Our place and our community

It's important to understand our population to help us prioritise and plan effectively for our future. We are very proud of many of the achievements and developments seen in Medway in recent years and we have a strong story to tell.

However there a number of structural challenges we still face though particularly areas of deprivation and the related health and income inequalities. We will prioritise tackling these in the coming years.

Our population

57,016 are children and young people aged 0 to 15
176,703 are working age adults (16 to 64)
46,054 are older people (65+).

Our population is growing

From 263,900 in 2011 to 279,800 in 2021 (up 6%) to 299,734 by 2040 (3.9%).

Medway is in the top 40% most densely populated local authority areas.

Football pitch graphic

Medway is home to 9.3 people per football pitch sized piece of land compared with 8.8 people in 2011.

The proportion of the Medway population aged 65 or over is expected to continue increasing up to 2040.

Languages

The most common language of residents whose main language is not English is Romanian followed by Polish and Punjabi.

Medway is becoming more diverse, 15.7% of residents identified as being from ethnic minority backgrounds.

This is lower than England and Wales where 18.3% of residents identified as being from ethnic minority backgrounds.

5.6% of residents identified as being Black, Black British, Black Welsh, Caribbean or African, the largest increase of any ethnic group.

Medway has:

• 107 schools
• 3 universities
• 1 further education college
• 1 university technical college
• the oldest choir school in the world.

More than 90% of Medway's schools are rated good or better by Ofsted.

77 children in care per 10,000 children in Medway.

Employment and businesses

Medway's economy is worth £6.3 billion. There are 14,000 businesses of which 91% have 10 employees or less. Unemployment fell from 9.6% in 2013 to 4% in 2023. 

light blue train graphic

16.8% residents are economically inactive.

Medway is well connected, it's only 34 minutes to London by high speed train.

Zero carbon

Medway has committed to being net zero by 2050.

Housing

In 2021, 13.6% of households were rented in the social sector.

Private renting increased from 17.1% to 20.2%.

Home ownership decreased from 67.7% to 64.7%.

Medway is an attractive tourist destination

Tourism in Medway:

• brings in 5 million visitors each year
• offers 7,000 jobs
• brings £360 million to the local economy
• has historic heritage attractions
• has a free festival and events programme
• has 8 green flag parks.

Health in Medway

• 45.2% described their health as very good, this is up from 42.1% in 2011
• 5.6% report their health as bad or very bad
• 17.4% of residents have a disability or long term illnesses, this is up from 16.4% in 2011.

Life expectancy

In 2022, life expectancy at birth for males (78.7 years) and females (82.5 years) in Medway was lower than the national average which is 79.3 for males and 83.2 for females.

Life satisfaction

In 2022 to 2023, 75% of people reported high or very high levels of life satisfaction which is similar compared to the England average (78%).

Smoking rates

Smoking rates have significantly decreased in 2022, 8.9% of adults were smokers, this is down from 24.2% in 2011. The national average is 12.7%.

Breastfeeding

In 2022 to 2023, 41.9% of infants were totally or partially breastfed at age 6 to 8 weeks, which is lower compared to the England average of 49.2%.

Healthy weight

In 2022 to 2023, 60.8% of children in year 6 maintained a healthy weight. The national average is 61.9%.

In 2021 to 2022, 67.2% of adults were classified as overweight or obese. The England average is 63.8%.