Average gross household income by wards

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 Last updated May 2012 by David Jenks with data from 2012

Average gross household income 2012

Introduction

This research monitor details estimates of gross household income before tax (including earnings, investment income and welfare payments) down to the ward level.  The information is derived from the ‘paycheck’ system, which is managed by the private sector consultancy group CACI. Please note that confidentiality restrictions prohibit the full disclosure of the exact figures.

Paycheck uses information on millions of households from CACI’s lifestyle database, along with census and market research data to increase reliability.  This allows robust household income figures to be produced for Lancashire districts and wards.

Lancashire County Council has acquired the 2012 gross household income details for all the wards and local authorities in the broader 14-authority Lancashire sub-region.  The information has been selectively used in this report to highlight areas of wealth and income deprivation within the county.    

The Lancashire results (mean household income)

For the Lancashire County Council area, which excludes Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool unitary authorities, average (mean) household income for 2012, was £34,400.  The broader Lancashire 14-authority sub-region, which includes the two unitary authorities, recorded a noticeably lower average of £33,700.  In comparison, the North West average for 2012 was £34,000 whilst the GB figure was £36,000.  The results reveal a respectable mean household income figure for the Lancashire County Council area in comparison to the regional average, but it is somewhat behind the GB figure.  

Source: CACI

Lancashire 12 districts encompass the Lancashire County Council area. The Lancashire 14-authority sub-region also includes the two unitary authorities of Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool.

Figure 1 ranks the CACI results for each local authority in the county.  Ribble Valley is the most prosperous authority with Chorley in second place.  South Ribble and Fylde were the two other Lancashire authorities that recorded gross mean household income results that were above the national average.  The figure for West Lancashire was just below the national figure, and the remaining nine local authorities were all below the GB value. 

At the lower end of the spectrum, Blackpool recorded the lowest mean gross income figure, being the only authority with an average of just below £30,000 per year. The four East Lancashire authorities of Burnley, Pendle, Hyndburn and Blackburn with Darwen together recorded averages of between £31-32,000.

Table 1 Average (mean and median) gross household income - 2012

Source: CACI.

* Confidentiality restrictions preclude the publication of the exact figures at the local authority level.

Household income information measures wealth by area of residence therefore the more urbanised districts are likely to see some of the wealth generated in their area lost to the more rural districts that are popular with commuters.  The inward migration of wealthy retired/semi-retired individuals will also augment a district’s average gross income figure.

The rural Ribble Valley district is a popular location to live and commute elsewhere to work.  West Lancashire is a good base for commuting to Merseyside, whilst Rossendale benefits from its location to the north of Manchester. Chorley and South Ribble are suitable locations for commuters to either Manchester or Preston.  In contrast, commuting patterns work against areas such as Blackpool, Blackburn, Burnley and Preston, which are employment centres that attract workers from elsewhere. 

At the local authority level, there has been a reversal in the trend of increasing disparities.  The five authorities with the highest average earnings experienced modest to moderate decreases.  In contrast, the five authorities with the lowest mean figures had moderate to significant increases.

Median gross household income

Table 1 also includes results for median income levels.  The median income value represents the mid-point along the range of incomes in a particular area.  Fifty percent of households will be distributed below the median income value and 50% above the median level.  These are more reflective of the ‘typical’ income, and have the advantage over mean income data as they are less influenced by extreme values within the distribution of income data. 

Table 1 clearly demonstrates the much lower median values and confirms the fact that the typical income for most households is much lower than the mean figures may suggest.  In general, the median figures are around 23% below the mean results for each area.

Mean gross household income at the ward level

The 2012 ward results indicate that Pennine ward in Chorley district, with a mean income between £56-57,000, comfortably retains its position of recording the highest average income in Lancashire (Table 2).  In second place was Fernhurst ward which benefits from its proximity to junction 4 of the M65. North Turton with Tockholes, a predominantly rural area to the south of Blackburn, was in third place, Billington and Old Langho in Ribble Valley was fourth whilst in fifth place is Wilpshire, which is just to the north of Blackburn also in the Ribble Valley.

In general terms, the majority of the most affluent wards in the county are in rural areas close to the major urban centres.  These represent popular areas for commuting to the core urban areas in Lancashire, and to Manchester and Liverpool.  To the north of the county around Lancaster, the rural wards are somewhat more isolated and do not benefit to such a large extent from affluent commuters.  

Table 2. The 20 wards with the highest average (mean) gross household income in the broader Lancashire sub-region, Spring 2012

Source: www.caci.co.uk

* Confidentiality restrictions preclude publication of the exact numbers at the ward level.

The Household income data reveal that of the 20 wards with the lowest average figures, five were in Preston, four in Blackburn with Darwen, three in Hyndburn, two each in Blackpool, Pendle and West Lancashire, and one each in Burnley and Wyre. It is interesting that Blackpool has just Bloomfield and Clifton wards in the bottom 20. Given that the authority has the lowest average income level of any of the 14 Lancashire areas it would be natural to expect more of its wards to be listed in Table 3.  Blackpool is the only Lancashire authority that contains no wards where the mean household income is the above the national level. The low ward results are however not as low as some of the figures achieved in inner-urban areas away from the coast.  

The Blackburn with Darwen authority contains some of the most and some of the least affluent areas in the county.  It has two of the top three, but also four in the bottom 20.  This dramatically emphasises the large disparities that can be found within this one authority.  Pendle, Preston and West Lancashire are the other three Lancashire authorities with some of the most and least affluent wards in the Lancashire 14-authority sub-region.  A number of the affluent wards in three of these authorities border wealthy areas of the Ribble Valley, and highlight the fact that the general affluence of the Ribble Valley area extends beyond the actual boundary of the local authority.

Comparisons between Tables 2 and 3 reveal that there has been a dramatic increase in income in the poorest wards.  Daneshouse with Stoneyholme in Burnley, the lowest ranked ward in 2011, has seen an increase of nearly a third. Only one of the 20 wards with the lowest incomes recorded a percentage decrease, this is Mount ward in Wyre.  In contrast, only 4 of the 20 most affluent wards achieved a positive rate of increase, with Calder ward in Wyre being the highest. Five of the highest average wards suffered a decrease of more than 7%. A few of the yearly rates of change may be influenced by statistical anomalies that distort the results, but that cannot detract from the overall theme of a general reduction in income disparities over the past year.

Table 3. The 20 wards with the lowest average (mean) gross household income in the broader Lancashire sub-region, Spring 2012

Source: www.caci.co.uk

* Confidentiality restrictions preclude publication of the exact numbers at the ward level.