§ Mr. Penhaligonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will tabulate for the recent census the percentage of the female population aged between 25 arid 54 years engaged in paid employment for each of the counties in Great Britain.
§ Mr. John PattenThe numbers of women in employment for each age group have been published in the 1981 census county reports for England and Wales and in the regional reports for Scotland. Copies of these reports are already deposited in the Libraries of the House. Percentages of women aged between 25 and 54 who are in paid employment have been calculated from the published numbers. They are given in the following table:
135W
Percentage of women aged 25–54 in paid employment (1981 Census) England Avon 58.9 Bedfordshire 58.8 Berkshire 60.8 Buckinghamshire 58.2 Cambridgeshire 56.4 Cheshire 57.7 Cleveland 52.5 Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly 46.1 Cumbria 56.8 Derbyshire 57.5 Devon 53.2 Dorset 55.6 Durham 55.7 East Sussex 59.1 Essex 54.8 Gloucestershire 58.3 Greater London 62.3 Greater Manchester 61.9 Hampshire 57.7 Hereford and Worcester 58.0 Hertfordshire 60.9 Humberside 52.8 Isle of Wight 53.6 Kent 55.2 Lancashire 61.8 Leicestershire 61.4
Percentage of women aged 25–54 in paid employment (1981 Census) Lincolnshire 53.0 Merseyside 56.6 Norfolk 54.3 Northamptonshire 59.4 Northumberland 56.2 North Yorkshire 57.8 Nottinghamshire 58.7 Oxfordshire 60.0 Shropshire 53.5 Somerset 55.4 South Yorkshire 57.3 Staffordshire 58.7 Suffolk 54.7 Surrey 59.5 Tyne and Wear 57.6 Warwickshire 58.7 West Midlands 58.2 West Sussex 59.4 West Yorkshire 61.1 Wiltshire 57.8 Wales Clwyd 51.0 Dyfed 49.5 Gwent 53.4 Gwynedd 48.6 Mid Glamorgan 51.8 Powys 52.0 South Glamorgan 56..8 West Glamorgan 53.7 Scotland Borders 62.5 Central 56.8 Dumfries and Galloway 54.8 Fife 57.3 Grampian 56.2 Highland 50.2 Lothian 63.8 Strathclyde 55.1 Tayside 59.8 Islands Areas Orkney 48.5 Shetland 56.0 Western Isles 46.3