Our local economy
Hull and East Yorkshire is home to over 610,000 people, with a diverse and dynamic economy.
Located on England’s East Coast, Hull and East Yorkshire provides a direct gateway with Europe through the ports, meaning that transport connectivity is critical to improving our productivity.
Hull sits at the centre of the area surrounded by the East Riding and the Humber Estuary, with the River Hull connecting its industrial heartlands to the port-related industries. The surrounding rural and coastal setting of East Yorkshire extends some 30 miles to the north, east and west, with the coast and estuary each extending over 50 miles.
Hull connects with the suburban villages within East Riding of Yorkshire’s administrative area including Hessle, Kirk Ella and Willerby, and Cottingham to the West, and Bilton to the East, forming a continuous built-up area.
Hull and East Yorkshire are tightly connected though employment, trade, and culture, 87.9% of people in employment live and work in the area. However, it is an area of significant contrasts. Hull has a high population density and tight urban grain, averaging 3,730 people per square km (2021 Census); making it the 17th most densely populated area outside of London. Conversely, East Riding’s population density is much lower with a larger, more rural and coastal geography averaging only 142.4 people per square km. However, even this hides the variations across Hull and East Yorkshire, with 91% of the East Riding geography classed as rural, but 69% of the population live in areas classified as urban.
Our economy represents 10.1% of Yorkshire and the Humber region’s Gross Value Added (GVA) and 3.5% of the North’s output with an annual GVA output of £13.425bn (2021) and home to 20,610 businesses (2023). Our key sectors punch above their weight across many performance metrics, including their productivity and employment contribution. However, critical challenges remain.
Overall productivity in Hull and East Riding of Yorkshire is below the national average, sitting at 81.9% and 89.7% of that average respectively, with rankings of 319 and 213 (out of 362 localities) respectively in the 2023 UK Competitiveness Index.
Production industries, which include -
- agriculture
- food manufacturing
- energy
- mining
- advanced manufacturing
sectors, are critical to the UK’s overall export competitiveness. They account for 28.2% of our GVA (2021) – the largest share of any Mayoral Combined Authority economy, and almost 2 times the UK average (14.3%).
The area also has a nationally significant concentration of manufacturing; accounting for 22.2% our GVA – more than double the UK average (9.8%). Transport and logistics represent another key sector, reflecting our locational advantages and importance of the ports of Hull and Goole, which processed 9.91 million tonnes of freight in 2022 (79% inward freight and 21% outward freight).
Hull and East Yorkshire also supports a wide range of innovative -
- agricultural
- agri-tech food processing
- food manufacturing
businesses which are closely linked to the global food system. In productivity terms, the sector is 2.5 times more productive than the UK average (2021). Some of the country’s largest food manufacturing and processing businesses are located here, supported by a long and deep supply chain. Agricultural operations range across all sizes with almost one third of farms being over 100 hectares. Fisheries operations are small, but collectively provide one of the largest shellfish catches in the UK. The tourism and cultural sectors are similarly diverse and of vital importance to coastal and rural areas. The digital sector is growing rapidly from a base of smaller companies, exploiting the area’s digital capability.
The area has seen growth in employment in technologically led sectors such as green energy production and medi-tech and is home to global names such as -
- Siemens Gamesa
- Smith and Nephew
- Reckitt
and others. These sectors significantly contribute to the area’s productivity and are critical to the UK economy.
Our area has a stable population and workforce, with an employment rate at 74.8% (Year to June 2023), higher than any other Mayoral Combined Authority area with the exception of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, and the West of England. However, the median annual salary for jobs in our area is amongst the lowest of all Mayoral Combined Authority areas (comparable to Tees Valley and the North East) and around 90% of the national average (2022). The relative lack of higher paid job opportunities also limits our ability to retain and attract high skilled workers.
We face the structural challenges of a persistent low skill, low wage economy in some areas, which is limiting the economic prosperity of our communities. Nearly a third (28%) of Lower-layer Super Output Areas (LSOA) in Hull and East Yorkshire are within the 20% most deprived nationally under the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2019, and overall qualification levels throughout our area remain below the national average. Only 32.7% of our population is qualified to NVQ4+ (2021), compared to 43.2% in England and that figure reduces to only 24.8% in Hull.
Hull and East Yorkshire also faces particularly high patterns of deprivation and benefits dependency which is focussed in Hull, Goole and along our coastline. This is highlighted, in Hull, where the average healthy life expectancy of residents is significantly below the current state pension age.
Residents experience around 22 years of ill health, with poor health driven by poor lifestyle behaviours such as -
- weight
- physical activity
- smoking
and resulting lifestyle related illnesses.