Our city - who are we?
Knowing who lives in our city, the skills we have, how we’re all feeling about where we live and the difficulties people might be facing means we can work better together with communities and organisations across Brighton & Hove to design and deliver the services people want, need and can use.
Knowing more earlier means we can reach out and support people. This also helps prevent more expensive interventions meaning public money can be spent on other much needed services.
290,395
residents in Brighton & Hove (2017)
- Under 20s: 21% (24% in England)
- 20 to 59 year olds: 62% (53% in England)
- 60 to 74 year olds: 11% (15% in England)
- 75 and above: 6% (8% in England)
Our population profile is younger than England
Projections
There are projected to be 23,300 more people living in the city by 2030 (compared with 2017, an 8% increase to 311,500 people).
The city’s population is predicted to get older, with the greatest projected increases in the 60 to 74 years (33%, 10,800 extra people) and 75+ age group (30%, 5,300 extra people). There are projected to be 700 more 85 to 89 year olds and 400 more 90+ year olds.
Population groups
Our city consists of different population groups living in a range of communities.
- One in five people (19.5%) are from a Black or Minority Ethnic group (14.5% South East, 20.2% England).
- 49% of residents have a religion, lower than the South East (65%) and England (68%).
- More than one in 20 residents say their day to day activities are ‘limited a lot’ due to a long term health problem or being disabled.
- Our best estimate of lesbian, gay and bisexual residents is 11% to 15% of the population aged 16+
- At least 2,760 trans adults live in Brighton & Hove, with many more who visit to socialise, study or work.
- 52,000 residents were born outside of the UK (18% of the city‘s population), higher than the South East (14%) and England (16%)
Deprivation
Our city is the 131st most deprived local authority in England (of 317).
Some areas are more affected by deprivation than others.
The highest concentration of deprivation is in the Whitehawk, Moulsecoomb, and Hollingbury areas. Along the coast, to the west of the city and in Woodingdean, there are also pockets of deprivation. All these areas are in the 20% most deprived areas in England.
A snapshot of our recent work for the city
We’re proud of our staff who deliver over 700 services for residents and visitors to the city. There aren’t many organisations that conduct marriages, support people to leave hospital, shepherd sheep, look after a royal palace and maintain nearly 400 miles of roads, all in a normal working day.
- We are the corporate parent for 392 children in care and 328 care leavers
- In 2018, Ofsted inspected our children's social care services and rated them 'good'
- Protecting 3,400 listed buildings forming our unique heritage
- Performed citizenship ceremonies for 736 new British citizens
- Celebrated 1,233 marriages or civil partnerships
- Registered 3,094 births and 2,740 deaths
- 91% of schools being judged Good or Outstanding by Ofsted
- Maintaining and cleaning 700 miles of pavement - that’s the same as from Brighton to John O’ Groats!
- Managing 13km of seafront from Saltdean to Hove Lagoon
- Almost 5 million refuse collections and 2.5 million recycling collections a year
- £962,422 worth of benefits re-instated in 2017/18 and 2018/19
- Over 250 outdoor events, with more than 1 million attendees a year
- 3 times winner of the National Transport Local Authority of the Year
- We have 15 social work teams working with 1,961 children in need through a whole family approach
- 38km of designated cycling routes
- Jubilee Library is the fifth most popular library in the country with 932,994 visits a year
- Helped bring 162 empty properties back into use in 2018/19
- In 2018, seafront lifeguards saved 24 lives
- 717 households prevented from becoming homeless in 2018/19
- Generated £11.5 million over the last 4 years to invest in city infrastructure
- £1 million funding secured to increase electric vehicle charging in the city
- Biggest builder of affordable housing in the city
- £2.2 million invested in the voluntary sector per year through the Third Sector Commission supporting 35,959 people in its first year and levering in £6.27 million
- Invested £23 million across our 11,500 council homes in 2018/19 - we've had 100% decent homes standard since 2012
- Delivered 197 new council homes since 2015 with over 500 in the pipeline
- Managing 45 playgrounds, 74 outdoor spaces, 55 cemeteries and churches, 452 benches
- All of Brighton & Hove's adult learning disability residential homes have been rated as 'good' by the CQC
Where does the council’s money come from and how is it spent?
The council’s money is your money and we take spending and using it really seriously.
We work hard to make sure that we have enough money to pay for things that legally we have to provide such as schools, public health and housing with enough left over to pay for the other services that you tell us are wanted and needed in the city.
It currently costs just over £2 million every day to run your council services meaning in 2019/20 we are spending £757.4 million in total on services across the city.