The Stewartry of Strathearn

Statistical Information

Introduction

This profile is compiled from 2001 Census data, provided by the Church of Scotland on a Parish basis and the General Register Office for Scotland (GRoS).
The parish boundaries are shown on the map on our Home page. The parish includes: the villages of Aberuthven, Dunning, Forteviot, and Aberdalgie. The diversity of places within the parish include: · Path of Condie · Norwich Union · SEERAD · Bell’s · Broxden ‘park and ride’ car park, bus station and service area
The census is inevitably out of date as soon as it is completed, but it gives a picture of the parish upon which we can build a vision for the future.

Population
Who lives in the Parish? On Census night (April 30 2001) there were 1771 people living in the parish – 885 males and 886 females.
In terms of age, compared to Scotland as a whole, the age profile was relatively similar, with the Stewartry having relatively fewer 16-34 year olds; and was slightly above average in the older categories.

Age profile

The population breakdown was:

Households

The Census divides households into 3 groups:
One person
One family (including with and without children, and married and cohabiting pensioner couples)
Other multi person households (e.g. groups of students)

Within the family category, the parish has a slightly above average proportion of married households and almost half the national average of lone parents. In the Stewartry the profile of people in the married category is little different than the national profile; but in the cohabiting category the parish is significantly different with fewer children being involved.
The next table shows that 191 people live alone – 91 of them pensioners. There are another 152 households where both are pensioners.
Within the Stewartry the largest category of household is that of two married parents and children – 619 people (35% of the total population, and 37% of the total number of households)

Household profile

Family profile

There were 739 households on census night. The above information regarding individuals is translated into households as:

Household	Number of households
One person	191
Married with children	159
Married without children	277
Cohabiting with children	15
Cohabiting without children	37
Lone parent with children	34
Lone parent without children	13
Multi person – students	0
Multi person – other	13

Children profile

Compared to the rest of Scotland there are proportionately fewer one person households (although they still account for more than 25% of the total), and significantly more married people without children. The number of households with children in the parish was 208, or 28% (close to the national average).

Housing

What kinds of houses do the people who live in parish actually live in? First clue is in tenure. The parish is significantly different to country as a whole – as one might expect in a rural parish where traditionally there are fewer council and housing association. The parish has a particularly high percentage of privately rented houses (24.5%) – probably due to the Dupplin Estate having a policy of retaining ownership.

Housing profile

The parish has a slightly above average number of second and holiday homes (13 – 1.6%, compared to Scotland of 1.3%). Since the Census does not operate on the basis of an urban and rural analysis, this may be low in terms of rural areas. There are significant numbers of vacant houses – 42 houses (5.3% compared to Scotland of 3.7%)
It is worth remembering that there have been a number of houses built since 2001 – particularly in Aberuthven.

The Census tells us nothing about housing pressures; we can only speculate about the relationship between access to housing and the proportionately fewer number of people in the 16-34 age group. Further work would need to be done about housing preferences (e.g. do people in that age group want to live in a rural area, or do they want to live in an urban area?); about house prices and the impact that rising prices have on access; and whether there is hidden homelessness – a traditional rural housing problem - (often as the result of access difficulties). The level of private rented housing may in itself create housing issues; the Census cannot tell us whether the private rented housing is occupied as tied accommodation, and therefore the impact that changes in agriculture can have on people’s lives.

Health

The Census can tell a little about how healthy people were in the parish. 94% of people said that they were in good or fairly good health, compared to 90% in Scotland as a whole. 86% said that they had no limiting long term illness, compared to 80% across the whole of Scotland.

Employment

What do people do in this parish? The Census tells about employment- set out in a series of standard categories. The figures for the parish are:

		Employee		Self-employed
Total	All People	Part-time	Full-time	Part-time	Full-time
Total	911	188	510	50	163
A,B Agriculture;Hunting;Forestry & Fishing	92	6	36	7	43
C,E Mining & Quarrying: Electricity,Gas and Water Supply	19	2	17	-	-
D.Manufacturing	73	7	47	3	16
F.Construction	73	3	48	4	18
G.Wholesale and Retail trade,Repair of Motor Vehicles	132	37	62	7	26
H.Hotels and Restaurants	68	20	32	3	13
I.Transport Storage and Communication	57	7	39	1	10
J.Financial Intermediation	33	6	27	-	-
K.Real Estate, Renting & Business Activities	95	14	49	10	22
L.Public Administration & Defence;Social Security	37	7	30	-	-
M.Education	72	23	45	1	3
N.Health and Social Work	117	43	61	7	6
O,P,Q, Other	43	13	17	7	6

There are three significant differences between the employment profile of the parish and Scotland as a whole:
a. As one would expect in a rural community, Agriculture, Hunting, Forestry and Fishing account for over 10% of jobs compared to 2.4% in Scotland
b. Manufacturing is significantly less - 8% for the parish; 13.2% for Scotland
c. Self employment is much higher – 23.4% for the parish; 10.9 for Scotland
Unemployment is relatively low 34 or 2.5% (compared to Scotland 3.9%)

Census does not give income information; a proxy for income can be the types of occupation that people are involved in. The figures for the Stewartry are:

Comparing these to Scotland as a whole would indicate that the parish is not dissimilar to Scotland as a whole, except that it has a lower average on ‘Administrative and Secretarial Occupations’ and ‘Process, Plant and Machine Operatives’, and higher average on ‘Managers and Senior Officials’,'Professional Occupations’ and ‘Skilled Trades Occupations’

Where do people work? More people work at home in the Stewartry than in Scotland as a whole (again an expected rural factor); but more work 10 -20 Km from home – possibly in Perth (Perth is 14 Km from Dunning). There is a significant proportion that commutes beyond Perth.

While the Census tells about the people who live in the parish, it tells us nothing about the economic activities that take place within the parish – e.g. what is happening to agriculture; the patterns of retail provision within the parish; the importance of the large service industries between the M90 and Glasgow road in Perth which are all part of the parish.

Travel

The Census tells us about the number of cars per household – not about the transport! As could be expected in a rural area, most people have access to at least one car.

Religion

The census asked about religion. The diagram below shows that nearly 50% described themselves as being ‘Church of Scotland’; with the second largest religion being ‘none’. (note H/J/M/S is Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh)

Conclusions

What does this information do for us as we develop our ‘long term forward plan with respect to worship, mission and service within the parish’? There are few surprises in the information; most of us could have described the characteristics of the parish,
e.g.:

a.A rural parish, still with an active agriculture (and forestry) industry.
b.A parish which has a mixed community, with people who are both wealthy and not so wealthy; and about average number of young and elderly people
c.An attractive parish to live in, providing a home for people who work locally, and people who commute to work – mainly in Perth.
d.A lot of self employed based at home.
e.Organised religion could still play a part in the lives of the majority of people.

However, it does reinforce a number of issues that could be of concern to a ‘servant church’; serving a parish, e.g.:
a.The housing issues, highlighted in paragraph 15
b.The economic issues – what is happening to local businesses and the stewardship of the land and animals in terms of agricultural changes
c.What is the role of the church in a rural community that partly provides local employment and is a commuter area?
d.Do those who are self employed and working locally need some form of ‘industrial chaplaincy’?

R. Young
9 January 06