Southwark Council: Strength in numbers – Helping a council count the uncountable
ESRO and Southwark Council
Synopsis
Immigration is among the most emotive of topics in politics, and yet reliable figures on its scale are elusive. This presents a real challenge to councils – particularly those in densely populated and diverse urban areas like Southwark, for whom robust data on the size and characteristics of local populations is vital.
In particular, Southwark felt that the Census alone was providing neither accurate numbers nor sufficient insight with regard to certain sections of its migrant population. Specifically, it was thought that the...