Tarvin Population – Census records

Tarvin Families (more from the 2011 Census)
In previous articles we have seen that the population of Tarvin is ageing, but despite that there are still a great many families with children.
The 2011 census records 339 families with dependent children (that is, children up to the age of 18). As many of us know, to our cost, older children may still be dependent in the sense that they rely on the bank of Mum and Dad!
Of these 339 families with dependent children, most have one or two children aged up to 18 -they may of course also have older children!
The actual percentages are:

• one dependent child 37%
• two dependent children 50%
• three or more dependent children 13%

In these days of generally small families 13% (43 households, or one in eight) with three or more dependent children is a surprisingly large number.
As always, looking back at earlier years' Census data puts today's figures in perspective.
Thirty years ago, at the time of the 1981 Census, there were 437 households in Tarvin with dependent children, 69 of them (16%) with three or more children. But these figures are not exactly comparable, because the 1981 Census told us about families with children up to the age of 15, rather than 18. For today's children "dependency" lasts rather longer than it used to.