Rotherham today
- Rotherham is one of four metropolitan boroughs in South Yorkshire.
- 25 wards cover a wide range of urban, suburban, and rural areas. 70% of Rotherham is open countryside.
- Rotherham’s population of 271,195 mostly live in urban areas. Although growing, this is at a slower rate than the regional/national averages.
- Population is ageing, with 1 in 5 residents 65 and over. 53,570 (19.8%) people aged 65 years or over.
- An increasingly diverse community, which includes 31,193 people from minority ethnic groups (11.7% of the population). The Pakistani community is the second largest ethnic group after White British.
- 75% of residents are satisfied with their local area as a place to live, whilst 66% of residents are satisfied with the wider borough as a place to live.
- There were over 4 million visits to Rotherham’s brilliant culture, sport and visitor attractions last year with sites such as Wentworth Woodhouse, Gulliver’s and Magna amongst South Yorkshire’s most popular tourist destinations.
- University Centre Rotherham offers higher and further education opportunities in the borough, training the borough’s future teachers, engineers, software developers and carers.
- Life expectancy in the most deprived areas of Rotherham is 9.9 years lower for men and 9.5 years lower for women than in the least deprived. Gaps in healthy life expectancy are greater at over 18 years for men and nearly 20 years for women.
- 22% of residents live within the 10% most deprived areas of England and the borough is amongst the 14% most deprived local authority areas in England. 11,904 children were living in “absolute poverty” (DWP, 2022/23).
- Record numbers of people are economically inactive due to long term sickness (a third of all those economically inactive); 10.6% of the working age population have no qualifications.
