National Census of Local Authority Councillors 2008

The report of the fifth census of local authority councillors in England has been published. The census provides the most comprehensive snapshot of local government representation and analyses of trends over time. Conducting it was one of the Councillors' Commission's recommendations.

The census asks councillors about:

their work as councillors;
their views on a range of issues;
various personal characteristics.

The census helps LGA and IDeA to help councillors serve their communities effectively and get the best from councils. In addition, it assists central and local government and political parties in the development of strategies and policies for local government.

Some of the main findings are summarised below:

Most councillors (68.4 per cent) were male, 30.8 per cent were female (0.8 per cent did not respond). The proportion of female councillors has increased from 27.8 per cent in 1997.
The average age of councillors has increased from 55.4 years in 1997 to 58.8 years in 2008.
96.6 per cent of councillors were white and 3.4 per cent came from an ethnic minority background.
56.4 per cent of councillors held a position of leading responsibility within the council and 53.2 per cent of all councillors received a special responsibility allowance in addition to their basic allowance.
88.0 per cent considered themselves to be effective or very effective in their role as councillors which
was a slightly smaller proportion than was the case in 2006 when 92.1 per cent considered that they
were effective.
88.4 per cent of councillors cited a desire to serve the community as their reason for wanting to
become a councillor.
Councillors spent, on average, 22 hours per week on council/political business.
Most councillors (62.5 per cent) indicated that they thought it was very important that there was a
greater role for councils in the accountability of key local services like health and police. 40.4 per cent
felt that it was very important that councils had a devolved, discretionary budget for individual
councillors to spend on local amenities or initiatives.
54.5 per cent of councillors intend to stand for re-election at the end of their term in office and 81.8 per cent would recommend taking on the role to others.