of information to develop our understanding of the
particular
equality and diversity issues in Barrow. Information has
been gathered from a range of sources to create community profiles
for our area. The 2001 Census was used as base data for equality
profiling and this information is supplemented through various
other sources.
The 2001 Census data is now at the very end of it life
cycle and it is therefore not the best representation of the
current situation in the area. However quite often there is no
other suitable data to use as a replacement. The equality profiles
are intended to be reviewed at least bi-annually. The next review
will have the data for the 2011 census included so should produce a
much more up to date and accurate picture.
Mid-year population estimates from the Office
for National Statistics provide a more recent illustration of
the demography of the Borough and we use customer profiling data
derived from Experian (a specialist third party market research
company) to produce a spatial analysis of socio-economic groups in
the district.
We work closely with our partners in Cumbria County Council and
other Cumbrian districts to share information about our communities
and in addition to our own profiling data we have access to
Cumbria Intelligence Observatory's Equality Profile for Barrow
and valuable Diversity
Facts and Figures produced by Cumbria County Council.
Deprivation
The 2007 English Indices of Multiple Deprivation rank Barrow as
the 29th most deprived local authority area out of 354 in
England (based on the rank of average score). Barrow is the only
district in Cumbria ranked as one of the 50 most deprived authority
districts in England, and is the 2nd most deprived shire district
authority area in England.
To calculate the Indices of Deprivation, the Borough is divided
up into 50 small areas, each containing around 1500 people (The
Office for National Statistics calls them ‘Lower Super Output
Areas’ or 'LSOAs' - we'll just call them 'areas' on this
page) . Of these 50 areas, 6 are in the 3% most deprived in
the England, and 12 are in the 10% most deprived. These are mostly
in the wards of Central, Hindpool, Risedale, Barrow Island,
Ormsgill and Walney North. Cumbria has a whole has 8 of these areas
within the worst 3%, including the 6 in Barrow (so there are only
two of them in the rest of Cumbria).
Disability
9.2% of Barrow's resident population claim
Disability Living Allowance (Nomis DWP Benefits August 2009). This
is significantly higher than the North West figure of 6.8% and the
Cumbria average of 5.7%.
The situation regarding Incapacity Benefit/Severe Disablement
Allowance is similar with 6.3% of Barrow's resident
population claiming compared with 5.1% in the North West and 4.1%
in Cumbria (NOMIS ONS DWP benefit claimants August 2009).
At the 2001 Census 24.8% of people in Barrow said they
had a limiting long term illness - that's nearly 5% higher than the
Cumbria and North West figures. 30% of people living in Central and
Hindpool at that time said they had a limiting long term
illness.
At the time of the last Census 55% of the residents in
one area of Walney said that they had a limiting long term
illness - more than double the number in the nearest comparable
area.
More than 1 in 10 residents in Central, Hindpool, Ormsgill,
Risedale and Walney South Wards are claiming Disability Living
Allowance.
In Central and Hindpool more than 1 in 10 people are claiming
Incapacity Benefit/Severe Disablement Allowance.
Barrow
Borough Equality Profile -
Disability (pdf.1.31MB)
Ethnicity
At the time of the 2001 Census Barrow only around 2% of
Barrow's population described themselves as anything other
than White-British. This was comparable with the rest of
Cumbria but much lower than the North West average of 8%.
Recent experimental statistics for 2007 (ONS Resident Population
Estimates) suggest that the proportion of people in Barrow
that are not White-British may have risen to 4%, but this is
still much lower than the average of around 11% the North West.
Dalton North Ward had the lowest percentage of BME residents in
2001 at 0.8%
The highest percentage of BME residents lived in Hawcoat
(3.3%).
In 2001, just over half (53%) of Barrow's Asian or
Asian-British population lived in a small area of Hawcoat
close to Furness General Hospital, while a similar
number of Barrow's Black or Black-British residents lived
within an even smaller area, again close to the Hospital.
Barrow
Borough Equality Profile - Ethnicity (pdf.1.98MB)
Religion
More than 81% of people in living in Barrow in 2001 described
themselves as 'Christians'; compared with 78% across the North
West and 82% in Cumbria as a whole.
Central had the lowest percentage of Christians at 74.35% and
Hawcoat the highest at 87.31%.
The largest non-Christian religion reported
was Muslim (0.26%).
Hindpool Ward had the largest percentage of
people with a non-Christian religion at 1.25% and Walney South the
lowest at 0.21%.
More than 10% of people said they had no
religion, and over 7% chose not to answer the question.
Barrow
Borough Equality Profile - Religion and
Belief (pdf.1.50MB)
Age
Barrow's population is likely to
include 9,100 people over the age of 75 by 2024; this is
significantly higher than the 5,757 people over 75 that
lived in Barrow in 2001. (ONS 2006 based sub national
population projections)
The same figures suggest that the number
of people aged 0 to 14 will remain fairly constant between 2010 and
2024, while the number of 15 to 24 year olds will fall by around
1,500 and the number of 40 to 49 year olds will fall by 2,600 over
the same period.
Dalton North, Risedale and Ormsgill have the largest under 19
population count in Borough.
Hawcoat Ward has the largest number of people over 75.
Barrow
Borough Equality Profile - Age (pdf.3.60MB)
Sexual Orientation
Little data exists with regards to sexual orientation and the
number of people who are lesbians, gay men or bi-sexual. In
2009 the Office of National Statistics' Integrated Household
Survey (IHS) included questions to explore
sexual identity for the first time and research into the statistics
continues. The ONS guidance on their Sexual
Identity Project provides much more information. The IHS data
indicates that:
- 95%of adults identified themselves as
Heterosexual/Straight
- 1% of adults identified themselves as Gay or Lesbian
- 0.5% of adults identified themselves as Bisexual
- 0.5% of adults identified themselves as ‘Other’
- just under 3% of adults stated they ‘don’t know’ or refused to
answer the question
- less than 1% of respondents provided no response to the
question
The 2011 census will have a question to measure the
number of people living in same sex civil partnerships.
Respondents to the Cumbria Quality of Life Survey in 2006
were asked to describe their sexual orientation; 3% or respondents
stated they were not heterosexual and 13% preferred not to answer
the question.
