The Rother Valley seat is an equal mix of countryside and small towns, wrapped around the edges of industrial Rotherham. Owner occupation of homes is high, unemployment runs below the national average and the seat enjoys a fair blend of managerial and skilled-manual workers.
Coal mining was a key industry in this area, but the industry declined massively in the 1980s and 1990s.
An unusual aspect of Rother Valley is its above average levels of owner occupation, 70%, and its correspondingly low level of council-rented homes - a statistical glitch for a constituency supposedly crippled by the disappearance of its primary industry. The seat has pulled through the hard times with a series of regeneration and reclamation projects, as well as re-inventing itself as a dormitory for managerial and skilled manual workers who commute into bordering Rotherham.