Engagement Demographics

People from all backgrounds engage with the Peak District National Park. Despite this, some audiences are under-represented when compared with the wider population statistics. The main under-represented audiences are people from lower social grades and non-white backgrounds.

We have identified five main audiences of the National Park:

• Three audiences that physically engage (‘visitors’, ‘residents’ and ‘volunteers’)
• Those who engage remotely (‘remotely engaged’)
• Those who do not engage (‘non-visitors’).

Approximately 1/3 of the population of England & Wales live within an hours travel time of the Peak District National Park boundary. The Peak District National Park receives between 13m - 26 million visitors per year see visitor volume section for more information. Visitors also engage in a variety of ways with the Peak District National Park, as outlined in the engagement levels section.

The Peak District is home to around 38,000 residents. Residents engage with the National Park in a variety of different ways, including engaging in local community events or groups, visiting different areas of the National Park (in effect becoming visitors), volunteering for local organisations (in effect becoming volunteers) and seeking planning permission or commenting on planning applications. More information about residents can be found in the Residents Survey section.

There is a long history of volunteering within the Peak District National Park, with large numbers of people volunteering for various organisations and projects. This means that there is no overarching comprehensive information about volunteer numbers and demographics. For comparability, we have used demographic information about those volunteers who are registered on the Peak District National Park Authority’s volunteer management system. Therefore, the information given in this section only covers a proportion of the Peak District National Park Authority’s volunteers and no volunteers from other organisations.

Although we typically consider engagement with a place to involve physically visiting it, some people engage remotely with the National Park and can feel engaged with or connected to it despite not having visited. This includes people who engage using traditional media, social media and other online sources.

For comparison, it is useful to understand the demographics of non-visitors. Understanding the profile of those who do not visit can help broaden the appeal of the National Park to under-represented audiences.

Ethnic minorities are over-represented as non-visitors

The visitor, resident and volunteer ethnicity profile is under-represented for ethnic minorities in the Peak District National Park. 96% of residents are classed as White-British (from the Census 2011) and data collected by the Peak District National Park Authority shows 97% of the Peak District National Park Authority volunteers were classed as White-British.

The visitor ethnicity profile is much more complex due to varying methodologies in data collection and sample frames. Visitor surveys show between 90% - 95% White-British when compared to the regional profile of 89% White-British. Face to face site based surveys also show large variation of ethnicity profile between sites within the Peak District National Park. For example, of the 21 sites in the 2015 Visitor Survey, only Dovestones shows above representation of minority ethnic groups.

Non-visitors are more likely to be ethnic minorities: 14% of non-visitors are ethnic minorities versus 11% in the regional profile and between 5% and 9% in the visitor profile.

The gender profile for the volunteer profile is skewed towards males

• The gender of visitors and residents is broadly 50:50
• Volunteers are predominantly male (69%)
• Non-visitors are more likely to be female, indicating that females may be less likely to visit the National Park.

The age profile of Peak District National Park audiences differs from the regional profile

• Visitor age profile differs between the National Park Visitor Survey and the national online sample survey run by NFP Synergy. The online survey shows over representation of the age band 25-34 (25%) compared to the surrounding regional population profile (17%). Whilst the National Park Visitor Survey shows an under representation of the age band 16-24 (11%) of visitors compared with the surrounding regional population profile (15%).
• Resident age profile is skewed towards the older age categories (33% over 65+)
• Volunteer age profile is skewed towards the older age categories (30% over 65+)
• Non-visitors are skewed towards those aged 25-44.

Volunteers are much less likely to have a disability

• Visitor data is not comparable for disability, but the NFP Synergy results for ‘health condition’ have been added in for comparison; this represents a research gap
• Volunteers are much less likely to have a disability than the regional profile
• Residents and non-visitors are somewhat less likely to have a disability than the regional profile
• More research is needed to generate comparable findings across all audience groups and to look into while all categories have lower disability levels than the regional average.

Visitors’ social grade is typically skewed towards the higher social grades

Visitors to the Peak District National Park are significantly over-represented within the AB category (the highest social grade) and significantly under-represented in the DE category (the lowest social grade) when compared to those living within one hour’s travel of the National Park.

NRS Social Grade of visitors to the PDNP compared to those within an hour's travel

The 2015 visitors survey used the ACORN Social Grade classification system. It found that ‘Affluent Achievers’ and ‘Comfortable Communities’ categories were significantly over-represented within Peak District National Park visitors while the ‘Rising Prosperity’, ‘Financially Stretched’ and ‘Urban Adversity’ categories were significantly under-represented. This is broadly similar to the findings from the NFP Synergy survey, with the highest social grade being over-represented and the lower social grades being under-represented, although the ‘Rising Prosperity’ category doesn’t fit the trend. More information about ACORN can be found in this Tourism section.

Remotely engaged: Demographics vary across the different channels

Due to the nature of remote engagement, we don’t have a full picture of the demographics of those who engage remotely with the National Park. However, we know that women between aged 45-54 are most likely to engage with National Park content on Facebook : the Peak District National Park Authority’s engaged Facebook audience is 65% female and 35% male; the most common age brackets that engage are 45-54 (23.7%) and 35-44 (21.5%).

Conversely, Twitter has almost a reverse profile, with men and people between the ages of 25-34 described as the ‘leading force’ among Peak District National Park Authority Twitter followers: the audience profile is 60% male and 40% female; the highest age brackets are 25-34 (32.5%) and 35-44 (29.4%).

What are the gaps in our Research & Data?

• More comparable statistics on visitors, residents and volunteers are needed
• Comparable data on disability across all categories is currently missing, particularly for visitors
• More conclusive research into whether ethnic minorities are less frequent visitors to the National Park (and particularly to more remote areas) is needed
• Comprehensive information on non-Peak District National Park Authority volunteers is missing.