Gloucestershire growth slower than national average because of high number of older people (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Almost one in four Cotswold residents are over 65

4:20pm Sunday 5th August 2012 in Cotswolds news

GLOUCESTERSHUIRE’S population has grown by over 32,000 in the last ten years and has a higher than national average number of older people.

That’s according the first release of 2011 Census data released recently. The National Census was carried out on March 27, 2011, when every household was encouraged to complete either a paper or online questionnaire.

So far, the first release of the 2011 Census has revealed:

• The population of Gloucestershire was 597,000 on the Census day, an increase of 32,300 people since 2001. This is equivalent to a growth of 5.7% in the 10 years to 2011.
• The growth rate is lower than the England & Wales average of 7.8%, because of a smaller increase in children, young people and the working age population in the County compared to England and Wales as a whole.
• This is despite a higher increase in the county’s older population compared to England and Wales (+13.6% vs 10.9%).
• Population growth in Gloucester nearly doubled the county average and accounted for more than a third of the total growth (up 10.8%, or 11,800 people).
• The county’s proportion of 65+ has increased from 17.4% to 18.6% against a national average of 16.4%. Cotswold has the highest percentage of 65+ (22.3%) The current age profile of Gloucestershire population is 22.9% aged 0-19, 58.5% aged 20-64, and 18.6% aged 65+ The Census also shows that the total number of households in Gloucestershire was 254,600 in 2011, an increase of 9.5% since 2001.

Cllr Mark Hawthorne, Leader of Gloucestershire County Council , said: “The data obtained from the last Census is invaluable to help us to plan for services in the future.

“We already knew that our older population was increasing and this is reflected in the extra resources we are putting into services for the elderly.”