Definitions of terms and notes

Definitions of the most commonly used terms are listed below in alphabetical order.

Terms

Central heating 

A household is classed as 'without' central heating if it does not have central heating in some or all of the rooms. 

Central heating includes gas/oil/solid fuel, central heating, night storage heaters, warm air and under floor heating.

Communal establishments

Communal establishments provide managed, or supervised residential accommodation.

Small hotels and guesthouses are classified as a communal establishment if they have the capacity to have 10 or more guests.

Dependents

A dependent is a child aged between 0-15 in a household, or 16-18 years in full time education and living in a family with his/her parents.

Please note that the definition of a dependent child has changed from the 1991 Census, in relation to 16-18 year olds which previously included those that had never married, were in full-time education and were economically inactive.

Economically active

All people aged between 16-74 years who were working in the week before the Census are described as being economically active.

Additionally, the category includes those individuals that were not in work but were actively seeking employment and were available to start work within two weeks.

Full-time students who were economically active are also included within this category but are classified separately.

Economically inactive

Individuals aged 16-74 that were not working/actively seeking work were classified as economically inactive.

Ethnic composition

The question regarding ethnic group recorded individual's perceived ethnic group and cultural background.

The question on ethnicity was amended in the 2001 Census to include a mixed ethnicity category.

Health

A question on general health was introduced in the 2001 Census.

The question asked the individual to self assess their health over the last 12 months prior to Census day.

Households

Households are defined as consisting of either a single person, or a group of people - not necessarily related - living at the same address and sharing either a living room, or a sitting room and at least one meal a day.

Limiting long term illness

This question asked the individual to self assess whether or not they had a limiting long term illness, health problem or disability which limits their daily activities or the work they do, including problems due to old age.

Lone parent family

In most cases a lone parent family is a mother / father with his / her child(ren), where the parent does not have a spouse / partner living in the household.

It also includes a lone grandparent living with his / her grandchild(ren), where there are no children in the intervening generation in the household.

National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SeC)

This classification has been introduced to replace social class based on occupation.

Overcrowding

Overcrowding is defined as occurring when there are fewer rooms than the number required by the members of the household.

The room requirement is calculated as follows:

• A one person household is assumed to require three rooms (two common rooms and a bedroom)
• Where there are two or more residents it is assumed that they require a minimum of two common rooms
• plus one bedroom for:

1. Each couple (as determined by the relationship question)
2. Each lone parent
3. Any other person aged 16 or over
4. Each pair aged 10 to 15 of the same sex
5. Each pair of children aged under 10
6. Each remaining person (either under 10 or aged 10 to 15)

Pensioner

The pensionable age is 65 and over for males and 60 and over for females.

Population

The 2001 Census was conducted on a resident basis. This means that the statistics relate to where people usually live, as opposed to where they were on the night that the Census took place (29 April 2001).

Students and school children living away from their family home are counted as resident at their term-time address. 

The same rule that applied in the 1981 and the 1991 Census existed, where residents who were away from their homes on the night of the Census were included on the Census form at their usual address, as opposed to where they were staying on that night.

Households where all residents were absent on Census night, were required to complete a form on their return.

Provision of unpaid care

A new question regarding provision of unpaid care and number of hours spent providing it was introduced in the 2001 Census.

A person is a provider of unpaid care if they give any help or support to family members, friends, neighbours or others because of long-term physical or mental health or disability, or problems related to old age.

Qualifications

This table shows the highest qualification achieved to date by individuals aged between 16 and 74-years-old.

Religion

A question on religion was included for the first time, asking individuals which religion they currently practice.

The question was voluntary, therefore those individuals that decided not to declare their religion, were included in the 'not stated' category.

Unemployed

Individuals are classed as unemployed if they were not in employment, were available to start work in the next two weeks and had either been looking for work in the last four weeks or were waiting to start a new job.

* Table calculations

Total population figures from different tables may not match exactly due to rounding up of figures to avoid the release of confidential data.

All tables relate to the total resident population of the area except:

• Qualifications and economic status which refer to the resident population aged between 16 and 74-years-old.
• Employment which refers to the resident workforce population aged between 16 and 74-years-old.

The % refers to table totals (marked with a *) except in the following cases: 

• Number of Residents living in Communal Establishments - refers to the total resident population. 
• Number of Residents living in Communal Establishments with a Limiting Long Term Illness - refers to the total number of residents living in communal establishments.   
• Household Amenities - all percentages within this category are of the total number of households in the area.
• All ages with a LLTI - refers to the total resident population. 
• Working ages with a LLTI - refers to the total resident population aged between 16 and 74-years-old.
• Pensioners with a LLTI - refers to the total number of pensioners (Females 60+ and Males 65+).

Abbreviations

The following abbreviations have been used within the area profiles:

• W'ton - Wolverhampton 
• W&B - White and Black 
• WC - Water Closet (toilet)
• NS - National Statistics
• SeC - Socio-Economic Classification     
• LLTI - Limiting Long-Term Illness