Economic activity

On the day of the census, March 21st 2021, over half a million residents of the Lancashire-12 area, aged sixteen and over, stated that they were economically active. This included people in full-time and part-time work, the self-employed, economically active students and unemployed people seeking a job. The total amounted to 57.8% of all people in Lancashire-12 aged sixteen and over.

In comparison to the England and Wales average (60.6%), the Lancashire-12 area had a lower rate of economic activity. At the local authority level, South Ribble and Chorley recorded activity rates of 62% or just below. In contrast, the rates in Fylde and Wyre were under 54%.

Out of 318 local authorities across England and Wales, the authority with the highest economic activity rate would be ranked in first position. South Ribble and Chorley were ranked in the top 150, while Fylde and Wyre were ranked 305th and 309th respectively. The main reason for their low rankings is the high proportion of retired persons in those boroughs – a large percentage of those who are economically inactive in Fylde (33.2%) and Wyre (32.7%) are classed as retired.

All of the figures quoted above are taken from the ONS Census 2021 table 'TS066 - Economic activity status'. It is important to note that the population base changed from the 16-74 age group used for tables such as 'QS601EW - Economic activity' from the 2011 census. This change has a major impact on the economic activity rates for some Lancashire authorities when compared to other parts of England or the national rates. Therefore we have sought out more detailed tables where the age base can be adjusted to be more comparable with the 2011 census and to also exclude those not in the working age population (ages 16 to 64). ONS have provided a tool that allows custom tables to be created from a mixture of census variables. As such, three different age bands are provided here: 16-64, 16-74 and 16 and over.

In South Ribble, the economic activity rate exceeded 70% while it's ranking climbed into the top 100. When set to age 16 to 64, the rates for Ribble Valley and South Ribble exceeded 80% and their ranks climbed into the top thirties. Meanwhile the rates in Lancaster, Pendle and Blackburn with Darwen did not exceed 70%.

Blackburn with Darwen was ranked in 308th place for economic activity for the 16 to 64 age band. This can be understood given the economic inactivity figures for this authority, with 8.0% described as looking after home or family while 6.6% were long-term sick or disabled. The 10.7% of Lancaster residents marked as students contributed to the low economic activity rate.

Please note that students, importantly full-time students, can be classed as economically active or inactive. A full-time student is defined as studying for at least 21 hours a week. This does allow for time to work at least part-time. If a student is doing no or minimal hours of work they are classed as economically inactive.

Source: NOMIS: Census 2021: Economic activity status and ONS custom dataset builder.