Nairnshire in Profile

CVS-Nairn serves the voluntary sector in the geographical area of the past county of Nairnshire in North-east Scotland, now the Nairn Council area of Highland Region. It is a mainly rural part of the country where it is estimated that some eleven and a half thousand live1. The population has grown by over 5% in the decade 1991 - 20012 and by a further 2.8% in the period 2001 to 2004 1. Nearly nine thousand of these people, however, live in the coastal town of Nairn 2, which is the one major settlement in the area and third largest in Highland 3. Importantly, Nairn lies within commuting distance from the City of Inverness, which is by far the largest in Highland and the centre of local government, public services and distribution with a population of some sixty thousand.

In comparison with many other parts of the United Kingdom, the population of Nairn is homogeneous. Over 97% of the people living there were born in the UK2 with some 81% born either locally or in some other part of Scotland. In common with most of Scotland it is also an aging population; in 2001, 19% of people were 65 years old or more and the trend is such that in 15 years this proportion is predicted to rise to 28%4. In the period 2001-2004, Nairn showed the second largest increase (3.1%) in the proportion of people of pensionable age in Highland 3. Over 99% of Nairn’s people are in the “white” ethnic group and 65% say that they are Christian with the protestant Church of Scotland being the major denomination (49% of the population) 2. This is partly why Nairn has a well-developed identity that is free from the sectarian and racial tensions that figure in other parts of the UK. It has a strong set of values and a sense of place and community with a buoyant voluntary sector.

According to published figures from the 2001 census 2 more people in Nairn (26% of the working age population) work in delivering public services (local government, defence, education, health and social services) than in any other sector. This is followed by the wholesale/retail (15%), property and business (11%) and manufacturing (10%) sectors. Tourism is an important element in the Highland economy and 9% of the people in Nairn work in hotels and catering 2. In December 2005, the unemployment rate in Nairn was 2.0%, which was lower than the rates for Highland (2.4%), Scotland (2.6%) and the UK as a whole (2.4%)5. Whilst there are one or two pockets that score quite highly on the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, overall Nairn is one of the four areas in Highland that compares very well with the others in the region and with Scotland as a whole