Understanding the audience for opera events in Northern Ireland Page 4
Introduction and Executive Summary
Page 5
Brief and Methodology
Pages 6 & 7
What types of people are interested in opera events?
Pages 8 - 10
Where is the interest in opera events coming from?
Page 11
What and where is the potential for increased interest in opera events?
Page 12
Conclusions & Recommendations
Page 13
Glossary
Page 14
Appendix 1: Mosaic NI Breakdown
Pages 15 – 17 Page 18 Pages 19 – 21
Appendix 2: Mosaic NI Pen Portraits Appendix 3: Mosaic NI Map Appendix 4: Settlement Breakdown Please note that the contents of this document may not be cited, reproduced or distributed without express written permission from Audiences NI. To obtain permission, please email: research@audiencesni.com. Report compiled by Chris Palmer, Research Officer, Audiences NI.
Cover credits from l to r: 'Cosi fan tutti', Castleward Opera (Photographer: Stanley Matchett) Opera Theatre Company (Photographer: Patrick Redmond) 'Peter Grimes' by Opera North, Grand Opera House, Belfast (Photographer: Bill Cooper)
Produced in partnership with
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Executive Summary
Brief
Based on the available data, at least 2% of the households in Northern Ireland have expressed an interest in opera events through one of the core providers identified by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. Some types of people do seem to be more likely to be interested in opera events than others – a core of 67% of households are older, well educated, middle-class couples with high household incomes. While this appears to confirm some existing anecdotal perceptions about interest in opera events in Northern Ireland, opera audiences are not in fact the homogenous block which stereotypes would suggest. There are discrete differences even within the core interested groups, while smaller segments also exhibit very different characteristics to the more predominant groupings.
Promotional image for Classical Arts NI, 2006
Introduction In July 2007, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland convened a meeting of the key opera providers in Northern Ireland to discuss the potential development of a strategy for the artform. In recognition of the need for robust intelligence on existing and potential audiences to inform the strategy, in July 2008, Audiences NI was commissioned to conduct a piece of research. The brief was ‘To provide a demographic and geographic overview of interest in and attendance at opera events in NI through the core providers of opera’.
Interest in opera events is clustered predominantly around Belfast and throughout County Down. However, this does not necessarily mean that there is not an interest in opera events across Northern Ireland. There is a strong correlation between interest in opera based on this pooled dataset of households and the location of the product, with most of the performances for which data was provided taking place in either Belfast or Downpatrick. Normally, arts venues will draw 80% of their audience from a 30 minute drive time around an arts venue1 and this report would suggest that this holds true for existing opera interest. Based on the prominent Mosaic groups, interest in opera in Northern Ireland has not saturated its potential audience. No one prominent type of person or any particular prominent areas are completely saturated with interest already. Given the existing location of provision, the Mosaic groups which show the greatest likelihood of interest in opera all have concentrations geographically in the Belfast/County Down area. Many of the households in these groups not currently demonstrating an interest in opera will therefore be within a standard 30 minute drive time of Belfast and/or Downpatrick venues, and could be targeted to increase the penetration of opera interest amongst the population based on their demographic characteristics.
Audiences NI’s delivery on the brief is detailed in this report. It is our understanding that this analysis represents a first for the development of an artform strategy in Northern Ireland. With over 14,000 records analysed from all the key providers, this is a significant piece of work with rich potential. Based on our experience and development of project models, we propose recommendations to ensure that the value of the findings is maximized and their potential fully realised.
To provide a demographic and geographic overview of interest in and attendance at opera events in Northern Ireland through the core providers of opera.
Methodology •
The core providers of opera in Northern Ireland were identified by Arts Council NI as part of their consultation process on a strategy for opera. In October 2008, these organisations were invited to submit data held for attendance at or interest in opera events to Audiences NI for analysis. NB: this group did
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not include some regional venues which would programme touring opera or light classics such as the 3 Tenors occasionally.
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To ensure as much data on opera as possible could be analysed, the data provided included people who had booked at least one ticket for an opera event and those who had expressed an interest in being told more about opera events – even if they had not purchased a ticket on the back of this interest. Also, no date range for when the data was collected was specified for this data.
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Data was submitted by the Grand Opera House, Opera Fringe, Live Music Now, the Belfast Waterfront, Ulster Orchestra, Castleward Opera and Opera Theatre Company.
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The data supplied by the Grand Opera House, Opera Fringe, Live Music Now, the Belfast Waterfront, Ulster Orchestra and Castleward Opera was primarily data on actual attendances, plus some mailing list data.
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The data provided by Opera Theatre Company was purely mailing list data, and did not include attendance data from their tours of Northern Ireland. NB: This factor should be kept in mind when considering the geographical spread of audiences across Northern Ireland. Any household duplicates were removed from the data, including where the same person was present on more than 1 dataset, and where different people from the same household had booked. The dataset therefore reflects the number of households expressing an interest in opera events, not the number of people. This process produced a database of 14,503 household records for analysis. These addresses were then compared against Mosaic Northern Ireland for demographic profiling and the Central Postcode Directory for geographic profiling. 12,854 households were able to be classified using Mosaic Northern Ireland for demographic profiling. 12,503 households were able to be classified using the Central Postcode Directory for geographic profiling. 2,249 email addresses were also supplied alongside this data. Opera providers therefore have email addresses for around 16% of the interested households that they can use for marketing purposes.
About Mosaic Northern Ireland 1 An A-Z of Commonly Used Terms and Protocols relating to Box Office and Audience Data, Stephen Cashman/Audience Data UK, 2005 (available for free download from www.aduk.org)
Mosaic NI is a way of understanding what type of person comes to see your show (e.g. likely age range, marital status and social grade) and where they come from geographically. It segments consumers into 9 demographic groups specific to Northern Ireland, based on the post code attached to the customer record. Mosaic takes into account a detailed analysis of the social trends in Northern Ireland, using a wide variety of data sources and extensive fieldwork and market research to assist in validation and interpretation of the segmentation. Just over half of the information is drawn directly from the 2001 NI Census, with the remainder coming from supplementary lifestyle surveys and other demographic information sources. For more information on Mosaic NI or interpreting the results of this analysis, email research@audiencesni.com or phone 028 9043 6480.
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What types of people are interested in opera events?
Education: Opera events are attracting educated people, mainly to degree level. People in Wealth & Wisdom households have a considerably higher than average likelihood of having a University degree or higher, or an above average likelihood of having at least 5 O-Levels or 2 A-Levels or more.
Opera events are attracting interest from a wide range of people, with interest coming from all 9 of the Mosaic NI groups. The smallest Mosaic NI group within the dataset contained 430 households (Poor Seniors & Solos), while the largest contained 3,899 households (Wealth & Wisdom). For the full Mosaic NI breakdown, please see Appendix 1.
Better Off Families households also have an above average likelihood of having a University degree, but to a lesser extent than Wealth & Wisdom. They also exhibit an above average likelihood of having at least 5 O-Levels or 2 A-Levels or more.
However, 3 of the 9 Mosaic NI groups are more prevalent than the others. Comprising 8,551 of the 12,884 households (67%) interested in opera events, these three groups are; Wealth & Wisdom (3,899 households, 30%), Ageing Suburbanites (2,519 households, 20%) and Better Off Families (2,133 households, 17%). For pen portraits of these 3 groups, please see Appendix 2.
While Ageing Suburbanites show above average levels for having a degree or at least 5 O-Levels or 2 A-Levels, they are only slightly above average and are the least likely of the 3 groups to have a degree.
Focusing on these 3 prominent groups, we can conclude the following about those interested in opera events;
Age: Opera is attracting older people.
Social Grade: Opera events are attracting people in the higher social grades.
Wealth & Wisdom households tend to have much higher than average levels of people in the age ranges 45-64, 65+ and 85+, with the likelihood of finding them in these households increasing as the ranges increase in age. You are also more likely than average to find people aged 45-64, 65+ and 85+ amongst Ageing Suburbanites, although this is less pronounced than amongst Wealth & Wisdom households.
Wealth & Wisdom households have a considerably higher than average likelihood of being in the Social Grades A / B (Upper Middle / Middle). Ageing Suburbanites and Better Off Families households also have an above average likelihood of being in these Social Grades, but to a lesser extent than Wealth & Wisdom. All three groups show above average levels of households being in Social Grade C1 (Lower Middle).
Better Off Families are slightly different – they show an above average level of people aged 45-54, but are below average for people aged 65+ and 85+.
Marital Status: Opera events are attracting married couples. All three groups show above average levels of married couples, with below average likelihoods of divorce. Both Wealth & Wisdom and Ageing Suburbanites exhibit below average levels of young people, suggesting that these are ‘empty nesters’ – households where the children have flown the nest. However, Better Off Families have higher than average levels of children aged 5-17, highlighting that this group are at a very different life-stage.
However While the core audience for Opera does exhibit similar characteristics (i.e. older, well educated, middle-class couples with high household incomes), this doesn’t mean that there aren’t smaller segments of the audience which exhibit different characteristics. Age – Students & Singles (8%), Younger Nestmakers (5%) and Housing Exec Tenants (4%) are all above average in one or more of the younger age ranges. (i.e. 18-24 and/or 25-44 year olds). Marital Status – Students & Singles (8%), Housing Exec Tenants (4%) and Poor Seniors & Solos (3%) all have an above average likelihood of being single. Household Income – Students & Singles (8%), Housing Exec Tenants (4%), Small Town Renters (4%) and Poor Seniors & Solos (3%) all have an above average likelihood of having annual household incomes of less than £13,500.
Household Income: Opera events are attracting those in the higher income brackets. Wealth & Wisdom and Better Off Families show considerably higher than average likelihoods of having household incomes of £50,000 or more a year. Ageing Suburbanites households also have an above average likelihood of this level of income, but to a lesser extent than the other two groups.
Education – Younger Nestmakers (5%), Small Town Renters (4%) and Housing Exec Tenants (4%) all demonstrate an above average likelihood of having less than 1 O-level or GCSE. Social Grade – Students & Singles (8%), Housing Exec Tenants (4%), Small Town Renters (4%) and Poor Seniors & Solos (3%) all have an above average likelihood of being in Social Grade D or E.
All three groups show above average levels of households with incomes of £25,000 - £49,999 a year as well.
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Where is the interest in opera events coming from?
Is there a Northern Ireland wide interest in opera events?
Is interest in opera events Belfast-centric?
There is not a country-wide interest, but this pattern follows the location of opera provision.
The Belfast Metropolitan Urban Area (i.e. Greater Belfast) accounts for 7,246 households, which is 58% of interested households overall. This area includes Belfast itself, but also the smaller cities and towns and villages in the surrounding area which make up this large urban hub. (These are listed in Table 1 below, and are defined by the NI Central Postcode Directory 2008).
Overall, interest in Opera (see Map 1, below) is concentrated in the South East quarter of Northern Ireland, reaching out from Belfast as far as Ballymena and Larne to the North, Craigavon to the west and Downpatrick to the south, with some additional smaller concentrations beyond these areas. This distribution of interest would suggest that there is not a country wide interest in what is being shown. However, the geographical location of existing interest is directly linked with the location of the artform provision. Of the 7 organisations which provided data for this analysis, 4 were organisations performing at venues based in Belfast, 2 were organisations based in or near Downpatrick and 1 was a touring company.
Interest in opera in Northern Ireland is primarily domestic.
Stephen Cashman’s ADUK2 report defines a catchment area as the 30 minutes drive time around a venue (approximately), which should contain 80% of a venues audience (approximately). 74% of the existing interest from households in opera was within 30 minutes drive of either Belfast or Downpatrick, which would support the case that current performances are pulling interest from a standard catchment area around venues – and therefore directly affecting the geographic spread of existing interest.
Based on the data available, the current level of interest in opera in Northern Ireland comes primarily from a domestic audience, with 13,280 households (94%) providing addresses within Northern Ireland (including those without post codes which could not be classified using Mosaic NI). 917 households (6%) were from outside Northern Ireland. These households were mainly coming from the Republic Of Ireland (497 households, 3%) or the rest of the United Kingdom (385 households, 3%). A fraction of the households listed were from Europe (10 households, 0.1%) or further afield internationally (25 households, 0.3%) including the United States and Canada.
While the product offering may be focused on Belfast, the audience is not.
Despite the fact that the majority of data provided for this analysis was from venues performing in Belfast, only just over half of the households come from the largest urban area in Northern Ireland. When refined further to a combination of just the Belfast and Castlereagh areas, this drops to 36% (4,522 households). So, while the largest single concentrations of interest for opera events are in Belfast and Castlereagh, the audience is not Belfast-centric as there is more interest outside of Belfast and Castlereagh than within these two settlements. Bangor, for example, has the second highest level of interest in opera events with 6% of the households located there. It should also be noted that while smaller settlements like Holywood, Helen’s Bay and Groomsport & Crawfordsburn make up a relatively small percentage of the dataset, they display much higher penetrations suggesting that there are small but affluent areas where interest in opera is higher than usual.
Map 1
While it is possible that tourists may be less inclined to provide a home address (perhaps because they are buying their tickets on the door or provide a hotel address when they book), it would take a large amount of these sort of sales to drastically alter the ratio of domestic to international sales.
For a larger version of this map, please see Appendix 3. 2 An A-Z of Commonly Used Terms and Protocols relating to Box Office and Audience Data, Stephen Cashman/Audience Data UK, 2005 (available for free download from www.aduk.org)
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Source: Neighbourhood Statistics (NISRA). Website: www.ninis.nisra.gov.uk Crown copyright material is reproduced with permission of the Controller of HMSO
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Are rural audiences interested in opera events?
The BT9 Effect BT9 is an important source of interest in opera in Belfast – but it is not the only source of interest. Anecdotally, the perception is that audiences for the arts in Belfast come from BT9 – an area which includes Stranmillis, the Malone Road and the Lisburn Road and which is one of the more affluent neighbourhoods in the city. As an artform which is considered by some to be more ‘high brow’ or intellectual, the perception of this BT9 Effect is potentially even more pronounced for opera events. Typically, while BT9 is likely to contain the greatest concentration of arts interest compared to other areas in Belfast, the extent to which audiences are focused there is often far less than anticipated.3
What and where is the potential for increased interest in opera events? There is scope for attracting further interest as there are no Mosaic NI groups or geographic areas which are currently saturated with interest in opera events. However, the 3 most prominent groups are all primarily concentrated in the vicinity of the current opera provision.
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2% of the households in Northern Ireland have expressed an interest in opera.
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3% of the households in the Belfast Metropolitan Urban Area have expressed an interest.
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The highest penetration within a settlement is 10% (Helen’s Bay).
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Wealth & Wisdom have a penetration of 8% opera interest in Northern Ireland.
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The remaining 8 Mosaic NI groups have penetrations between 0.5% and 3.5%.
Focusing on these 3 prominent groups, we can conclude the following about those interested in opera events; This is borne out by interest in opera events, where BT9 does have the highest concentration of opera interest in Northern Ireland, but this still only accounts for 8% of the interest in opera events overall.
The interest is primarily urban, but outside of Belfast a significant segment of the interest is dispersed across a wide rural geographic area.
There are pockets of significant interest throughout South and East Belfast, as well as along the south shoreline of Belfast Lough, stretching from East Belfast round to Bangor.
Overall, only 3,217 households (26%) interested in opera come from rural areas, while 9,286 (74%) come from urban areas. However, households in the Belfast Metropolitan Urban area made up 58% of the urban interest, so excluding the Greater Belfast area, rural interest (26%) actually outnumbers urban interest (16%).
Even though this is the highest concentration of opera interest in a Belfast postal district, only 10% of households in BT9 in total have expressed an interest in opera.
In particular, 20% of interest (2,542 households) was coming from the lowest level of settlement, which are dispersed rural small villages or hamlets which contain less than 1,000 people, or open countryside. A large segment of interest like this, which lives in a dispersed geographic area, may be more difficult and more expensive to target using traditional methods like distribution or advertising.
3. Based on research carried out across individual Belfast based arts organisations between 2005 and 2009.
Wealth & Wisdom Penetration: 8% of households in NI are interested in opera Wealth & Wisdom is the largest segment interested in opera, and also has the highest penetration within a Mosaic group. However, it is the second smallest Mosaic group overall in Northern Ireland. There are an estimated 46,984 Wealth and Wisdom households in Northern Ireland4 which are concentrated around Belfast, North Down and along the two main arterial routes in/out of Belfast, the M1 and the M2. There are also small pockets in Derry/Londonderry and Coleraine.
Better Off Families Penetration: 3% of households in NI are interested in opera There are 63,813 Better Off Families households in Northern Ireland4 which are more spread out throughout the country than either Wealth and Wisdom or Ageing Suburbanites.
There are small concentrations of urban interest outside of Belfast – including Craigavon Urban Area and Bleary (227 households, 2%), Newtownards (175 households, 1%), Ballymena (143 records, 1%) and Derry/Londonderry (121 records, 1%). However, no other city or town in Northern Ireland currently attracts interest in opera from more than 100 households. (To see a full breakdown of Opera interest in all cities, towns and villages in Northern Ireland, please look at Appendix 4 of this report).
There is one main concentration spreading across Belfast, North Down, Down, South Antrim and Armagh. There are also concentrations around Enniskillen, Omagh, Derry/Londonderry, Limavady and Coleraine.
Ageing Suburbanites Penetration: 2% of households in NI are interested in opera Despite having more interested households than Better Off Families, Ageing Suburbanites has a lower penetration. This is because there are far more Ageing Suburbanites in Northern Ireland than any other Mosaic NI group.
This ratio of rural to urban audiences outside of Belfast is based on the existing, predominantly Belfast based, programming however. Urban audiences outside of Greater Belfast may potentially be less interested in opera, but it may also be that rural audiences are more willing or accustomed to commuting for what they want.
Source: Neighbourhood Statistics (NISRA). Website: www.ninis.nisra.gov.uk Crown copyright material is reproduced with permission of the Controller of HMSO
There are 119,837 Ageing Suburbanites households in Northern Ireland4 which, despite numbering almost twice as many, are less spread out geographically than Better Off Families. These are mainly in the Belfast and North Down areas with smaller concentrations in Fermanagh, Derry/Londonderry, Mid-Ulster and Coleraine.
4. As of 2007, these are the most up to date household estimates available within Mosaic.
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Conclusions
Glossary
Based on the analysis of the combined dataset we have found the following:
Central Post code Directory: This a database of post codes published by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency which sorts each post code in Northern Ireland into a variety of different geographic levels (e.g. settlement).
• 2% of the households in Northern Ireland have demonstrated an interest in opera events by attending or joining a mailing list, rising to 3% of the households in Belfast having expressed an interest. • Interest in opera events is drawn from all 9 Mosaic NI groups, representing the full range of different types of people in Northern Ireland. Some types of people are more likely to be interested in opera events than others however – namely older, well educated, middle-class couples with high household incomes. • This core of interest with similar characteristics is composed of 3 different Mosaic NI groups - Wealth & Wisdom (3,899 households, 30%), Ageing Suburbanites (2,519 households, 20%) and Better Off Families (2,133 households, 17%). • Interest in opera events performed in Northern Ireland comes primarily from a domestic audience, with only 6% of the households on the dataset coming from outside Northern Ireland. • The geographic spread of interest in opera events is linked to the location of current opera provision from the core providers included in this analysis, which is primarily Belfast and Downpatrick. 74% of interested households reside within 30 minutes of either Belfast or Downpatrick. • Belfast has the highest single concentration of opera interest (30% of interested households on the dataset), but a further 28% of interest in opera events on top of this comes from the outlying towns and cities in the Belfast Metropolitan Urban Area. Audiences in these outlying areas are therefore nearly as prominent for opera interest as those in Belfast specifically. • Some of the smaller settlements between Belfast and Bangor record relatively low levels of interest but high penetrations suggesting interest is high among the small number of people who live there, e.g. Helen’s Bay (10% penetration); Seahill (9% penetration) and Holywood (7% penetration). • Overall, interest from urban areas (74%) in opera events is higher than interest from rural areas (26%). However, if you exclude households coming from the Belfast Metropolitan Urban Area, opera is actually more successful in generating interest in rural areas (26%) rather than urban areas (16%). • The postal district BT9 represents the highest concentration of interest in opera events with 8% of the interested households on the dataset. However, while it is an important source of interest in Belfast, it is not the only source of interest within the city with further concentrations in South and East Belfast. • There is scope for attracting more of the same type of people already interested in opera events. The 3 main Mosaic Groups interested in opera events are concentrated in Belfast and County Down, close to the current provision and no Mosaic NI groups or geographic areas are currently saturated with interest.
Drivetime: Mosaic NI uses road networks and average speeds to calculate travel times from one post code to another. Household: A household comprises one person living alone, or a group of people (not necessarily related) living at the same address with common housekeeping - that is, sharing either a living room or sitting room or at least one meal a day. (NI Census) Catchment Area: The geographic area around an arts facility which is the source of the largest and most important proportion of actual users and attenders for an event, series of events, organisation or facility. (An A-Z of Commonly Used Terms and Protocols relating to Box Office and Audience Data, Stephen Cashman/Audience Data UK, 2005) Mosaic NI: Mosaic NI is a Northern Ireland specific consumer classification system, which segments consumers into 9 groups based on a mixture of census information and lifestyle surveys. Any data which includes a post code can be classified using the profiling software, providing demographic information specific for each group, and allowing records to be geographically mapped. Penetration: A comparison of one amount against a total figure to give a percentage. In the case of audience specific data, the extent to which a facility is attracting actual users or attenders from within its relevant identified markets. (An A-Z of Commonly Used Terms and Protocols relating to Box Office and Audience Data, Stephen Cashman/Audience Data UK, 2005) Post Code: A code used to identify a postal address, made up of a combination of letters and numerals. All Northern Ireland Post codes begin BT followed by a one or two digit number, a space, a one digit number and two letters. These typically relate to around 15 residential addresses or one large user, such as a business address. Postal Sector: A collection of post codes, designated in Northern Ireland by the letters BT followed by one or two digits. Settlement: A segmentation of rural and urban areas based on population size, denoting by name metropolitan areas, large to small towns and small villages/open countryside.
Recommendations 1. We recommend a second phase of data analysis using Audiences NI’s Vital Statistics software, looking at transactional information on actual opera attendances including average spend, ticket yields, frequency of attendance and cross-over with other artforms. 2. We suggest the adoption of a penetration strategy delivered via a collaborative direct marketing campaign using rented name and address data. This would target households with a high potential of interest (based on their Mosaic NI group and geographic location) that have not currently expressed an interest in opera through one of the core providers. 3. Having found that 15% of the analysed records had email addresses, we propose the development of an e-marketing strategy. This could be implemented at an individual or collaborative level, through the mechanism of Classical Arts NI. Audiences NI would be happy to advise as to how this might be coordinated.
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Appendix 1: Mosaic NI Breakdown
Appendix 2: Mosaic NI - Wealth & Wisdom Wealth & Wisdom consists mostly of households in higher income groups, who live in the most desirable parts of town, and who work in the most prestigious jobs. Typically married couples with older or grown up children; these are people who are now enjoying the fruits of their previous hard work. Often graduates with strong professional or technical skills, they have now risen up their chosen careers, to the point where they have become senior managers or high ranking professionals. Many others have chosen to set up and run their own businesses. In addition to their high incomes, many people have built up significant equity, whether in their houses, their pension funds, in stocks and shares or in the businesses which they Maxwell Road, Bangor, BT20 3SG own. Most of their houses are semi-detached or detached, and are situated on spacious plots in low density suburbs. Although house prices may not be as high as Great Britain, most of these properties will have been purchased for much less than they are now worth. Many mortgages are now approaching maturity, and with children through university, and themselves in well paid careers, Wealth & Wisdom are building up significant savings in shares and other investments. Typically higher tax payers, they take considerable interest in managing their financial affairs so as to maximise returns and minimise tax liabilities. Wealth & Wisdom is found in neighbourhoods built before and just after The Second World War, in what were, in their day, the better suburban locations accessible to Belfast. They were laid out at lower densities than contemporary high status developments. As years have passed the population has aged, and many of the residents have now retired. In contrast to Great Britain, these older people have preferred to stay in familiar locations, rather than retire to the seaside, the country or to the Mediterranean. Consequently, there are a very large number of pensioners, many of them very elderly, either living in their own homes or in the private nursing homes converted from the larger houses. It is likely that Wealth & Wisdom has the longest life expectancy. Not only are these areas favoured by the very comfortably off, they are also ones which experience very little deprivation. Wealth & Wisdom is particularly unlikely to experience life’s most serious sources of disadvantage, whether ill health, disability, single parenthood, unemployment or the lack of a car. In general these areas are also free of the more serious manifestations of sectarian conflict. Indeed Wealth & Wisdom is the most likely to attract migrants from elsewhere in the UK, and is also the most likely to have friends and relations working elsewhere in the UK. Despite their comfortable lifestyles, Wealth & Wisdom does have a strong sense of responsibility, both to the local community and to social, political and professional networks. Compared with their counterparts in Great Britain, they are driven more by moral standards and less by material aspirations. For most, quality, range and service are more important than price, and significantly more important than fashion. For many, success is expressed with inward discretion rather than flaunted conspicuously, through the purchase of expensive cars or dining at expensive restaurants. Golf, sailing and attending plays and concerts are popular leisure activities.
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Appendix 2: Mosaic NI - Ageing Suburbanites
Appendix 2: Mosaic NI - Better Off Families
Ageing Suburbanites consists of middle of the road families, paying off mortgages on semi-detached homes with gardens, in mid market suburban settings. Mostly living in neighbourhoods which were developed during the 1950s and 1960s, these people live a routine existence, commuting to white collar office jobs which yield reasonably comfortable but seldom exceptional incomes and prospects.
Better Off Families consists mostly of comfortable families whose breadwinners commute some distance to well paid, white collar jobs in service industries. They are highly focussed on home and family, with a strong work ethic and a high level of material ambition.
This Group very much reflects ‘middle’ Northern Ireland, a lifestyle that lies above the working class cultures caught up in the sectarian divide, but a number of rungs below the higher income tax payers, living in the smarter areas of detached houses. These suburbs are located beyond the dangers of the inner city but also some distance from the recreational opportunities of open countryside.
Donaghadee Road, Bangor, BT19 6DR
Unlike other Groups, Ageing Suburbanites represents a cross section of Northern Ireland’s population in terms of age and income. However, due to the age of the housing, the profile of the population is now significantly older than the Northern Ireland average. Most are married couples, and many are now approaching or have just entered retirement. Many families are empty nesters, or are enjoying the benefits of children still living at home and contributing to the household income. Ageing Suburbanites tends to have only moderate levels of education and relies on common sense rather than intellectual skills or technical qualifications at work. They are careful with money, set their sights on simple pleasures, and take satisfaction from the roles they play within the local community. Their orientation is practical and parochial in the best sense of the word, recognising the value of supporting friends and neighbours in an uncertain world. Although mostly living in distinctly Catholic or Protestant neighbourhoods, they tend to be a force for political moderation. As consumers, their lack of sophistication tends to make them uncritical advocates of mainstream brands, preferring range and prices rather than quality or service. However due to their long association with their local neighbourhood, many residents enjoy personal contacts with local shopkeepers and suppliers. Financial behaviour is focussed on the need to provide adequately for retirement.
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This Group is likely to live in modern housing, designed specifically for the needs of families with children, and often located at some distance from shops, community centres and public transport. Homes are spacious with adequate to generous gardens, and there is better access to good quality schools and public services than would be found in the inner city. These neighbourhoods attract second rather than first time buyers, but once established, people tend to stay in their homes for a long time, often keeping the company of their grown up children.
The Beeches, Londonderry, BT47 3XS
Such neighbourhoods occur in a variety of forms. Some consist of late inter war and early post war semi-detached houses in private estates in the Belfast suburbs, just below the top tier of status; others occur in rural villages which have become major dormitory suburbs for Northern Ireland’s larger centres; such neighbourhoods are also found on the very outskirts of Belfast; others occur as infill developments in Belfast’s more prosperous suburbs, where developers have created modern estates of large detached or semi-detached houses, often in a mock Tudor style. Though not quite top tier, neighbourhoods of Better Off Families are exclusive in the sense that they accommodate very few people with any sort of material hardship. These are not areas where you would find households with County Court Judgments, or with unemployed family heads, or workers without worthwhile qualifications. Everyone is doing well. As a result, and because of the relatively narrow range of incomes, there is considerable peer pressure to maintain the standards which make such areas attractive. Gardens are expected to flower, lawns to be manicured, cars to be clean, children to be well behaved and do well at school. People tend to know their neighbours by sight and name, although few are likely to feel that they can rely on them for more than small favours. Better Off Families is likely to focus on career enhancement and consumption in ways which are socially visible. These are not, by and large, people who are motivated by social responsibility. They are well informed about brands, prices and new technologies, and are ‘savvy’ in so far as they are well able to work out the best deal on offer. Though well informed and ready to adopt new products or channels, they are not necessarily cosmopolitan in attitude, preferring traditional styles to the exotic or avant garde. Grocery shopping is typically undertaken once a week at large supermarkets.
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Appendix 3: Mosaic NI map of opera interest
Appendix 4: Settlement Breakdown
Each of the multi-coloured squares on the map (below) represents a Post Code that contains one or more households that have expressed an interest in Opera. The different colours indicate that individual Post Code’s Mosaic NI Group (see Map Legend).
Source: Neighbourhood Statistics (NISRA). Website: www.ninis.nisra.gov.uk Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO
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Appendix 4: Settlement Breakdown
Appendix 4: Settlement Breakdown - continued
Source: Neighbourhood Statistics (NISRA). Website: www.ninis.nisra.gov.uk Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO
Source: Neighbourhood Statistics (NISRA). Website: www.ninis.nisra.gov.uk Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO
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