Citation

Dorling D, Wheeler B, Shaw M, Mitchell R. Twenty-First Century Society 2007; 2(2): 173-189.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/17450140701325873

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The individual Sample of Anonymised Records (SAR) was used from the 2001 Census to investigate the life circumstances of children in turn-of-the-millennium Britain. The numbers of children in the SAR, and by inference, the country, living in conditions of relative disadvantage or social exclusion are calculated, described and debated. The study also considers those children living in conditions of relative advantage, circumstances that are not often measured but are equally important if we want to understand how the first new populations of the 21st century are growing up. It was found that in 2001, approximately one-third of all children were experiencing two or more markers of disadvantage, such as overcrowded housing, long-term illness or living in a household with no adults in paid employment. Conversely, around 15 per cent of children experienced two or more indicators of advantage, such as living with adults in high-status, well-paid jobs, or in households with access to two or more cars. In relating these measures of advantage and disadvantage to children's ethnicity and religion (the latter collected for the first time in the 2001 Census), some startling variations were found. For example, half of Muslim children (compared to 29 per cent of all children) scored two or more on the indicator of multiple disadvantages, as did 59 per cent of children of African/Black African ethnicity. Similarly, while 15 per cent of all children scored two or more on the indicator of multiple advantage, only 8 per cent of Muslim and 6 per cent of African/Black African children did so. Other findings included that: children living on the 5th floor or above of a building, compared to those living on the 4th floor or below, were eight times as likely to live in overcrowded conditions, four times as likely to live in a household with no paid employment, three times as likely to be a lone-parent household, and seven times as likely to be of black or minority ethnic group.