Love is in the air in Cheshire East!

 

New Census figures published this week show that couples in Cheshire East are some of the most committed to marriage in the North West.

A total of 52.1 per cent of Cheshire East adults (aged 16 and above) have tied the knot and remain married, compared to 44.8 per cent for the North West and 46.6 per cent for the whole of England and Wales.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) published its second tranche of figures from the 2011 Census on Tuesday and the marital status figures further demonstrate that Cheshire East is a wonderful place to get married and settle down.

Only Ribble Valley (54.6 per cent), Eden (54.4 per cent) and South Lakeland (53.9 per cent) have higher proportions of married people than Cheshire East out of 39 North West boroughs.

Meanwhile, a total of 563 adults in Cheshire East are currently in registered same-sex civil partnerships, which makes up 0.2 per cent of the adult population and in line with the England and Wales percentage.

Councillor David Brown, Cabinet member in charge of strategic communities, said: “Nationally, Census 2011 has revealed some very interesting statistics which show that England and Wales has changed dramatically over the past decade.

“The first set of figures, released in July, showed that we have a rapidly growing older population in Cheshire East and now we see statistics which dig a little deeper into trends emerging in our communities.

“It is wonderful to see that so many couples in our Borough have chosen to commit their lives to each other, which inevitably means people are putting their roots down here in Cheshire East and see it as a place to settle.

“One of our objectives is for Cheshire East to be an attractive place to live, work and study and the results of Census 2011 show that we are achieving this aim.”

Other notable figures show that a high proportion of people have a degree-level qualification in Cheshire East.

The number of people aged 16 and over with a degree has risen from 23.8 per cent in Census 2001 to 32 per cent – higher than the national rate of 27.2 per cent.

The proportion of adults in Cheshire East with no qualifications has fallen from 24.7 per cent to 19.6 per cent, lower than the national rate of 22.7 per cent.

For more information and statistics from Census 2011, visit www.ons.gov.uk