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City of Bradford

The City of Bradford is a local government district of West Yorkshire, England, with the status of a metropolitan borough and a city. It is named after its largest settlement Bradford, but covers a larger area, including the towns of Keighley, Bingley and Ilkley. The city council (i.e. the local authority) brands itself the "Bradford Metropolitan District Council".

With a population of 477,770 (Source ONS 2003 Mid Year Estimate) it is England's 4th largest district with city status. In terms of the population of its urban core, Bradford is around the tenth largest settlement in England.

History

The current borough boundaries date from 1 April 1974, when the county borough of Bradford was merged with the borough of Keighley, the urban districts of Baildon, Bingley, Denholme, Ilkley, Shipley and Silsden, along with the Queensbury parts of Queensbury and Shelf urban district and the parishes of Addingham, Kildwick and Steeton with Eastburn from Skipton Rural District.

Economy

This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Bradford at current basic prices published (pp.240-253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.

Year	Regional Gross Value Added	Agriculture	Industry	Services
1995	4,343	23	1,683	2,637
2000	5,575	9	1,830	3,735
2003	6,272	13	1,774	4,486

includes hunting and forestry includes energy and construction includes financial intermediation services indirectly measured Components may not sum to totals due to rounding

Settlement

Places within the borough boundaries (in addition to the Bradford city area itself) include Addingham, Baildon, Bingley, Burley-in-Wharfedale, Cottingley, Cullingworth, Denholme, Gilstead, Haworth, Ilkley, Keighley, Manningham, Menston, Oakworth, Oxenhope, Queensbury, Saltaire, Shipley, Silsden, Steeton with Eastburn, Thornton and Wilsden.

The northern and western parts of the district are largely rural, with areas of high moorland including the famous Ilkley Moor and Brontë Country.

Parishes

Most of the Bradford city area is still unparished, but there are parish and town councils for most of the outlying towns and villages in the District. From April 2004, the parishes in the borough are:

Demographics

It has a large number of recent immigrants, and approximately 22% of the population are from ethnic minority groups, particularly from Pakistan. Asian immigrants' restaurants have led to the city being dubbed "the curry capital of Europe". Bradford is the district with the fourth highest percentage of Muslims in Britain (16.1% compared to an average of 3.0%).

Age Structure

0-4 years 33,240 (7.1 %)
5-15 years 76.087 (16.3 %)
16-24 years 58,305 (12.5 %)
25-44 years 130,742 (28.0 %)
45-64 years 101,630 (21.7 %)
65-74 years 36,101 (7.7 %)
75+ years 31,560 (6.7 %)

Work

Economically active, of all people aged 16 - 74 207,122 (63.4 %)
Employed (including self-employed) of economically active 184,558 (89.1 %)
Unemployed, of economically active 14,281 (6.9 %)
Full time student working or looking for work, of economically active 8,283 (4.0 %)
Economically inactive, of all people aged 16 - 74 119,656 (36.6 %)
Retired, of economically inactive 41,922 (35.0 %)
Student not working or looking for work, of economically inactive 18,116 (15.1 %)
Looking after family/home, of economically inactive 24,972 (20.9 %)
Permanently sick or disabled, of economically inactive 20,042 (16.7 %)
Other, of economically inactive 14,604 (12.2 %)

Ethnic Group

Bangladeshi 5,700 (1.2 %)
Black or Black British 7,800 (1.6 %)
Indian 14,500 (2.9 %)
Mixed 9,100 (1.9 %)
Pakistani 77,100 (15.6 %)
White British 355,800 (72.2 %)
Chinese or Other ethnic group 5,600 (1.1 %)
White Irish 3,300 (0.7%)
White Other 10,200 (2.1%)
Other Asian 4,000 (0.8%)

Education

Education in the borough is provided for by a number of schools and colleges. State schooling is managed by Bradford Local Education Authority. There are also a number of independent (private) schools, such as Bradford Grammar School and The Girls' Grammar School, Bradford. Bradford College and the University of Bradford are the main further and higher education providers.

Local government election

The district is divided into 30 wards and each is represented on the district council by three councillors. Each councillor is normally elected on a first past the post basis for a four-year period which is staggered with the other councillors of that ward so that only one councillor per ward is up for election at any one time. Exceptions to this include by-elections and ward boundary changes.

The table below summarises the state of the council after the 2008 local government election. Each party is ordered by number of councillors. The comparison is between the state of the council before the election and afterwards. One seat was empty. '''Summary of the 2008 City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council election results Parties
Seats Net
Gain/Loss Seats % 36 -3 ?? 35 +3 ?? 14 0 15.6 3 0 3.3 2 0 2.2 0 0 0 Total 90

Notes

References

bradfordinfo.com has a range of statistical and other information about the District, and includes a Geographic information system accessible from mapsandstats.com