Bordesley Green is an inner-city area of Birmingham, England about two miles south-east from the city centre. It also contains a road of the same name. It is also a ward in the formal district of Hodge Hill. Neighbouring areas include, Alum Rock, Saltley, Small Heath and Yardley.
Heartlands Hospital is located in the eastern part of Bordesley Green. The area is also served by Yardley Green Medical Centre and Omnia Practice.
Kingfisher Country Park covers the River Cole recreation grounds which are partially covered by the area's boundaries
Demography
The 2001 Population Census found that there were 31,343 people living in the ward. This makes it the second most populous ward, behind Sparkbrook.[1] The ward has an area of 417.7 hectares resulting in a population density of 74.81 people per hectare. This makes the ward the third densest ward, behind Sparkbrook and Lozells and East Handsworth. Females represent 51.2% of the population, below the city average of 51.6% and the national average of 51.3%.
99.7% of residents lived in households, above the city average of 98.3%. The other 0.3% lived in communal establishments. The total number of occupied households in the ward was 9,350. This results in an average of number of people per household of 3.3, higher than the city of 2.5 and national average of 2.4. The majority of households are owner occupied (58%). 20.6% of occupied households are rented from Birmingham City Council, above the city average of 19.4%. 337 houses were identified as being vacant. Terraced houses built in the late 19th or early 20th century were the most common form of housing in the area at 54.4%, compared with the city average of 31.3% and the national average of 25.8%. At 25.4%, semi-detached houses were the second most common form of housing.
The area is an ethnically diverse community with ethnic minorities consisting of 71.1% of the population compared to 29.6% for Birmingham overall. 33.5% of the population was born outside of the United Kingdom, much higher than the city average of 16.5% and the national average of 9.3%. 62.2% of the population was of the Asian ethnic group, more specifically, the British Pakistani ethnic group (50.5%).[citation needed] The proportion of Asian people in Birmingham is much lower at 19.5% and the proportion of Pakistani people is 10.6%. White British people represented 25.7% of the ward's population. There is a wide variety of languages spoken within the area such as Punjabi, Urdu, Mirpuri, Bengali, Pushto and Arabic with English being the most widely spoken language. The most dominant religion in the ward was Islam with 59.4% of the population stating themselves as Muslims, above the average for Birmingham of 14.3% and the national average of 3.1%.[citation needed] Christianity was the second largest religion in the ward with 27.1% of the ward's population stating themselves as Christians.
The ethnic minorities of Bordesley Green are particularly concentrated in the Victorian and Edwardian terraced houses, having emigrated to the area from the Commonwealth during the 1950s and 1960s.
The 25-44 age group represented the greatest portion of all age groups at 27.3%.[citation needed] At 22.2%, the 5-15 age group was the second largest. The proportion of the population that was of a pensionable age was 11.7%, below the city average of 16.7% and the national average of 18.4%.[citation needed] The proportion of people of a working age was 54.9%, below the city average of 59.8% and national average of 61.5%.
The unemployment rate is 15.5%, higher than the city average of 9.5% and national average of 5%. 47.1% of the residents were identified as being economically active. Of the unemployed, 34.1% were in long term unemployment and 23.6% had never worked. 19.5% of the working population worked in the Wholesale & Retail Trade, Vehicle Repairs sector, followed by 19.3% of the working population working in the Manufacturing sector.
The Birmingham Heartlands & Solihull Trust is the largest employer in the area, employing approximately 5,000 people. South Birmingham College is the second largest employer, employing around 850 people.
Several hundred terraced houses around Bordesley Green dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries were demolished in the early 1990s and new houses built on their site as part of a "New homes for old" initiative which allowed people to remain living in areas that their families had lived in for generations.
