About the district
About the district
The Braintree district is 236 square miles and a predominantly rural area. However, 50% of the population live in our three largest market towns of Braintree, Halstead and Witham.
Most people in the district identified their ethnic group within the ‘White’ category (94.7%)in 2021. Around 1.7% identified their ethnic group within the ‘Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh’ category, 1.2% identified as Black, Black British, Black Welsh, Caribbean or African’ category, 1.9% identified as ‘Mixed or Multiple ethnic groups’ and the remaining 0.5% identified their ethnic group as ‘other ethnic groups’.
There are an estimated 155,300 residents according to census 2021. The population has grown by 5.5% since 2011. Like most of the UK, we have an aging society with the over 65’s making up 20.5% of our population, up by nearly 30% since 2011.
Over 60% of residents are employed or self-employed with around 70% of working residents working more than 31 hours a week.
The average life expectancy for males at birth is 80.2 years and for females at birth is 83.5 years.
An estimated 17% of the population were disabled in 2021, with just under 7% stating their day-to-day activities were limited a lot.
69% of households in the district own their home in 2021, with 15% living in privately rented properties and 13% of households living in socially rented properties.
Just over 4% of residents in 2021 said they provided at least 20 hours of unpaid care in a typical week.
Just under 26% of residents aged 16 years and over indicated their highest level of qualification was Level 4 or above in 2021, lower than the England average of 33.9%.
18.4% had no qualifications, which is on par with the England average of 18.1%.
Gross weekly pay in the district averages £695.20 which is the lowest in Essex.
There are pockets of higher deprivation within the district but most areas have relatively low levels, as measured by the 2019 Indices of Deprivation. Four wards in the district fall within 20% of the most deprived areas within England.
Between 2011 and 2021, crime incidents on average grew by 6.3% each year, with non-residential burglary being the fastest growing type of crime, increasing by 76.6% between 2011 and 2021.
In 2021, most of the district’s residents described their health as ‘good’ or ‘very good’ (83%), around 13% described their health as ‘fair’, with the remaining 4% of the population describing themselves as having ‘bad’ or ‘very bad’ health.
Just under 30% of residents in the district travelled more than 10 kilometres to work with 48% of residents having more than two cars or van in their household. Just under 14% of residents use public transport, cycle or walk to work.