Figurative and reliable research about demographics in Norfolk.

I am planning to aim my local newspaper to people in Norfolk, therefore i thought it would be a good idea to look at the demographics and facts about the people in Norfolk as they are the people going to buy my newspaper.

I think this research is quite reliable as it is on the Norfolk County Council website. It is also quick, free and easy for me to find out obscure information that will help me with my journey.

Here is the page i got my information from: http://www.norfolkinsight.org.uk/population

The information and facts i found out:

• Norfolk's population was 862,300 in mid-2010
• This graph shows the population in 2009 in Norfolk in comparison to England:

It shows that most people in 2009 were aged 25-49 - adults.

• There was also another graph (2010) which was more specific, and had the population of Norfolk separated by the five year age structure. It shows that the most common ages are between 60-64.
• I found a good section which told me how people travel to work, how many do and what their ages are. This links to my radio advert as it could be heard on the car radio. I have to keep in mind that this is 2001, but I'm suspecting that the numbers would have gone up from then due to the more accessibility of cars nowadays.  The data was taken from 2001 census, therefore it is reliable but not completely. This is the page of data i was given:

As you can see, it is very clear information that 65% of people out of the 360,000 who are employed of people go to work in a car or van in Norfolk.

• I also found some very interesting data about the social grades of people in Norfolk in 2001. I have looked at this because this can tell me, vaguely (as people can get jobs with no specific qualifications) about how 'educated' people are in Norfolk in 2001. This could give me an idea about the people nowadays, but i have to keep in mind the economic changes this country has had.

The graph shows that29% of all of the people in households aged 16 or over are in junior managerial, admin or clerical work. Work which i think would need certain qualifications and experience in the working world. However, the other 3 percentages are quite similar.

• I have been surrounding my newspaper with the idea that i am aiming to provide a newspaper for educated adults, so finding some official data on the qualification status of the people in Norfolk in 2001 is helpful:

The data shows that most people aged 16-24 in 2011 were either in full-time education or have no qualifications. This just shows with conparison to the data about employment, you do not need qualifications to have a job. However this does mean that i may need to make my target audience wider in order to get sales and interest.

How this data research effects me and my newspaper aimed at educated adults:

• I found comparing results quite hard as some of them are up to date more than others but it did show me that most people in Norfolk are adults, therefore are likely to have children, so may be interested in reading about what they can do with their kids at weekends etc.
• I now know that most of the people in Norfolk are adults, and that i have to provide a newspaper which is modern and interesting to them.
• I also found that most people travel to work via van or car, which is somewhere where they could listen to by radio advertisement, however, this is only out of the people which are employed. The amount of people not in employment wasn't available.
• I wanted to look at peoples qualifications because it can give me an idea of how educated people in Norfolk are. It did show that a lot of people have no qualifications, which unfortunately doesn't support my idea of aiming towards educated adults, but i think that I'm happy to not aim at the majority of people.
• I have kept in mind the information i have gathered and researched and will defiantly apply it to what i am going to do. The information did give me a basic overview what what Norfolk's people are like, however i want to know in more detail their relationship to newspapers and the radio.

How this survey may not be helpful to me:

• A lot of the data they had was taken in 2001, therefore isn't up-to-date. Life hasn't changed dramatically but economically it has, and economics are what control peoples way of living.
• people may fill the questionnaire out wrong, therefore creating unreliable and untrue data.
• It didn't give me all of the information i wanted, so i have had to think about what things could mean. E.g people take a certain way of transport to work, therefore they may or may not have been qualified for that job.
• I also found that not having any qualifications doesn't mean that you do not have a good job.