Equality Strategy 2019-2024

• Approximately 2.1% of NL population are people from a Black or minority ethnic group, 828 people use British Sign Language at home, 2715 speak Polish at home, 6678 speak other language at home other than English and 483 speak Gaelic.
• Our population is getting older with the over 65 age group set to increase by over 11,000 by 2026, whilst the working age population decreases by 5,000.
• Of the 10,134 people living in North Lanarkshire who were born outside the UK, 55.2% of those arrived after 2001.
• Just under ¼  have no religion (way below the Scottish average of 36%). 34.6% are Roman Catholic, more than double the Scottish average.

• 7339 people in NL understand but do not speak, read or write English, and 9857 speak but do not read or write English.
• 42.1% of visually impaired learners gained national qualifications at Level 3 and above in Maths or English within the SCQF framework in 2018 compared with 54.8% in 2017
• 51.7% of exclusions were pupils with additional support needs in 2017/18 (46% of distinct pupils) 81.82% of pupils with additional support needs (ASN) were participating post-school. The Scottish average is 90.4%.
• 6% of NL Modern Apprentices in 2017/18 were disabled. The Scottish average was 11.3%. This rose to 9.84% in Quarter 3 of 2019. 0.55% are BME as compared to the Scottish average of 2.1%.
• 1 in 4 Scottish pupils said they were aware of their peers suffering prejudice based bullying.

All of the following is about people who are economically active aged 16+ in North Lanarkshire.

• The unemployment rate is the lowest for white Polish people at 7.09%. For all white people it is 9.68%. The rate for Black and Minority Ethnic (BME)  people is 10.76%, however this jumps to 17.15% if you are Black Caribbean or African. Caribbean or Black males experience the worst at 29.68%.
• The unemployment rate is higher for Asian females (11.02%) than males (7.49%) and white females (7.75%) 20.89% of economically active BME people are self -employed compared to 7.9% of white people. There are 736 BME people who are small employers (that is 9.83% of the total BME working age population and 4.64% of these are run by women). In comparison 5.9% of the total white population are small employers.
• For people whose activities are limited a lot the unemployment rate is 11.95%
• The rate of full-time self-employment for disabled people is 6.32% slightly more than for non-disabled people. 6.2% of people over 16 are economically inactive due to long term illness or disability.
• Disabled people spend £550 more per month than non-disabled people, because of the extra costs of being disabled. All of this means that 47.5% of disabled people live in poverty.

• Charges reported to Airdrie Procurator Fiscal Office relating to disability and sexual orientation hate crime have increased significantly since 2010-11 while racial and religious based hate crime have decreased.
• 12.2% of households are one person aged over 65. 9.1% are lone parent households with dependent children.
• 19.05% of Adult Literacy and Numeracy learners are BME
• By 2037 the older population in North Lanarkshire will have increased by 68.4% from 2012.Younger households and ethnic minority households are more likely than others to live in overcrowded properties.
• 10% of disabled people responding to a NL youth survey never feel safe when out and about in their community
• In 2014, 27% of people who volunteered had a disability, a long term illness or had both.
• 2% of volunteers were from an ethnic group other than ‘white’ and 54% of people who volunteer are of the Christian faith.

• 85% of employees in care and personal services occupations are female.
• 167 children under 16 provide 20 + hours of unpaid care every week. 76 of those over 50 hours/ week. 3.1% of all people provide 50 + hours unpaid care a week, the Scottish average is 2.5%.
• 25.29% of people over the age of 16 are limited in their day to day activities either a little or a lot. The overall rate for Scotland is 22.79%.
• 29.9% of people are living with one or more long-term health conditions.
• Many Asian women in particular are prevented from walking alone due to fear of harassment. Access to a car is crucial for getting out and about.
• The % of women who are repeat victims of domestic abuse has reduced from 45% to 15.6% since 2017. 393 referrals were made to Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) in 2017/18 period.