Who commutes the most and who has all the science jobs? See how your British city compares with others
LuminoCity3D has mapped key indicators such as average household size, as shown above in London (dark red is roughly 4.3 persons)
Ever wondered how Bristol and Liverpool compare in unemployment figures, or whether Leeds has more citizens born outside of the UK than Bournemouth - but can’t don’t fancy trawling through ONS figures for hours?
One researcher has compiled an extremely user-friendly interactive map of Britain which details the “performance and dynamics of Great British cities”.
LuminoCity3D was launched last Monday by Duncan Smith, an urban geographer from the UCL Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis.
It compares a number of indicators, such as the average education level of a city’s inhabitants, how many people own a car, or how many people are employed in IT jobs – most of it using data from the 2011 Census.
These numerous key indicators on population, housing, employment and energy use help us to “understand current patterns and trends, and [identify] successful cities for sharing best practice,” LuminoCity3D’s website states.
It allows the identification of the relationship between the urban form and a city’s performance, Mr Smith says.
It is interesting to note, for example, the employment density change for the decade between 2001-2011 in English cities and towns.
Cambridge has seen the number of jobs surge by 22.3 per cent over the ten years, while Liverpool and Manchester had a 10 per cent rise. Swindon had a loss of 0.2 per cent of jobs.
On employment density, Mr Smith says: “There is clear growth in Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool city centres, particularly Manchester which displays the biggest increase in employment density of any location in GB.
“But around these success stories there is a much more mixed picture of growth and decline for many other centres that are finding it more difficult to compete for firms and jobs.”
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