Urban Demographics
Why do people live where they do?
Why do people live where they do?
Why people choose to live where they do has a significant impact on a wide range of policy areas, yet our understanding of these decisions remains relatively limited. This report provides a new insight into why people live where they do, at certain stages of their lives, across city regions. It builds on the findings from the first part of this research series, Urban Demographics: where people live and work, which looked at the characteristics of people living in the city centres, suburbs and wider rural hinterlands of 59 cities across England and Wales.
This report uses polling data from YouGov across Great Britain to establish the reasons why people choose to live in certain parts of cities at certain stages in their life. It then uses a separate survey of four case study cities to uncover the variation between them, and why we see this variation. It then explores the future implications of these trends and offers a series of conclusions and policy recommendations.
The infographics below profile the residents of city centres, suburbs and hinterlands, and the reasons they give for choosing to live where they do:
