The People

According to the Office for National Statistics June 2008 report, there were 83,500 people residing in the South Hams, of whom 48.9% (40,800) were male and 51.1% (42,700) were female. Young people up to 15 years-of-age made up 16.7% of the resident population and people aged 65 years and over, 25.9%

At March 2010 the Valuation Office reported that there were 42,365 housholds in the district.

Economic context

The South Hams economy is characterised by its broad base of around 5,000 small businesses and a population of approximately 83,000. The district's geography, demographics, distance to markets and dispersed settlement patterns all create challenges - and opportunities - for sustained economic growth.

The South Hams has shown some resilience in the face of the global economic decline during 2008/9. Inspite of a slight improvement, earnings still trail behind the national average. The figures are influenced by a higher proportion than nationally of female workers, part-time workers and self-employed people. Nationally, 17% of all household incomes are made up of some form of social benefit - this compares with 22% in the South Hams. Access to education, work, child-care and transport tends to be more expensive in rural areas, often putting greater pressure on disposable incomes. The house price to work-based earnings ratio is 14:1.

The South Hams relies on tourism and agriculture with around 30% of the local workforce employed in these sectors.

Tourism

In 2008, South West Tourism published the following key facts relating to tourism in the South Hams.

542,000 trips were taken by visitors staying in the area

2,595,000 staying visitor nights

£122,735,000 was spent by visitors staying in the South Hams

2,393,000 day visits by people to the South Hams

£12,542,000 other tourism related spend

5,785 jobs related to tourism spending

14% of employment is supported by tourism

4,129 estimated number of full-time tourism related jobs