Infrastructure Spending per Person in Wales
Infrastructure Spending per Person in Wales
Remember this graphic from article 1; use it with the table of populations of each Local Authority and region to work out important issues essential for planning in Wales.
Image: Profile of Wales - Office for National Statistics © Wikimedia Commons under the Open Government Licence v1.0
1. What is the difference between weekly earnings in England and weekly earnings in Wales?
2. What is the average weekly earnings in the UK
3. What is the difference between average weekly earnings in the UK and average weekly earnings in Wales
4. What is the range between the median age in Wales and the country with the lowest median age in the UK?
5. What's the average % of unemployment in the UK?
6. Which country has the highest % of unemployment?
7. Which country has the lowest % of unemployment?
8. Which country has the highest % of disabled people?
9. What is the range in % between the highest and lowest countries for disability?
10. Which country do you think is the:
- poorest - why?
- richest - why?
Use the following information from the previous articles and the table of populations for each Local Authority in Wales to answer the questions on major infrastructure project costs per head of each region.
|
Infrastructure Spending by region with M4 Relief Road |
|
|
|
£ billion |
|
North Wales |
20.341 |
|
Mid & West Wales |
5.548 |
|
South Wales East |
1.758 |
|
South Wales Central |
1.853 |
|
South Wales West |
2.918 |
|
Infrastructure Spending by region without M4 Relief Road |
|
|
|
£ billion |
|
North Wales |
20.341 |
|
Mid & West Wales |
5.548 |
|
South Wales East |
1.158 |
|
South Wales Central |
1.285 |
|
South Wales West |
2.918 |
|
Rank |
District |
Population |
Region |
|
1 |
Cardiff |
357,200 |
S. Wales Central |
|
2 |
Swansea |
242,400 |
S. Wales West |
|
3 |
Rhondda Cynon Taf |
237,400 |
S. Wales Central |
|
4 |
Carmarthenshire |
185,100 |
Mid & West Wales |
|
5 |
Caerphilly |
180,200 |
S. Wales East |
|
6 |
Flintshire |
154,100 |
North Wales |
|
7 |
Newport |
147,800 |
S. Wales East |
|
8 |
Bridgend |
142,100 |
S. Wales West |
|
9 |
Neath Port Talbot |
141,000 |
S. Wales West |
|
10 |
Wrexham |
136,600 |
North Wales |
|
11 |
Powys |
132,600 |
Mid & West Wales |
|
12 |
Vale of Glamorgan |
127,600 |
S. Wales Central |
|
13 |
Pembrokeshire |
123,500 |
Mid & West Wales |
|
14 |
Gwynedd |
122,900 |
Mid & West Wales |
|
15 |
Conwy |
116,200 |
North Wales |
|
16 |
Denbighshire |
94,700 |
North Wales |
|
17 |
Monmouthshire |
92,500 |
S. Wales East |
|
18 |
Torfaen |
91,800 |
S. Wales East |
|
19 |
Ceredigion |
74,600 |
Mid & West Wales |
|
20 |
Isle of Anglesey |
70,000 |
North Wales |
|
21 |
Blaenau Gwent |
69,500 |
S. Wales East |
|
22 |
Merthyr Tydfil |
59,300 |
S. Wales East |
11. Calculate the population in each region.
12. Calculate the spending per person for each region:
+ With the M4 Relief Road in South Wales East/Central
+ Without the M4 Relief Road in South Wales East/Central
Only after completing your calculations check out the tables below:
With
|
Infrastructure spending/per person by region with M4 Relief Road |
Total Population |
Spending per Person |
|
|
|
£ billion |
|
|
|
North Wales |
20.341 |
571,500 |
£35,592 |
|
Mid & West Wales |
5.548 |
321,000 |
£17,283 |
|
South Wales East |
1.758 |
641,100 |
£2,742 |
|
South Wales Central |
1.853 |
722,200 |
£2,565 |
|
South Wales West |
2.918 |
666,500 |
£4,378 |
Without
|
Infrastructure spending/per person by region without M4 Relief Road |
Total population |
Spending per Person |
|
|
|
£ billion |
|
|
|
North Wales |
20.341 |
571,500 |
£35,592 |
|
Mid & West Wales |
5.548 |
321,000 |
£17,283 |
|
South Wales East |
1.158 |
641,100 |
£1,806 |
|
South Wales Central |
1.285 |
722,200 |
£1,779 |
|
South Wales West |
2.918 |
666,500 |
£4,378 |
Compare the spending on infrastructure spending with this map of house hold income. You can explore an interactive version from the ONS (Office for National Statistics). The argument for not spending on infrastructure in the three South Wales regions is that these are the wealthiest parts of Wales so need it least. However each of these regions combined also cover the South Wales Valleys which are amongst the areas in Wales with the lowest household incomes.
Image: http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/HTMLDocs/incomeestimates.html
13. Which areas of Wales have the highest incomes?
14. Which areas of Wales have the lowest incomes?
15. How does the income across Wales compare to the parts of England that you can see?
The South Wales valleys are amongst the most densely populated regions of Wales so not only are these areas amongst the poorest they also have a lot of people living there.
Image: Population density map in Wales from the 2011 census - SkateTier © Wikimedia Commons under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
16. Which parts of Wales are the most densely populated?
17. Which ares of Wales have low incomes and high population densities? (many people with low incomes).
Student Activity
Use the A3 activity sheet to help you describe the pattern of infrastructure spending in Wales compared to how many people live in an area (population density) and how rich or poor (household incomes) the areas are. This is a large part of what the Welsh Government needs to do when looking at how they need to spend their budget.
In the next edition of GITN we will focus on the proposed M4 Relief Road and the many issues for it and against it. It is much more complicated than most people realise.
