At the September 2003 count there were 13,217 recipients of Job Seekers
Allowance in Manchester -  amounting to 5.3%of the population of working
age.    But this unemployment rate was reduced slightly yesterday by upward
revision of the population estimates - as reported below.



Ray Thomas
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NATIONAL NEWS: 22,000 added to the population of Manchester

By Simon Briscoe, Statistics Editor

Financial Times; Nov 05, 2003





The population of Manchester was increased yesterday by 22,000 - 5½ per
cent - in the clearest admission to date that the census made a "sizeable"
error in at least one area.



The new estimate takes account of findings from a project launched a year
ago following complaints that census figures were too low in some areas. The
exercise - which compared addresses used by the Office for National
Statistics with Manchester city council's records - shows the ONS failed to
count about 14,000 households.



The increase comes on top of the 5,000 added to Manchester when the national
figures for 2002 were amended by the ONS in September. The population now
stands at 422,300. In the last six weeks the official measure of
Manchester's population has risen by 7 per cent, closing much of the 10½ per
cent gap opened up by the census results.



Richard Leese, leader of Manchester city council, said the previous
"significant" under-estimation of the population had "seriously penalised"
the authority in its allocation of revenue support grant, pledging to "work
with ministers to ensure that the £7.5m grant lost for this year is restored
over the coming months".



In September 2002, the ONS began a study to compare the addresses enumerated
by the 2001 census with those used for administrative purposes in two
areas - Westminster and Manchester city council.



The Westminster exercise continues and it emerged yesterday that the ONS is
already in a matching exercise with Wandsworth and Middlesbrough, neither of
which were among the 15 authorities that saw a drop of at least 7 per cent
in the population as a result of the census.



It is thought that the increase in population for Manchester will prompt
other local authorities to press for their figures to be revisited. Sally
Rode of Forest Heath in Suffolk, which saw the second largest - 22 per
cent - drop in population, said they were "still fighting" for an increase.



The ONS said that from next year it would "initiate a series of local
authority specific studies to identify where there are higher than usual
risks" to estimates.



Kit Malthouse, deputy leader of Westminster council, said: "After a year of
denial, the ONS has admitted that something went wrong with the census in
Manchester" adding that "it is hugely disappointing that Westminster will be
made to wait until long after government grants have been divided up."

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