ACORN Socio-Economic Classifications Cumbria and Districts, 2016 Introduction to ACORN ACORN is a socio-economic profiling tool which has been developed by the company CACI Ltd and subscribed to by the Cumbria Intelligence Observatory. ACORN uses a range of information gathered from a variety of administrative sources in order to classify each postcode in Great Britain as belonging to one of: 6 socio-economic categories 18 socio-economic groups 62 socio-economic types Using these classifications in relation to Cumbrian postcodes, it is possible to make assumptions about how people in different areas of the county may think or behave. When used with our own data, ACORN can also be used to help us understand better the users of existing services. ACORN data also helps us to understand how services can be designed to meet the needs of particular socio-economic groups and how best to get key messages across to certain groups. Although not everyone living in a particular postcode can be relied upon to behave in a particular way, there is a fairly good chance that a large proportion will share certain characteristics. Example: John lives in CA1 2AB. This postcode has been classified by ACORN as: Category 3 (Comfortable Communities) Group J (Starting Out) Type 32 (Educated families in terraces, young children) Category 3 Group J Type 32 Generally own home Younger couples in first At earlier stage of careers home Educational qualifications in line with national average Some renting but most buying with a mortgage Likely to read news online and shop online Average income, some earn more, younger people may earn a bit less than average Junior executive jobs and other white collar or professional occupations Ownership of iphone, BlackBerry and Android phones above average Mix of professional, managerial, clerical and skilled occupations Higher outgoings with mortgage and active social life Shop with less expensive providers of household goods and furniture Page 1 of 5
% of persons Cumbria - ACORN Category Profile 2016 Figure 1 compares the percentage of people in Cumbria across the six broad ACORN categories to the national (Great Britain) profile. Figure 1: ACORN Category profile for Cumbria and Great Britain 2016 40.0% ACORN category profile: Cumbria and Great Britain, 2016 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% Category 1: Affluent Achievers Category 2: Rising Prosperity Category 3: Comfortable Communities Category 4: Financially Stretched Category 5: Urban Adversity Category 6: Not Private Households Great Britain Cumbria Source: CACI Ltd (2016) Figure 1 shows that one fifth of Cumbria s residents (20.4%) live in postcodes classified by CACI Ltd as ACORN Category 1, Affluent Achievers. This is slightly lower than the national (Great Britain) proportion of 22.8%. Cumbria has a much lower proportion of residents within ACORN Category 2 Rising Prosperity than nationally. In Cumbria just one in every one hundred residents (1.0%) fall within this category, compared to almost one in ten nationally (9.3%). The majority of Cumbria s residents (35.8%) live in postcodes classified as ACORN Category 3 Comfortable Communities, a percentage that is +9.2% higher than the national proportion (26.6%). However, the second largest proportion of Cumbrian residents (29.1%) is classified as Category 4 Financially Stretched, again higher than the national rate (22.7%). A smaller proportion than nationally live within postcodes classified as Category 5 Urban Adversity ; 12.5% in Cumbria compared to 17.7% nationally. Finally, 0.9% of Cumbrian residents live in ACORN Category 6 postcodes Not Private Households. This category refers to business areas or communal establishments such as care homes or prisons. This is similar to the national proportion (1.3%). Page 2 of 5
% of persons Cumbria s districts - ACORN category profile 2016 Figure 2 compares the population of Cumbria s six districts across each of the broad ACORN categories. Figure 2: ACORN category profile for Cumbria s districts, 2016 70.0% 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% ACORN category profile: Cumbria's districts, 2016 Category 1: Affluent Achievers Category 2: Rising Prosperity Category 3: Comfortable Communities Category 4: Financially Stretched Category 5: Urban Adversity Category 6: Not Private Households Allerdale Barrow-in-Furness Carlisle Copeland Eden South Lakeland Source: CACI Ltd The ACORN category profiles of Cumbria s districts very considerably from the county and national averages. South Lakeland has by far the greatest proportion of Affluent Achievers (ACORN Category 1). At 41.0%, this is more than twice the Cumbria average (20.4%) and almost twice the national average (22.8%). In contrast, just 12.7% of residents in Barrow-in-Furness live in postcodes classified as ACORN Category 1. Carlisle has the greatest proportion of residents living in ACORN Category 2 postcodes (Rising Prosperity) (2.0%). However, whilst this proportion is twice the Cumbria average (1.0%) it is still much lower than the national proportion (9.3%). Eden district has the smallest proportion living in ACORN Category 2 postcodes (0.2%). The majority of Eden s residents (59.9%) live in ACORN Category 3 postcodes (Comfortable Communities), compared to 35.8% as an average across Cumbria, and double the proportions found in Barrow-in-Furness (26.6%) and Copeland (29.7%). Copeland has the greatest proportion of residents living in ACORN Category 4 postcodes (Financially Stretched) (43.8%), almost twice the national (Great Britain) proportion of 22.7%. Page 3 of 5
Barrow-in-Furness has the greatest proportion of residents living in ACORN Category 5 postcodes (Urban Adversity), (28.2%) more than double the county average (12.5%). Inversely, the proportions of residents in Eden and South Lakeland living in postcodes belonging to this classification are less than one third of the county average, 3.8% and 3.5% respectively. The majority of Barrow-in-Furness residents (59.4%) live in postcodes classified as either Category 4 (Financially Stretched) or Category 5 (Urban Adversity). This is much higher than the Cumbrian and national averages of 41.6% and 40.4% respectively. The ACORN category classification of each postcode unit within Cumbria can be viewed in Figure 3. Further information For further information regarding the ACORN socio-economic profiles of areas within Cumbria and examples of projects where ACORN has been used to understand the profile of groups of people within the county, please contact the Performance and Intelligence Team at Cumbria County Council: Email: info@cumbriaobservatory.org.uk Page 4 of 5
Figure 3: ACORN Category by Postcode Unit Page 5 of 5