TRUTZ HAASE
Social & Economic Consultant
Key Profile for Waterford City
This County Profile draws out the significant trends from a vast amount of available data. It is kept deliberately short, such as to draw attention to only the most important of observations. In some instances, the profile refers to a wider set of data spanning the four census waves from 1991 to 2006. For space reasons, this data could not be fully included in the GAMMA baseline reports, but is included in digital format on the disk accompanying the report.
Administrative Arrangements
There is a single Partnership company operating within Waterford City, covering the whole county. The County Childcare Committee area also covers the entire city.
There are 2 Family Resource Centres operating in Waterford City:
· St. Brigid’s Family & Community Centre is situated in the ED of Ballybricken (24003) and serves the central part of Waterford City.
· Sacred Heart Community & Childcare Project is situated in the ED of Ballytruckle (24007) in the Southern part of Waterford and services the South-Eastern part of the city.
Absolute and Relative Deprivation
· Overall, the South East Region is the second most disadvantaged region of Ireland, and Waterford City is the second most disadvantaged local authority area within the region, making it the forth most disadvantaged county in Ireland as a whole. The relative position of Waterford City has deteriorated over the past fifteen years from a score of 0 in 1991 to -3.3 in 2006, which translates into a drop by 11 ranks from the 20th to the 31st position in relative affluence.
· As is the case in any of the five cities, there are considerable difference in the relative affluence and deprivation between various parts of the city. The most affluent parts are exclusively situated towards the East of the county, whereas the South-West is by far the most disadvantaged part.
· The most disadvantaged EDs are Morrisson’s Avenue West (-34.3), Lisduggan (-31.9), Shortcourse (-31.7) and Larchville (-31.3), all of which are in the ‘extremely disadvantaged’ category. There are another eight EDs in the ‘very disadvantaged’ and seven EDs in the ‘disadvantaged’ categories.
· The catchment area of the St. Brigid’s Family & Community Centre has an overall index score of –12.6, which classifies this area as a disadvantaged area.
· The catchment area of the Sacred Heart Community & Childcare Project has an index score of –2.5, which is just marginally below the national average.
Population
· Ireland has experienced a population growth of 20.3% over the past fifteen years and the South East Region has grown at an identical rate. Waterford City’s population, by contrast, grew by only 13.4% over the same period. This, however, is in line with the experience of other cities where population growth is limited due to built-up character of the city areas.
· The fastest growing EDs are Kilbarry (367.8%), Grange Upper (134.2%) and Farranshoneen (110.8%), all of which more than doubled their population.
· On the other hand, there are also EDs which are characterised by a significant population decline. These include Ticor South (-49.0%), Larchville (-43.3%), Lisduggan (-41.1%) and Ballybeg North (-36.5%).
· The population of the St. Brigid’s Family & Community Centre catchment area comprises about 6,200 households.
· The Sacred Heart Community & Childcare Project caters for about 2,600 households.
Demographic Characteristics
· There has been a continuous decline in the age dependency rate (the proportion of population under 15 years of age or over 64 as part of the total population) throughout Ireland over the past 15 years, from 38.1% in 1991 to 31.4% in 2006. A slightly smaller decline applies to Waterford City (35.2% to 31.3%), with the 2006 age dependency rate for Waterford City becoming practically identical to the national average.
· Within Waterford City, there exist significant differences in the demographic profiles of specific areas, with age dependency rates exceeding forty per cent in four EDs, Newtown (42.4%) Ballybricken (41.9%), Roanmore (40.7%) and Grange North (40.0%). This contrasts with age dependency rates of half those levels in The Glen (18.0%), Custom House B (18.3%) and Park (18.8%).
· The proportion of lone parents (as a proportion of all households with dependent children) in Ireland has exactly doubled over the past 15 years, growing from 10.7% in 1991 to 21.3% nationally in 2006. There are marked differences between urban and rural areas, and lone parent rates in the major cities are again up to twice the national average (e.g. Limerick City 39.1%). Waterford City had a rate of 32.6% in 2006; i.e. one-third of families with dependent children are headed by a single parent.
· There are vast differences with regard to individual areas within the city and single parent families tend to be concentrated in those EDs which also have significant levels of local authority housing within them. Lone parent rates are highest in Custom House B (75.0%), Newport’s Square (64.9%), Larchville (60.9%), Custom House A (59.1%) and Morrison’s Road (58.9%) and exceed 50 per cent in a total of eight EDs.
· The St. Brigid’s Family & Community Centre has experienced a population decline of 3.9% over the past decade. The age dependency ratio of 30.1% is marginally below the national average (31.4%). The proportion of lone parent families (38.1%) in this area is almost twice the national average, but typical for central urban areas throughout Ireland’s cities.
· The catchment area of the Sacred Heart Community & Childcare Project is situated in a rapidly expanding area, which has grown by 32.1% over the last ten years, compared to 16.2% nationally. The age dependency ratio of 34.2% is above the national average, reflecting the influx of younger families. Lone parent households account for 37.9%, which is above the national average, but again typical for urban areas.
Education
· There has been a continuous improvement in the level of education amongst adults over the past 15 years throughout Ireland. In 1991, 36.7% of the adult population had primary education only. This dropped to half that level (18.9%) in 2006, thus indicating a strong cohort effect. The rate for Waterford City has fallen from 28.1% in 1991 to 19.9% in 2006. This is a reduction of 16.2 percentage points (compared to -17.8 percentage point nationally), and represents levels marginally below those applying for Ireland as a whole.
· Despite the considerable improvement at county level, there remain several EDs where still considerable parts of the adult population have primary education only. These are Morrison’s Avenue West (46.9%), Roanmore (42.7%), Larchville (42.5%), Lisduggan (40.7%) and Morrison’s Road (38.0%).
· The reverse applies with regard to third level education, which has more than doubled over the past 15 years. In 1991, 13.0% of the national adult population had completed third level education. This grew to 30.5% in 2006. The proportion of Waterford City’s population with third level education has grown from 10.8% to 25.8%, a growth which is slightly below that which has occurred nationally (15.0% compared to 17.4%).
· At ED level, and again mirroring the situation with regard to the higher incidences of low levels of education, there are particularly low shares of population with third level education in Morrison’s Avenue West (6.2%), Larchville (7.1%), Lisduggan (7.1%), Roanmore (9.3%) and Ballybeg North (9.7%), all of which are falling below the 10 per cent level.
· The proportion of adults with primary education accounts for 27.0% in the St. Brigid’s Family & Community Centre catchment area, which is well above the national rate (18.9%). Conversely, third-level education (17.4%) is just over half the national average (30.5%).
· In the Sacred Heart Community & Childcare Project catchment area, the proportion with primary education only at 17.7% almost resembles the national rate, whilst third-level education accounts for 20.2%, which is over 10 percentage points below the national average.
Social Class Composition
· The changes in social class composition experienced throughout Ireland over the past 15 years largely parallel those in educational achievement, with a gradual increase in the number of professionals and an even greater decline in the proportion of semi- and unskilled manual workers. At the national level, the proportion of professionals in all classes rose from 25.2% in 1991 to 32.9% in 2006, whilst the proportion of the semi- and unskilled classes declined from 28.2% to 18.6% over the same period.
· In Waterford City, the proportion in the professional classes (24.4%) and the proportion in the lower skilled professions (24.8%) mark the second lowest class composition amongst all counties and is only exceeded by Limerick City.
· Differences in the social class composition within Waterford City reflect those of educational attainment. The highest class composition is found in Ballymaclode (58.4% professionals, 5.6% semi- and unskilled manual classes). This strongly contrasts with the lowest class composition in Morrisson’s Road (7.1%, 42.6%), Ballybeg North (7.2%, 43.2%), Larchville (7.3%, 43.9%), Shortcourse (9.0%, 50.4%) and Lisduggan (8.1%, 43.9%).
· In terms of its social class composition, the St. Brigid’s Family & Community Centre catchment area has a share of professionals (15.7%) half the national average (32.9%). Complementarily, low-skilled workers account for 31.0%, compared to 18.6% nationally.
· The Sacred Heart Community & Childcare Project catchment area also has a significantly lower share of professionals (17.5%) when compared to the national average, and a higher than average share of low-skilled workers at 28.7%.
Unemployment
· Whilst all of the other socio-economic indicators are less sensitive to the time that has passed since the 2006 Census, unemployment has more than doubled since, and the 2006 data has to be treated with considerable care. Nevertheless, when used on a strictly comparative basis with respect to the 1991 to 2006 period, the relativities remain of significance and are likely to have prevailed into present-day.
· Unemployment rates throughout Ireland have broadly halved over the past 15 years. Female unemployment rates have tended to be slightly below male unemployment rates, but have not fallen at the same pace due to the increasing levels of female labour force participation (i.e. reflecting the trend of increased female participation in the labour force with more women registering their unemployed status). The male unemployment rate fell from 18.4% in 1991 to 8.8% in 2006, whilst the female unemployment rate fell from 14.1% to 8.1%.
· Male unemployment rates for Waterford City have fallen at a rate slightly above the nationally prevailing ones between 1991 and 2006 (-10.1% male / -4.9% female compared to -9.6% male / -6.0% female nationally), but rates remained significantly above the national rates in 2006 at 13.6% male unemployment and 11.2% female unemployment.
· Unemployment rates in individual EDs reach levels well above those prevailing city wide, and are highest in Custom House A (32.8%m/33.8%f) and Ballybeg North (31.7%m/21.6%f), followed by Mount Sion (23.4m/25.2f), Centre B (23.5%m/20.8%f) and Ballybricken (22.5%m/23.5%f).
· In 2006, the St. Brigid’s Family & Community Centre catchment area experienced a male unemployment rate almost twice the nationally prevailing rate. The female unemployment rate was also well above the national average.
· The Sacred Heart Community & Childcare Project catchment area experienced unemployment rates broadly 50% above the national average.
Housing
· There has been a 2.3 percentage point decline in the proportion of local authority housing in Ireland over the past 15 years, from 9.8% in 1991 to 7.5% in 2006. The proportion in the South East Region has declined by 2.4 percentage points, from 10.2% to 7.8%. Waterford City has seen an even greater decline of 5.0 percentage points, albeit from a significantly higher base (18.9% to 13.9%). After Cork City, this remains the second highest level of local authority rented housing for any county.
· At ED level, the highest concentrations of local authority housing are found in Ballybeg North (55.6%), Larchville (39.9%), Roanmore (32.6%), Morrisson’s Road (32.2%) and Newport’s Square (31.3%).
· In the St. Brigid’s Family & Community Centre catchment area, local authority rented housing (13.2%) is almost twice the national rate. The area also has a significant presence of private rented accommodation, which accounts for 25.5%, significantly above the national average of 13.8%.
· In the Sacred Heart Community & Childcare Project catchment area, local authority housing accounts for 18.2%, which is more than two-and-a-half-times the nationally prevailing rate.
New Measures of Deprivation in the Republic of Ireland
An Inter-temporal and Spatial Analysis of data from the
Census of Population, 1991, 1996, 2002 and 2006
Trutz Haase & Jonathan Pratschke, February 2008
This section provides a brief summary of the new Measures of Deprivation for the Republic of Ireland, drawing on recent data from the 2006 Census of Population. Building on the innovative and powerful approach to the construction of deprivation indices developed in our previous research (Haase & Pratschke, 2005), the new Measures of Deprivation provide an up-to-date analysis of the changes in deprivation that have occurred in each local area over the past fifteen years[1].
How is the new deprivation index constructed?
Most deprivation indices are based on a factor analytical approach which reduces a larger number of indicator variables to a smaller number of underlying dimensions or factors. This approach is taken a step further in the Measures of Deprivation developed by Haase & Pratschke: rather than allowing the definition of the underlying dimensions of deprivation to be determined by data-driven techniques, the authors develop a prior conceptualisation of these dimensions. Based on earlier deprivation indices for Ireland, as well as analyses from other countries, three dimensions of affluence/disadvantage are identified: Demographic Profile, Social Class Composition and Labour Market Situation.
Demographic Profile is first and foremost a measure of rural affluence/deprivation. Whilst long-term adverse labour market conditions tend to manifest themselves in urban areas in the form of unemployment blackspots, in rural areas, by contrast, the result is typically agricultural underemployment and/or emigration. Emigration from deprived rural areas is also, and increasingly, the result of a mismatch between education and skill levels, on the one hand, and available job opportunities, on the other. Emigration is socially selective, being concentrated amongst core working-age cohorts and those with further education, leaving the communities concerned with a disproportionate concentration of economically-dependent individuals as well as those with lower levels of education. Sustained emigration leads to an erosion of the local labour force, a decreased attractiveness for commercial and industrial investment and, ultimately, a decline in the availability of services.