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County Durham and Darlington covers an extensive area of some 2423 km2 with a total population
of 596,000.
Parts of the area are clearly urban in character, while others, notably the Durham dales, are
predominantly rural. With its tightly drawn boundaries, Chester-le-Street District has the highest
population density, at 787 people/km2, and Teesdale has the lowest, only 130 people/km2. More
than half the area’s residents live in settlements of less than 10,000 people. There are 12 main
towns and over 260 small towns and villages, many of which are former colliery villages.
The North East’s weak economy resulted in a long established pattern of substantial out-migration
and only limited in-migration. Between 1981 and 2004, the population of the North East declined
by -3.5%, while the UK population rose by +6.2%. Between 1981 and 2004, Darlington’s population
total was unchanged, while County Durham experienced a fall of -2.9% (see Table 1). The District
in County Durham with the biggest decline was Easington, with a net population loss of as much
as -8.5%, in the wake of pit closures in the 1980s.
Over the past few years, improved economic conditions have helped to stabilise the population
and, most recently, reverse the long-term trend of decline. There is now modest population growth
in the region as a whole, and many local authority areas are now experiencing growth. Over the
next two decades, population is projected to increase, but growth in County Durham is still
expected to be well below national growth, at only +3.9% to 2029. Darlington is forecast to
experience much stronger growth, not far short of the national population growth rate.
Nearly a fifth of the population in County Durham and Darlington is of pension age (60 or over for
women, 65 or over for men). People of pension age make up a larger proportion of the population
in County Durham (19.8%) and Darlington (19.7%) than in England (18.5%). That is despite higher
death rates in the North East, and will be significantly related to patterns of migration, with younger
people leaving the region. There are some interesting differences across the area: Teesdale has
the highest proportion of people of pension age, at 22.8%, and Durham City has the lowest, only
17.1%, a reflection of its large student population.
The population is expected to age very significantly. It is projected that, by 2029, 28.9% of the
population in County Durham, and 27.4% in Darlington, will be over the (current) pensionable age
(see Table 1).
At the 2001 Census, only 2.4% of the North East’s population and only 1.2% in County Durham and
Darlington were classified as within an ethnic minority group, compared to 8.7% in England and
Wales. The Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities in the North East principally comprise
people from Pakistan and Bangladesh. There is a particularly low proportion of black African and
black Caribbean people in the region.
New patterns of immigration are developing. It is reported that there are now some 20,000
immigrant workers from the EU in the North East. Poles are the predominant group, with sizeable
numbers in Derwentside, as well as in the conurbations.
Both nationally and regionally, household size has been reducing, while the proportion of singleperson
households has been increasing. 30.9% of households in the North East are one-person
households. That compares with 28.4% in England as a whole. Of the English regions, the North
East has the highest proportion of one-person households.
Some parts of County Durham have large proportions of lone parent households. 8.1% of
households in the North East comprise lone parent households (lone parents with at least one
dependent child), compared with 7.2% in England and the UK. In Darlington, the figure is 6.7% and
in County Durham 8.6%. But 13.3% of households in Easington comprise lone parents, and the
next highest district is Teesdale, at 11.2%.
