About Waltham Forest

Waltham Forest is an outer London borough in the North East of London. Around 227,000 people live in the area, of which over a third are under the age of 25, which is just over the UK average and around 35% are aged 25-44 which is 3% higher than the UK average. The proportion of people aged 45 and older is below the UK average.

The borough is the 10th most ethnically diverse of the 33 London boroughs and there is a diverse range of faith communities. In the 2001 census, 56.8% of residents identified themselves as Christian, 15.1% as Muslim (this being the 3rd largest Muslim population in London) 1.8% as Hindu, 0.7% as Jewish, 0.6% as Sikh and 0.4% as Buddhist. Just under a quarter of residents said they had no religion or did not state their religion in the census. Around 44% of residents are from a minority ethnic background (65% for school pupils). If the trend continues this figure will potentially rise to around 55% by 2012.

Unemployment remain relatively high. Over half the people working in the borough are also residents. Waltham Forest contains some of the most deprived areas in the country and as a whole is ranked within the 30 most deprived out of the 354 local authority areas in England.

For more information about Waltham Forest go to:

http://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/index/community/ourplace.htm

http://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/waltham_forest_sustainable_community_strategy_2008.pdf