COLLECTING INFORMATION

A Census of Population takes place at every 10 years. This is a count of all the people living in Great Britain together with some information about where they live, their age and their occupation. The last Census took place in April 1991.
The Census is the best source of data on population change and the social and economic conditions of the people. The areas on which the Census data is based do not however correspond to the boundaries of the Peak Park, so in some cases the data has had to be estimated.
We cannot compare the Census of 1991 directly with the figures for 1981 as some of the boundaries changed between the two dates and there were changes in the way the information was collected.

Population of the larger Parishes in the Peak Park
Bakewell Tideswell Bradwell Hathersage Youlgreave Baslow (& Bubnell) Hartington (3 parishes) Bamford Wormhill Eyam Hope Grindleford Great Longstone Calver Castleton	3818 1717 1426 1352 1256 1184 1154 1089 977 960 900 895 732 723 689

POPULATION

The resident population has remained fairly stable over the last 30 years at around 38,000, with a small rise between 1971 and 1981 and a loss of around1.4% between 1981 and 1991. There were around 38,100 people living in the Park in April 1991.
There were 0.26 people per hectare living in the Park, compared with a national average of 2.4. This low density reflects the fact that about 35% of the Park is moorland, inhabited mainly by sheep and grouse.


There are also no large towns. Bakewell, the largest settlement, has a population of 3,818 (Bakewell parish). There are only 7 parishes wholly in the Park where the population is over 1,000 people.


Age Structure of the Population

There were around 7,000 children of school age or below living in the Park in 1991 (18.2% of the population compared with 21.4% in England as a whole). Within this, the proportion of children under school age rose between 1981 and 1991, while the proportion of children of school age fell, following the national trend.

60.1% of the residents (about 23,300 people) were of working age, a similar proportion to that in England as a whole. This proportion has increased by 2.5% since 1981 (in line with the national trend). Between1981 and 1991 there was an increase of just under 1% in people of pensionable age (women over 60 and men over 65) to 8,200. This followed the national trend.

Age Structure




Changes in Population

The average household size fell from 2.7 persons per household in 1981 to 2.5 persons in 1991. The proportion of households with children fell from 30.8% in 1981 to 24.5% in 1991. This reflects the change in age structure with an increasing number of elderly people living in the Park.


VILLAGE SERVICES

Despite the loss of 60% of village general foodstores between 1965 and 1990, the majority of villages in the Park with a population of over 250 still had a general foodstore in 1990. Rural services such as schools, post offices and health services have been weakened by changing patterns of work. However, the provision of services in the villages of the Park is generally above the national average. This was confirmed by the National Park Authority’s survey of Village Services in the Park 1989/90. The survey did show however that the provison of bus services to the villages was lower than the national average.

The higher than average provision of services probably reflects the fact that, although the population of many villages is very small, a large number of tourists visit the villages. This can make services such as a shop or pub viable even in a small community. In this way local residents benefit from the many visitors; estimated currently at above 22 million visits a year.