- Age
- Race
- Ethnicity
- Religion
- Gender
- Location
- Socioeconomic status
- Marital status
- Ownership
- Language
- Mobility
- Disability
- Health
- Employment
- Wealth
- Fertility
- Life/Death rate
These factors go in trends and change over time depending on location and the status of it.
One demographic I am going to be looking at and relating to my local area is disability. I am going to be looking at how many disabled people there are in my local area (Herne Bay, Canterbury and surrounding counties) and then looking at how they would affect the local area. An definition of disability is A physical or mental incapacity, either congenital or resulting from an injury or illness etc.
What this definition fails to tell us is what sort of disabilities there are and the fact we can be born with them and can be out of our control. There are lots of types of disabilities, which is what this definition fails to say, and they come in lots of different types of categories. There are physical disabilities, which are those that affect mobility such as:
- Parkinson’s disease
- Cerebral palsy
There are also disabilities, which can affect smaller muscles such as the eyes and ears. These can be:
- Partial / full blindness
- Colour blindness
- Deafness
There are also chronic disabilities. Chronic illnesses are diseases that cannot be cured and are with the patient for life. Examples of these are:
- Some cancers
- AIDS
- Cystic fibrosis
Disabilities are not just to do with inside functions and outside body parts. They can also be to do with the mind e.g. mental illnesses
- Schizophrenia
- Learning disabilities
- Phobias
- Depression
The disabilities I am going to be looking at are all types of them and anything that comes under the title disabled according to the government. I have done some research and have found the 2001 census conducted in Herne Bay. Censuses are given out in forms of research by the council for the government in order to see what the trend of the county is. They take months to process as they are given to every resident in the town, and help the government establish any problem areas and areas they may need to do work on. The 2001 census () Stated that in Herne Bay has 6% of its population are permanently ill or disabled. This figure is roughly in line with the national figures. I also managed to find some statistics relating to the number of disabled people in Kent, which is 63,870 people. Therefore out of 63,870 people, 6% of them are disabled and from Herne Bay. In the table below I will give an example of the age groups and numbers of people I have found with disabilities in Kent.
The table shows that the most disabled people lie in the age group between 25 to 49. This is surprising because this is quite a young age for disabled people to be in. There are a lot of people under 16 with disabilities as well which is another surprising figure.
I was able to get into more specific types of disability and was able to find out about the exact numbers of mentally ill people in the Kent area, which is 5,088 people. This is a small number compared to the 63,870 disabled people in total therefore mental disabilities do not seem to be an issue. I also managed to find statistics on mental disabilities (from April 02 to March 03 census) with men and women in Kent. I will present this in a table.
This shows that overall by a small percentage that there are more females with mental illnesses.
(All statistics taken from and )
As well as specific types of disability in Kent I also was able to find trend data.
This table () shows the trend between the years and the rate of disability. It shows that the rate of disability has risen from 2002 up to 2006. This could be for a number of reasons e.g. improved service for disabilities in the local area or technology is getting better at diagnosing.
Due to the fact that Herne Bay has a high percentage of residents over the age of 65 ( and 2001 census) The national average of residents over the age of 65 is 16% and Herne Bay is above that so that means a lot of Herne Bay’s residents are retired people over the age of 65. I have made a table to show ages of residents in Herne Bay.
Source: www.wikipedia.com
This table shows the high percentage of people in the ages of 44 and over. With this high percentage of people over the ages of 44 and especially retirement, Herne Bay will need to have appropriate facilities for them. I will now be investigating whether these facilities have been provided. In Herne Bay a great number of the jobs provided in the area are mainly down to the health and social industry. An amazing 1.9% of the residents work in health and social related jobs compared to the 0.8% average of the country. Therefore this must mean that Herne Bay has some health related care homes for disabled people and the aged.
One of which I found was Plentybrook House.
Plentybrook House
56 Spenser Road
Herne Bay Kent CT6 5QN
Tel: 01227 365962
This type of home is situated in the local area and is a care home for the elderly and those with disabilities who need care. It specialises in older people and is a private establishment therefore it would need paying for. Here is a complete list of all the other residential and disabled homes Herne Bay has to offer.
Resthaven
123 Grand Drive
Herne Bay Kent CT6 8HS
Tel: 01227 369607
Rockrose Rest Home
10 Kingsfield Road
Herne Bay Kent CT6 7EA
Tel: 01227 740549
Sovereign Residential Home
30 Canterbury Road
Herne Bay Kent CT6 5DJ
Tel: 01227 368796
S Matlocke
26 Alma Road
Herne Bay Kent CT6 6JJ
Tel: 01227 741865
St Benedict's
22 St Georges Terrace
There are 47 care homes in total in Herne Bay. That is a huge number especially due to the number of employees that they are going to need to occupy these homes. There are also 2 huge home called Strode Park which is especially for the disabled and Footprints, which is again for, disabled children. These are huge influences to the local area as they provide plenty of jobs for the unemployed and provide care for the large amount of retired people and disabled people in Herne Bay and the local area. 47 care and disabled homes for one small town is amazingly high and therefore means it provides for the demographic of disability and age.
I will now be investigating my second demographic, which is employment. Employment is usually defined as having a job where an individual earns a salary of money and is in a secure state of not receiving benefits. Unemployment means that the individual does not have money paying job or career, which can be due to many factors. One of which could be related to the above, which is disability. Many people who are disabled or have a disease e.g. cancer cannot have paying jobs or careers because of their health. This means that obviously these people cannot have jobs due to illness but will still be classed as unemployed.
In Herne Bay I have found that the percentage of people unemployed is 2.9% of population. This is quite low however it is high compared to Canterbury, which has unemployment rate of 2.7, therefore meaning Herne Bay has more unemployed people. These both count as the local area and possible due to the fact that Herne Bay has more retired and disabled people than Canterbury this can mean that Herne Bay will in turn have more unemployed people. The town of Herne Bay has been seen as not economically prosperous and the elderly population of the town has lead to a dramatic increase in the number of jobs in health and social care such as The Queen Victoria Hospital and a number of elderly and care homes in the area. 1.9% of the town’s population has a career or job in the health and social care sector. This is a huge amount compared to the national average of 0.8% of people working the health and social sector. (Source )
In Herne Bay I have managed to find figures and statistics about the amount of people who are employed and are not and if so what sectors they work in. 36% of 16 to 74 year olds are in full time employment. This is quite a small number of people, however 13% are part time and 9% self-employed. Only 3% of people are unemployed in Herne Bay and that is quite a small percentage. There is a high percent of people unemployed because they are retired in Herne Bay and that is 18%. That is the second highest percentage of employment rate in Herne Bay and it’s a large percentage at that. 6% of people in the local area are put out of work for disability or sickness.
(Source )
Here I have made a table to show percentages according to Wikipedia about the percentages of people and the sectors they work in
This shows that apart from other career choices (all under 1%) health and social is the most worked in sector in Herne Bay.
For unemployment in the area of Herne Bay there is plenty of opportunities as there is 47 care homes and disabled peoples homes to work in. as well as that Herne Bay is home to a job centre which helps people recruit people. The care homes use means of the Herne Bay Gazette and job centre to recruit new people to work in these homes. Therefore as well as the other sectors in Herne Bay it provides a good basis for employment.