Rural England
Young adult unemployment
Key points
- The unemployment rate (ILO) for 16- to 24-year-olds in rural districts is four times that for older workers.
- For both younger and older adults, unemployment rates are much lower in rural districts than in urban districts.
- 150,000 16- to 24-year-olds in rural districts are unemployed.
- See the UK indicator on young adult unemployment.
Graph 1: Rates
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Graph 2: Shares
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Rural/urban ratios (urban = 10)
On most poverty and social exclusion indicators, rural areas have 'better scores' than urban areas. The purpose of the table below is to differentiate between those subjects where rural areas are 'a bit better' and those where rural areas are 'a lot better'. It does so by presenting the rural statistics for the indicator as a proportion of the urban statistics. So, for example, a rural 'score' of 6 in the table below means that the rural statistic is around 60% of its urban equivalent.
| Type of district | Aged 16 to 24 | Aged 25 to retirement |
|---|---|---|
| 'Very rural' districts | 6 | 6 |
| 'Mostly rural' districts | 7 | 6 |
| 'Part rural' districts | 8 | 7 |
Definitions and data sources
The indicator
For each type of local authority district, the first graph shows the unemployment rate for those aged 16 to 24, compared with those aged 25 and over (up to retirement).
The second graph shows the distribution of unemployed 16- to 24-year-olds by type of district.
'Unemployment' is the ILO definition, which is used for the official government unemployment numbers. It comprises all those with no paid work in the survey week who were available to start work in the next fortnight and who either looked for work in the last month or were waiting to start a job already obtained.
The unemployment rate is the percentage of the economically active population who are unemployed (i.e. the number who are unemployed divided by the number who are either in paid work or unemployed).
Level of the data
Lower tier local authorities (districts), as classified by the DEFRA 2005 classification system. Both the DEFRA classification rules and their results by local authority can be found on the page on rural/urban classification systems.
Source
The Annual Population Survey, which is effectively the Labour Force Survey with selected booster samples to compensate for small sample sizes in some authorities. The data is the average for 2005 to 2007.
External links
See the 2000 Joseph Rowntree Foundation report Youth unemployment in rural areas and 1999 report Getting a job, finding a home: rural youth transitions.
The numbers
| Type of district | Aged 16 to 24 | Aged 25 to retirement | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rate | Numbers | Rate | Numbers | |
| 'Very rural' districts | 9.8% | 40,000 | 2.6% | 60,000 |
| 'Mostly rural' districts | 10.9% | 50,000 | 2.7% | 60,000 |
| 'Part rural' districts | 12.2% | 60,000 | 2.9% | 80,000 |
| Urban districts | 15.8% | 390,000 | 4.3% | 560,000 |