County Durham: local authority assessment
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How we assess local authorities
Assessment published: 16 August 2024
About County Durham
Demographics
Durham County Council is a large, predominantly rural county primarily, with over 528,000 residents. It is the largest geographical authority in the North-East covering 862 square miles. Since 2009 Durham County Council has been a unitary council. County Durham has an index of multiple deprivation score of 7 (with 10 being the highest and most deprived). 50% of the residents live in the 30% most deprived wards nationally.
The population is 48.9% male, and 51.1% female. Approximately 20% are aged 0-17 years, approximately 60% are aged 18-64 and 19% are aged over 65. It’s expected that the proportion of people aged over 65 will increase by 25% by 2043.
Comparatively, Durham is not a particularly ethnically diverse county. 96.82% of County Durham residents are White with 94.75% White British. 1.5% of people are Asian or Asian British, 0.95% of people are from a Mixed or Multiple background, and 0.33% are from a Black, Black British, Caribbean or African 0.33% background.
Durham County Council is part of North-East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board. County Durham is one of 14 local authorities in the integrated care board area.
Durham County Council historically has been run by Labour party. Following the 2021 elections, control of the council moved to a Conservative, Liberal Democrat, Independent and Green Alliance.
Financial facts
The financial facts for County Durham are:
- The local authority estimated that in 2022/23, its total budget would be £829,402,000. Its actual spend for that year was £925,466,000, which was £96,064,000 more than estimated.
- The local authority estimated that it would spend £160,490,000 of its total budget on adult social care in 2022/23. Its actual spend for that year was £161,777,000, which was £1,287,000 more than estimated.
- In 2022/23, 17% of the budget was spent on adult social care.
- The local authority has raised the full ASC precept for 2023/24, with a value of 2%. Please note that the amount raised through adult social care precept varies from local authority to local authority.
- Approximately 9435 people were accessing long-term ASC support, and approximately 2240 people were accessing short-term adult social care support in 2022/23. Local Authorities spend money on a range of adult social care services, including individuals. No two care packages are the same and vary significantly in their intensity, duration, and cost.
This data is reproduced at the request of the Department of Health and Social Care. It has not been factored into our assessment and is presented for information purposes only.