Rural Economic Bulletin for England, October 2019

In England, 9.5 million people (17% of the population) live in rural areas; 46.2 million (83%) live in urban areas.

Presented below are the most current data available for a selection of economic indicators for rural and urban areas that are released on a quarterly basis. Timescales are different across the various datasets.

The table below compares the most recent quarter to the previous quarter.
Later sections present annual comparisons for the most recent quarter.

Quarterly change	Rural	Urban
House prices (average sale price) year ending Q4 2018 to year ending Q1 2019	£333,900 ▲0.1%	£306,900 ▲0.1%
Percentage unemployed (aged 16 and over seeking work) Q1 2019 to Q2 2019	2.4% ◄► from 2.4%	4.2% ◄► from 4.2%
Claimant count (percentage of working age population on Jobseeker’s Allowance) Q1 2019 to Q2 2019	0.3% ◄► from 0.3%	0.6% ▼ from 0.7%
Redundancies (per 1000 workers) Q1 2019 to Q2 2019	3.1 ▼ from 3.7	4.0 ▲ from 3.3

_{Table notes:
All changes are based on unrounded figures and therefore may not agree exactly to the figures presented in the text and tables which are rounded to 1 decimal place.}

House prices

The average house sale price increased by 2.0% in rural areas and 2.2% in urban areas excluding London between year ending Q1 2018 and year ending Q1 2019.

Average prices in rural areas have been consistently above the average found in urban areas excluding London (by 37% in year ending Q1 2019) and higher than urban areas overall (by 9% for the same period).

In year ending Q1 2019 average house prices in rural town and fringe areas were 23% higher than the average found in urban areas excluding London (but 2% lower than urban overall), while average house prices in rural village and hamlet areas were 51% higher (and 20% higher than urban overall).

Annual average sale price of houses: Q1 2018 to Q1 2019¹

Category	Year ending Q1 2018	Year ending Q1 2019	Annual change1
Rural2	£327,300	£333,900	2.0%▲
of which Rural town & fringe2	£293,900	£300,500	2.2%▲
of which Rural village & hamlet	£362,000	£368,600	1.8%▲
Urban	£303,600	£306,900	1.1%▲
of which Urban (excl London)	£238,600	£243,800	2.2%▲
of which London2	£608,900	£603,700	0.9%▼
England	£307,800	£311,700	1.3%▲

Table notes
Source: ONS small area house price statistics
(1) Change is calculated using unrounded figures whereas prices are shown rounded to the nearest £100.
(2) There are a total of 983 London MSOAs, all of which are classified as urban except for one which is classified as rural town and fringe and is excluded from the rural figures.

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Annual average sale price of houses (£ thousands), year ending Q1 2007 to year ending Q1 2019

Chart notes
Source: ONS house price statistics for small areas

Economic activity

Rural employment is now shown as a percentage of people aged 16 to 64 in line with other standard indicators of employment. It increased by 0.3 percentage points, and was 3.2 percentage points above urban areas in Q2 2019.

Unemployment (as a percentage of those aged 16 and over) decreased by 0.2 percentage points in rural areas and was 1.7 percentage points below urban areas in Q2 2019.

The inactivity rate (not in employment or unemployed) in rural areas decreased by 0.3 percentage points, it decreased by 0.5 percentage points in urban areas.

Within inactivity, the retirement rate in rural areas decreased by 0.1 percentage points, it decreased by 0.2 percentage points in urban areas.

Percentage of people economically active and inactive: Q2 2018 to Q2 2019¹

Status	Rural2 Q2 2018	Rural 2 Q2 2019	Urban2 Q2 2018	Urban2Q2 2019
Employed3	78.5	78.8 ▲	75.1	75.7 ▲
Unemployed4	2.6	2.4 ▼	4.3	4.2 ▼
Inactive	38.8	38.5 ▼	35.5	35.1 ▼
of which Inactive retired	27.4	27.3 ▼	19.7	19.5 ▼

Table notes:
Source: ONS (Labour Force Survey, not seasonally adjusted).
(1) All changes are based on unrounded figures and therefore may not agree exactly to the figures presented in the text and tables which are rounded to 1 decimal place.
(2) According to the Rural-Urban Classification 2011.
(3) As a percentage of people aged 16 to 64 bringing this figure in line with other publications where employment rate is shown as percentage of people aged 16 to 64.
(4) As a percentage of people aged 16 and over who are economically active (in or seeking work).

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Percentage employed, Q1 2007 to Q2 2019

Chart notes:
Source: ONS (Labour Force Survey).
Dashed line: 2001 Rural-Urban Classification (RUC) applied up to Q4 2013; 2011 RUC applied from Q1 2014; some areas may have changed category between RUC versions.

Claimant count

Between Q2 2018 and Q2 2019, the percentage of the working age population claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance decreased by 0.2 percentage points in rural areas and by 0.6 percentage points in urban areas.

Jobseeker’s allowance claimants as a percentage of the working age population:
Q2 2018 to Q2 2019

Category1	Q2 2018Claimants	Q2 2018Per cent2	Q2 2019Claimants	Q2 2019Per cent2	Annual percentagepoint change
Rural	27,600	0.5	15,700	0.3	0.2▼
of which Rural town & fringe	18,200	0.6	10,100	0.3	0.3▼
of which Rural village & hamlet	9,400	0.4	5,600	0.2	0.1▼
Urban	338,500	1.2	174,300	0.6	0.6▼
England	366,100	1.0	190,000	0.5	0.5▼

Table notes:
Source: ONS Jobseeker’s Allowance data (via Nomis) and Defra..
Does not include people claiming Universal Credit.
(1) Using the Lower-Layer Super Output Area classification 2011.
(2) The number of claimants of Jobseeker’s Allowance as a percentage of the working age population.

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Claimants of Jobseeker’s Allowance as a percentage of the working age population, Q1 2007 to Q2 2019

Chart notes
Sources: ONS Jobseeker’s Allowance data (via Nomis) and Defra.
Does not include people claiming Universal Credit.
For further information please see the article Jobseeker’s Allowance, Universal Credit and the Claimant Count Changes to the Measurement of the Claimant Count
Dashed line: 2001 Lower-Layer Super Output Area (LSOA) classification applied up to Q2 2014; 2011 LSOA classification from Q3 2014.

Redundancies

In Q2 2019 12,000 people living in rural areas were made redundant, the same as a year earlier in Q2 2018.

The redundancy rate in rural areas decreased from 3.2 to 3.1 redundancies per 1,000 workers between Q2 2018 and Q2 2019, in urban areas the rate increased from 3.4 to 4.0 redundancies per 1,000 workers.

Count of redundancies and rates¹ per 1000 workers

Category2	Q2 2018Count	Q2 2018Rate1	Q2 2019Count	Q2 2019Rate1
Rural	12,000	3.2	12,000	3.1
Urban	66,000	3.4	78,000	4.0
England	78,000	3.4	90,000	3.9

Table notes:
Source: ONS (Labour Force Survey).
(1) Ratio of the number of workers (aged 16 and over) made redundant for the given quarter to the number of employees (aged 16 and over) in the previous quarter multiplied by 1000, based on location of residence.
(2) 2001 Rural-Urban Classification (RUC) applied up to Q3 2015, 2011 RUC from Q4 2015.

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Count of redundancies and rates¹ per 1000 workers, split by sector, Q2 2019

Sector	Rural2Count	Rural2Rate1	Urban2Count	Urban2Rate1
Agriculture, fishing, energy & water	*	*	3,000	11.2
Manufacturing industries	*	*	13,000	6.4
Construction	*	*	3,000	2.9
Distribution, hotels and restaurants	3,000	4.3	22,000	5.8
Transport and communication	*	*	7,000	5.8
Finance and business services	2,000	3.9	14,000	3.8
Education, health and public admin	*	*	14,000	2.2
Other services	*	*	2,000	2.0
All industries	12,000	3.1	78,000	4.0

Table notes:
Source: ONS (Labour Force Survey).
(1) Ratio of the number of workers (aged 16 and over) made redundant for the given quarter to the number of employees in the previous quarter multiplied by 1000, based on location of residence rather than workplace.
(2) According to the Rural-Urban Classification 2011.
(*) Data suppressed to prevent disclosure.
(-) Count value less than 1000

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Redundancies per 1000 employees, Q1 2007 to Q2 2019

Chart notes:
Source: ONS (Labour Force Survey).
Dashed line: 2001 Rural-Urban Classification (RUC) applied up to Q3 2015, 2011 RUC from Q4 2015.

Rural productivity measures by Gross Value Added (GVA)

In 2017 rural productivity was £246bn, an increase of 3% on 2016.

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GVA (£billion) at current basic prices, 2010 to 2017

Chart notes:
Source: ONS

Further information

Some figures are liable to revision in subsequent quarters and so comparisons with previous bulletins should be treated with caution. This is particularly the case for house prices, for which previous quarters may be revised significantly.

Areas forming settlements with populations of over 10,000 are urban, while the remainder are defined as rural town and fringe; village; or hamlet and isolated dwellings.

For more information about the 2011 Rural-Urban Classification please visit the Rural Urban Classification webpage.

Produced by Defra Rural Statistics:
rural.statistics@defra.gsi.gov.uk Comments on content and format welcome.