The proportion of the population aged over 65 was close to 5% in all censuses from 1851 to 1911, but it then tripled during the 20th century. In the nineteenth century, the elderly can be seen as a residual, concentrated into areas of low mortality and high out migration -- in other words, mainly in rural areas. In 1851, this meant mainly the rural periphery: the south west, Norfolk and Suffolk, and most of Wales. The highlands of Scotland, conversely, contained relatively few elderly people due to poor li...

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fe expectancy while the fenlands were an area of recent in-migration following drainage. Other peripheral areas with low proportions of the elderly, in Cornwall and west Cumberland, were growing because of the mining industry.

By 1911, or even 1931, the pattern in the south was little different, the main change being that the fenlands had aged rapidly once in-migration ceased. In the north, the old industrial cores were still lacking in elderly but their surrounding districts were also now relatively youthful.

By 1951, we begin to see a new pattern as the elderly ceased to be a group left behind as young people moved away. Instead, as people began to expect a lengthy retirement in which some could live where they pleased, the elderly themselves became migrants, moving to rural areas and especially to seaside areas. By the end of the 20th century, the country was almost ringed by a necklace of districts with c. 20% over 65.