The number of children under fifteen living in Southwark fell by about four per cent over the past ten years, new figures show – even as the overall population rose.
Nearly 50,400 children under the age of fifteen lived in the borough in 2011, according to the census from that year. But that figure dropped to 48,500 in March 2021, an analysis of new ONS figures shows.
It comes after the News reported last week that sixteen Southwark schools were in budget deficit because of falling admissions numbers, with a further school having already closed in 2021.
This may be partly related to families leaving the UK because of Brexit or the Covid-19 pandemic, and because of unaffordable housing and the growing cost of living in a borough with an already-high level of deprivation.
Neighbouring Lambeth, which has similar demographics and housing pressures, had a comparable drop, with about 51,800 children under the age of fifteen in 2011, falling to 45,700 in 2021.
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Southwark’s entire population rose by around seven per cent over the past decade, according to the same ONS survey. Southwark’s overall population increase put the borough roughly in the middle of London’s 32 local authorities for population growth between 2011 and 2021 – but below average for the capital as a whole, whose population rose by 7.7 per cent over the period.
The populations of three inner-London boroughs actually fell over the decade, with nearly ten per cent fewer people in Kensington and Chelsea in 2021 than in 2011. Westminster’s population dropped by nearly seven per cent, while the number of people living in Camden was down by nearly five per cent.
The population of Tower Hamlets, in east London, rose the most, at an astonishing 22.1 per cent over the decade. Greenwich, Newham, the City of London and Barking and Dagenham made up the rest of the top five for population growth.
But London Councils, the body that represents all local authorities in the capital, sounded a note of “extreme caution” over the new figures, because the survey was done largely online during the pandemic.
London Councils said they were worried that because funding for services is often given out based on population, any undercount may result in fewer people getting the care they need.
Cllr Georgia Gould, the organisation’s chair, said: “It’s a bitter irony that it’s often the Londoners with the lowest census response rates who most depend on local authority support – but even small inaccuracies in population counts can seriously undermine future service provision.
“We are concerned that, without looking at the data in the context of the challenges the pandemic created, Londoners will lose out.”