Parish stats

You either love statistics or you hate them. I like them and last night at our joint PCC we looked at the Church of England Statistics Unit's excellent 'Parish Spotlights.'

The Spotlights take data from the 2011 census and customise it for every parish in the country. You can see the ones for Southwark diocese here

So what did we discover? Here are some fascinating snapshots as of 2011:

1. There were 11,500 people living in St James parish; 7,000 in St Anne's - an increase of 26% and 11% over the past decade.

2. There were 5350 households in St James parish, 3150 in St Anne's

3. The largest age groups are 15-29 and 30-44 years old

4.  64% of households in St James parish have no car (60 per cent St Anne's)

5.  41% of households with children are lone parent households

6. 37% of St Anne's parish is minority ethnic, 35 per cent St James

7. Both parishes are among the 10 per cent most deprived nationally

Those are the bare facts and they helped us to think about our parishes and how we can serve them and share the love of Christ with them.

The statistics represent  real people for whom Christ died, thousands of them. Someone once said: lost people matter to God.

They ought to matter to us, too.

THE PHOTOS (thanks Paul) of our churches by night are from the Christmas cards that we shall shortly deliver to homes close to the churches with our Christmas greetings and details of Christmas services.(We can't manage all 8,500 homes but we're making a start this year with 2,500).