Mid Ulster at a glance

agendaNi profiles the people of Mid Ulster, the ninth most populous parliamentary constituency in Northern Ireland.

Population

The Northern Ireland Assembly’s 2015 constituency profile of Mid Ulster parliamentary constituency shows the area to have a population of 102,361, a 0.6 per cent rise from 2014’s 101,724 which perfectly mirrors Northern Ireland’s growth rate as a whole over the same period. By these figures, Mid Ulster holds 5.5 per cent of Northern Ireland’s population.

The constituency has a higher proportion of children and young people and lower proportion of older people when compared to the Northern Ireland average. 23 per cent of Mid Ulster residents are below the age of 15, higher than the Northern Ireland average of 20.8 per cent; older people make up 13.7 per cent of Mid Ulster’s population, 15.8 per cent of Northern Ireland’s population are classified as older people.

The Assembly’s demographic profile of Northern Ireland in 2017 showed that the area had enjoyed the second largest rise in population density of any parliamentary constituency in Northern Ireland. Its 19.7 per cent rise from 71 people per square kilometre to 85 was bettered only by Upper Bann’s 22.2 per cent rise.

Education

83 per cent of the 1,404 students who left post-primary education in Mid Ulster in 2015/15 did so with at least five GCSEs between A* and C. This figure was higher than the Northern Ireland average of 81.1 per cent and placed the constituency fifth in terms of proportion of students leaving school with those qualifications.

6,870 Mid Ulster students were enrolled on further education courses at the time, accounting for 9.1 per cent of the constituency’s population over 16, lower than the Northern Ireland average of 9.6 per cent, making Mid Ulster the constituency with the ninth highest proportion of their 16+ population in further education.

3,540 students from Mid Ulster were enrolled in higher education institutes in 2014/15, accounting for 4.5 per cent of the constituency’s 16+ population. This placed it above the Northern Ireland average of 4.4 per cent and made Mid Ulster the constituency with the fifth highest proportion of its 16+ population attending higher education.

Labour market and business

1.631 people of working age, just 2.5 per cent of that category in Mid Ulster, were claiming unemployment benefits in 2015, lower than the Northern Ireland average of 3.7 per cent, making Mid Ulster the constituency with the third lowest proportion of unemployment benefit claimants. Overall, in February 2016, 27,270 Mid Ulster residents were claiming at least one of the main benefits, a 35.2 per cent proportion of the constituency’s population aged 16 or over. This placed it lower than the Northern Ireland average of 38.3 per cent and made Mid Ulster the fifth lowest constituency in terms of those 16+ claiming at least one of the main benefits.

In terms of business, InvestNI made 407 offers of assistance or investment in the year 2015 to companies in Mid Ulster. This assistance amounted to financial support of £9 million, £8.5 million of which went to locally owned companies. £47.9 million of planned investment was also allocated to Mid Ulster companies, with £46 million of that going to companies that are locally owned.