Living in Poverty - Liverpool Lagging Behind UK
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Higher than average unemployment, low social mobility and a growing homelessness problem - Liverpool is still lagging behind the rest of the UK when it comes to poverty.
According to damning figures shared exclusively with the Mirror by the University of Portsmouth’s A Vision of Britain Through Time the city now has record numbers of people out of work and rough sleeping is a growing problem.
The data, which compares the 1931 census with the latest government figures, shows Liverpool has been struggling with high levels of poverty and poor social mobility since Orwell’s book The Road to Wigan Pier was published.
(Image: Daily Mirror)
Unemployment
When he visited the city a shocking 20 per cent of men and women were out of work - compared to the 11 per cent England/Wales average.
But while employment prospects across the UK have drastically improved since then, Liverpool hasn’t been as lucky.
Official estimates show that the national rate of unemployment for 16-64 year olds today is five per cent.
In Liverpool this stands at seven per cent - one of the highest rates of unemployment in the country.
Homelessness
The number of rough sleepers in the city has risen dramatically too.
Official figures estimate there were at least 21 people sleeping rough in Liverpool on one night at the end of October in 2016.
That’s up from 15 people counted at the same time the year before, and seven times as many as the three people counted in 2010 - way higher than the national average.
Social mobility
The city has a much higher working class population than the rest of England and Wales too.
In the 1930s, 43 per cent of workers in Liverpool were in semi-skilled and unskilled manual jobs.
By 2011, that figure had fallen to 32 per cent - much higher than the 24 percent UK average.
It means Liverpool has rocketed into the top 10 per cent most working class areas in the country.
Infant mortality
Infant mortality - also a key indicator of poverty - is another area where Liverpool still faces challenges.
In 1931, 94 out of every 1,000 babies born in Liverpool died before the age of one - much higher than the 66 infant deaths for every 1,000 babies born across England and Wales.
By 2014, death rates for babies under the age of one had plummeted to just six babies in every 1,000 born in England and Wales that year.
The number of infants dying also fell drastically in Liverpool, although rates in the area remain much higher the national average - nine in every 1,000 live births.
Housing
The only thing that has seen a relatively positive change since Orwell’s time has been overcrowded housing.
In the 1930s one in four (26 per cent) Liverpudlians were stuck in homes where there more than 1.5 people per room - the standard for measuring overcrowding, way above the 19 per cent national average.
Now just one per cent of people across England and Wales are classed as being in households with more than 1.5 people per room (according to the latest 2011 figures).
Liverpool saw an even more marked improvement with just 0.7 per cent of people living in overcrowded housing in the area.
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We are retracing the journey George Orwell made in his book, The Road to Wigan Pier, to tell modern stories of working and unemployed poverty.
They'll appear in a regular series in the Daily Mirror newspaper and here, on our special anniversary website.