2011 Census Maps (England and Wales)

[Serenity Now]

I've posted this as a placeholder, so that I can write a more substantial introduction to this thread.. For now here's some age group maps by Local Authorities in England and Wales..

[Serenity Now]

First of all, the children:

[doktorb]

IN - should be a very good thread.

[joevsimp]

IN - should be a very good thread.

there have been things in the news recently, about primary schools in Barking and Dagenham* being horrifically overcrowded, due to people whose housing benefit is being cut moving there from more inner parts of London,

*darkest shade of green in greater london, and I think on the whole map in case anyone doesn't know their way around

[minionofmidas]

darkest shade of green in greater london, and I think on the whole map

Yes, I noticed that and was quite surprised.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

People who are forced out by gentrification have to move somewhere, don't they.

[Serenity Now]

To save time I'm going to computer generate these maps.. Now for some religion ones.

Christians

[Benj]

What's with all the Christians in Merseyside and Lancashire? Not the area I would have expected to be the most Christian.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

What's with all the Christians in Merseyside and Lancashire? Not the area I would have expected to be the most Christian.

Is it maybe more Catholic than the rest of England?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Remember that all the 'Christian' and 'No Religion' categories measure* is the importance of the word 'Christian' as a point of identity (the difference in practice between about 80% of people who answered the former and 80% the latter is pretty tiny; vaguely culturally Christian but not really exactly religious or anything being the absolute mainstream). It matters more to Catholics because they aren't entirely mainstream yet, thus consistently higher rates of the 'Christian' answer wherever large numbers are found.

*At this level anyway; there's the possibility of more 'useful' patterns at a local level in some places.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Anyways, I was trying to remember the answers I put on my form, and can't remember this one. I might have answered accurately (Christian), but may also have skipped the question - as you were 'allowed' to do - on a point of principle. Genuinely don't remember. I also can't remember which Welsh language skill I randomly ticked; there wasn't an option for 'some knowledge, but not much', you had to choose between a set of absolutes, so decided for a 'representative' answer.

[freefair]

I've noticed a pattern here... Almost all areas with pre-1992 ie "proper" academic universities seems to have low rates of Christianity which may indicate high levels of atheism among the educated, such as Ceredigion (ie Aberystwyth and Lampeter), Norwich (East Anglia), Brighton (Sussex ), Exeter, Oxford, Cambridge, to name a few.
Exeptions to this rule are...
Bath, Cantenbury (Kent), Liverpool, and Newcastle Under Lyme (Keele). Gwynedd is too geographically big too see the impact of Bangor students...
In other news
-Merseyside/Lancashire continues to be Irish Colony
-Boston still spiritual home of Pilgrim Fathers
-London and Southeast become Increasingly out of touch trendies (not)

[afleitch]

The basic one; Population Change

[You kip if you want to...]

What's with all the Christians in Merseyside and Lancashire? Not the area I would have expected to be the most Christian.

More Catholic, Irish population, (relatively) less non-Christian immigration?

[ObserverIE]

-Boston still spiritual home of Pilgrim Fathers

More a matter of it being Czestochowa West.

What's with all the Christians in Merseyside and Lancashire? Not the area I would have expected to be the most Christian.

More Catholic, Irish population, (relatively) less non-Christian immigration?

For Merseyside and the old Lancashire coalfield, certainly (and there are probably traces of the same phenomenon in west Cumbria), but also remnants of sizeable "ethnically English" Catholic populations further north in rural Lancashire.

[Serenity Now]

[MaxQue]

Why the high concentration north of Cardiff (I suppose those are valleys, given their elongated shapes)?

[Serenity Now]

I'm concerned that this map may invite some of the less insightful comments on this thread (from people who otherwise wouldn't otherwise have commented on this thread at all, of course).

[minionofmidas]

Why the high concentration north of Cardiff (I suppose those are valleys, given their elongated shapes)?

Yes. That is odd. High rates in Wales generally are a little... odd.

[MaxQue]

Well, the Muslim map or more or less a map of urban areas (+ Bangor, I suppose it's related to the university).

[freefair]

Well, the Muslim map or more or less a map of urban areas (+ Bangor, I suppose it's related to the university).

Knowing South Gwynedd well, it seems impossible and that it has anything to do with Meirionydd- so Bangor University does seem to be the only explanation to the inexplicable stat... although it's weirdly obviously not impacting on the even more popular Aberystwyth, or theological-originated Lampeter.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Why the high concentration north of Cardiff (I suppose those are valleys, given their elongated shapes)?

Yes. That is odd. High rates in Wales generally are a little... odd.

Less Taigs?

It was true of the last census as well; no one came up with a good explanation then, and I've yet to see one this time round. At a guess, though, it's one of those paradoxical things: because Wales has a history of mass religious fervour - with some traces that lasted until very recently in places - that England lacks, someone who's basically culturally Christian but isn't really religious is maybe likely to associate 'Christian' with their Sabbath-observing, Chapel-going Nan, and therefore be less likely to describe themselves as such when running through a census form.

In terms of patterns within Wales, the historically dominant denominations in the Valleys (Baptists and Independents - that is, Congregationalists. Edit: Baptists further east, Independents further west. Mostly) had a particularly stark decline in terms of active membership and all that from 1920 onwards, much more so than the Presbyterian Church of Wales up here or the CiW (which, in complete contrast, had a pretty good Twentieth Century).

But then there are weird things in England as well. I draw attention to the differences between the two great strongholds of 19th century Methodism, Co. Durham and Cornwall.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Well, the Muslim map or more or less a map of urban areas (+ Bangor, I suppose it's related to the university).

I suspect that the Ysbyty Gwynedd is more of a factor than the University. In fact, I know it is...

[Linus Van Pelt]

Why is Argyll losing population while the rest of the Highlands gains?

[YL]

Another area which stands out in the "no religion" map is the Nottingham metro area.

On the Muslim map, Barnsley stands out in the expected way.  Though I think when ward figures are available parts of the other Yorkshire Mets which border Barnsley will look like it in that respect.