Socio-economic profiles of Cornwall’s (slightly) new constituencies

I have updated the socio-economic data for the six Cornish constituencies, all of which have very slight boundary changes. For the changes see here.

The data includes

• The proportion of older voters (traditionally most likely to vote Tory) and young voters (who may find that they can’t vote even if they’re on the electoral register as awareness of the new ID requirements among young people is shockingly low). The highest number of young voters is found in Truro and Falmouth, a Labour target, while older voters are most numerous in South East Cornwall, which is good news for the Tories’ Sheryll Murray.
• Cornish identity – Camborne and Redruth is the most subjectively ‘Cornish’; South East Cornwall the least.
• Religion – South East Cornwall again features as the most Christian constituency. Is this good or bad news for Sheryll? Camborne-Redruth is the least.
• Social class – It’s somewhat surprising to find that North Cornwall has a greater number of working class C2DE voters than Camborne-Redruth these days.
• Economic activity – Camborne-Redruth has the most people who are economically active and North Cornwall the least, possibly a reflection of the migration of early retirees to the latter constituency.
• Deprivation – despite having the highest number in work, Camborne-Redruth also has the highest proportion of severely deprived households.
• Second homes/holiday lets – the number of properties removed from the local housing stock by tourism is highest in St Ives, with none of the other five constituencies being particularly free of this blight.
• Owner-occupiers – the highest proportion owning their homes outright is found in South East Cornwall. They won’t be worried by higher interest rates. In contrast those paying off mortgages will and they are most likely to be found in Camborne and Redruth and St Austell and Newquay.
• Tenants – the constituency with the highest number having to rent from private landlords is St Austell and Newquay, while the highest proportion enjoying a social or ‘affordable’ rent is found in St Ives, although even there still well outnumbered by those who are forced to rely on a private landlord.