Strategic Needs Assessment 2025 - Public survey

Residence locality:

• majority live within the Cumberland (98.2%; 1,554 respondents)
• almost half live within
  • the Allerdale locality (47.6%)
  • one third in the Carlisle locality (33.7%)
  • one in six in the Copeland locality (16.9%)
• seven out of 10 respondents (69.8%) live in the five main postal town areas
  • Carlisle (27.9%)
  • Cockermouth (12.1%)
  • Wigton (10.6%)
  • Workington (10.6%)
  • Keswick (9.0%)
• one in five respondents have dependent children under the age of 18 years (20.3%; 321 respondents)
  • two out of five of these use branch libraries as their main library type (39.6%)
  • just over one third use main libraries (35.2%)
  • one in six use library links (16.2%)

Family make-up:

• one in five respondents have dependent children under the age of 18 years (20.3%; 321 respondents)
  • two out of five of these use branch libraries as their main library type (39.6%)
  • just over one third use main libraries (35.2%)
  • one in six use library links (16.2%)
• more likely to have dependent children aged 0 to 11 years and less likely to have dependent children aged 12 years and over. This could be because parents of younger children are often more actively involved in their children’s learning and leisure activities.

Library users:

• majority are already using Cumberland’s library services (90.7%) either in person or digital access only; one in 11 are not currently library service users
• libraries used most often by respondents are Carlisle, Cockermouth Keswick Library (45.6%)
  • used least often are Denton Holme and Carlisle West Library Links and Frizington Library (0.8%), with no user feedback from Distington Link

Non-library users:

• the main reasons for non-use were lack of awareness of available services, inconvenient opening times, or not having a library nearby
• other reasons include a change of habit or routine including preference for Kindles and second-hand books, time constraints, atmosphere (noise and busyness) and health barriers
• practical issues like joining procedures and lost library cards deterred some.

Demographics:

• females are over-represented compared to the general population, making up seven in ten respondents (69.4%) with males making up 26.5% of respondents
• four out of five respondents identified as heterosexual (81.5%), lower than the general population (91.1%, ONS Census 2021). The proportion describing themselves as lesbian, gay or bisexual (2.6%) is similar to known figures from the 2021 Census
• some respondents found being asked about sexual orientation unnecessary and intrusive, and 15.0% preferred not to say or did not answer the question
• the majority of respondents describe their ethnic origin as White (93.7%); this is slightly smaller than the average for Cumberland (97.7%) (Census 2021)
• respondents describing their ethnic origin as “Mixed or multiple ethnic groups”, “Black, Black British, Caribbean or African” and “Other Ethnic Groups” make up slightly larger proportions than the Cumberland average. Migration patterns since the Census was taken may influence these results
• half of all respondents (50.7%) consider themselves to be Christians, lower than the Cumberland average (58.5%, Census 2021)
  • oie in ten respondents did not answer the question, and therefore the volume could be larger
  • the combined volume of those respondents identifying as other faith, Buddhist and Jewish (2.6%) is larger than the average for Cumberland (0.6%; ONS Census 2021). However, the volume is small (41 respondents), and it is therefore difficult to attach any significance to this result

Disability:

• almost one quarter of respondents (23.8%) consider themselves to have a disability or long-term health condition. This is a larger proportion than the average who report being disabled under the Equality Act in Cumberland (19.8%, ONS Census 2021)
• focus group feedback offered additional opportunity for people with disabilities to provide views and feedback