Easter may not be the most appropriate time to mention this. However, we are now living, for the first time in around 1,300 years, in a Cornwall where Christians find themselves in a minority. In the 2021 census Christians in Cornwall were outnumbered (just) by those claiming no religious beliefs. While the proportions are still … Continue reading State of the nation: religion
Category: socio-economic data
State of the nation: Population change
Back in 1961 Cornwall and Scilly were home to around 340,000 people. The population then began to rise sharply. By the end of this century on current trends it will be knocking on the door of a million, or 990,000 to be exact. While that’s likely to be the least of our worries if ‘business … Continue reading State of the nation: Population change
State of the nation: identity
In 2021 79,941 of Cornwall’s residents went to the trouble of writing ‘Cornish’ in their response to the census question on national identity. Another 9,031 wrote ‘Cornish’ while also checking the tick-box for ‘British’. Together these accounted for 15.6% of residents. This was an increase of about 16,000 on the 13.8% who declared a Cornish … Continue reading State of the nation: identity
State of the Cornish nation: pay
What’s been happening to wages and salaries in Cornwall recently? The gross weekly pay of full-time workers in Cornwall, although still languishing behind that of Britain as a whole, has been catching up since 2021. Time will tell whether this is a post-covid short-term blip or whether it means the long-awaited ‘high-wage economy’ that policy-makers … Continue reading State of the Cornish nation: pay
State of the Cornish nation: jobs
What are the most common jobs for people in Cornwall? First, let’s dispatch a couple of myths. Those icons of Cornwall, the miner and the fisherman, together with the invisible member of the traditional triptych - the farmer and farm labourer - may have accounted for most male jobs in the 19th century. But no … Continue reading State of the Cornish nation: jobs
Population growth and gentrification, marine tourism and a 15th century social climber
Here's the final set of brief summaries providing links to recent reviews of academic literature on Cornwall. You're now (almost) up to speed. In an important article on contemporary Cornwall Joanie Willett shows how population growth and gentrification have failed to solve Cornwall's endemic socio-economic difficulties while exacerbating a growing housing crisis and fragmenting local … Continue reading Population growth and gentrification, marine tourism and a 15th century social climber
Cornish language, the care community and witches
In case you missed a series of (mostly) short reviews of a selection of recent academic literature that I put on this site in the latter part of 2023 here's a one-sentence summary of each to save you having to read them. To make it digestible I'll limit it to three and drip in the … Continue reading Cornish language, the care community and witches
Fishy business: research on Cornwall’s inshore fisheries
Two relatively recent articles on the Cornish inshore fisheries and the men employed in them are reviewed here. The first looks at access to healthcare and identifies the constraints facing ‘fishers’. The second contrasts the Cornish inshore fisheries with the coastal fisheries of Tuscany. It identifies the strategies employed by the small-scale fishing sector in … Continue reading Fishy business: research on Cornwall’s inshore fisheries
Housing and population: how Cornwall compares
From 2011 to 2018 the number of people in Cornwall grew from 534,000 to an estimated 566,000. This was a faster rate of growth than the other parts of Great Britain. The number of houses built in Cornwall grew even faster. Interestingly, while the growth in the number of dwellings in England was less than … Continue reading Housing and population: how Cornwall compares
Deprivation in Cornwall: new data
Recently a new Index of Multiple Deprivation was published by the Government. This index measures deprivation in several dimensions, including income, health, educational qualifications and crime among others. In the press reports of this, no comparison was made with earlier indices. Although the methodology has changed somewhat, which makes the exercise a little difficult, it’s … Continue reading Deprivation in Cornwall: new data
Cornish studies resources 