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 The population of the subregion is 807,000 (398,000 males and 409,000 females) of which ethnic minorities constitute 6.6%. Seven of the subregion’s wards have been placed in the top 100 most deprived wards, according to the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2000. This has been recognised in their designation as a Regeneration Zone and as Objective 2 status for European funding.
Achievement and staying on at school rates are generally high with 87.9% of Year 11 going to positive destinations. This is influenced by the achievements at age 16 where 40.9% of young people in Coventry gain five A* - C grades at GCSE and 49.5% in Warwickshire. However this overall high rate masks significant geographical areas of under performance. Females are outperforming males at all stages to age 16 and now increasing at higher qualification levels as well. While qualification levels are good in general, with 28.8% of the resident 16-60 population have low or very low literacy skills and 35% have low or very low numeracy skills. 31% of the resident workforce have not undertaken any learning (taught or non-taught) over the past three years.
The employment rate (August 2002) of all working ages in the West Midlands region stood at 74.8%, with Coventry’s at 68.8% and Warwickshire’s at 74.8%. The latest annual Labour Force Survey data (four quarters to August 2002) reveals that 44.2% and 25.1% of all persons of working age are qualified to NVQ Level 3 or 4 respectively in the subregion (Coventry 41.7%, 22.1% and Warwickshire 45.5%, 26.8%). This can be set against the National Learning Targets of 50% at NVQ Level 3 and 28% at NVQ Level 4.
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