Defra

You are here: Home > Statistics > Rural and countryside statistics > The rural economy > Quarterly Rural Economic Bulletin

Quarterly Rural Economic Bulletin

To help us assess the impact of the economic downturn in rural areas we have developed a ‘dashboard’ of indicators.  The dashboard is updated on a quarterly basis. It can downloaded from the bottom of this page.

The five indicators currently used are:

  • Claimant count – Proportion of working age population claiming unemployment benefits
  • Economic activity – Proportion of economically active population unemployed and proportion of working age population in employment
  • Redundancies – Number of redundancies per 1,000 workers
  • House prices - Average house prices and annual percent change
  • Business insolvencies – Rate of businesses becoming insolvent per 1,000 businesses

The indicators have been selected not only for their relevance but also for their ability to be updated regularly and to give a timely indication of the economic situation across rural and urban areas. They are based on the nationally agreed rural/urban definition.

Quarterly report

This dashboard presents a range of statistics designed to give an indication of the effects of the economic downturn in rural areas.

Inside this issue: 

  • Between Qtr 3 and Qtr 4 2011, the overall average house price for all house types decreased by 2.2% in rural areas and by 4.8% in urban areas.
  • In Qtr 4 2011, 1.9% of the working age population in rural England was claiming unemployment related benefits, compared to 4.3% in urban areas and 3.8% in England as a whole. In rural areas this was no change from Qtr 3 2011, but an increase of 0.1 percentage points from Qtr 4 2010.  In urban areas this was no change from Qtr 3 2011 and an increase of 0.5 percentage points from Qtr 4 2010.
  • Between quarters 3 and 4 of 2011, the unemployment rate increased from 5.1% to 5.5% in rural areas and decreased from 9.4% to 8.9% in urban areas.
  • Between Qtr 3 and Qtr 4 2011 the redundancy rate per 1,000 has increased from 6.1 to 6.4 for people living in rural areas and from 5.8 to 7.0 for people living in urban areas.
  • Business insolvency rates between quarters 3 and 4 of 2011 increased from 0.8 to 0.9 insolvencies per 1,000 businesses in rural areas, and from 0.9 to 1.0 insolvency per 1,000 businesses in urban areas.

 

 

 

Next report to be published on 12 June 2012.

 

Contact us

Email us: rural.statistics@defra.gsi.gov.uk

Downloads

8 March 2012

8 December 2011

8 September 2011

18 July 2011

8 June 2011

Was this information useful to you?

Please take a moment to tell us how we could improve this page. Your comments will not be publicly visible.

Page last modified: March 8, 2012