As well as an established permanently resident population, the Borough has a substantial temporary population. in addition to people who work for embassies or multi-national firms based in or near the Borough there are many people who come to the area because of the large number of cheap hotels and privately rented lodgings. Many of these people are on low incomes, are students or are working in service industries.

A highly mobile population creates specific demands on housing and social services as many people do not have the support of family or friends living close to them. Areas with the highest turnover of population, such as Earls Court, have a high incidence of mental health problems, substance misuse and suicide.

Ethnic minority population

There are an estimated ninety seven different ethnic communities in the Borough. The 1991 census shows that Kensington and Chelsea the smallest ethnic minority population of all the Inner London Boroughs at 16%, although in parts of the north of the Borough thirty five percent are from ethnic groups.

As well as an established Afro-Caribbean community there are significant Moroccan, Spanish, Portugese and Filipino communities and a number of Central Europeans, mostly elderly, who arrived during the 1940s. More recently, people from Africa and the Middle East have moved to Kensington and Chelsea, often as refugees from war or political repression.

After English, the five main languages spoken in the Borough are Spanish, Portugese, Arabic, Bengali and Tagalog. At least ninety two other languages are also spoken and thirty seven percent of pupils in the Borough's schools have English as a second language.

Unemployment

Total unemployment in the Borough (11%) is the lowest in Inner London but has risen sharply in line with the pattern throughout the city. However, Borough-wide figures obscure differences between areas. Over a third of the unemployed are concentrated within five wards in the North of the Borough where the level of male unemployment reaches twenty nine percent. The unemployment level in the North of the Borough in July 1992 was eighteen percent. In the North Kensington City Challenge wards, the total level of unemployment was twenty percent. These wards contain thirty six percent of the Borough's unemployed people. Over half of all those unemployed have been out of work for more than six months.

Areas of Deprivation

Levels of deprivation which indicate a need for high levels of social services, health care and housing provision have been identified using a series of measures of deprivation applied to each ward. At present the Jarman index is based on the 1981 census and has yet to be recalculated using the data from the 1991 census. These Underprivileged Area (UPA) scores, devised by Jarman in 1994, link together a number of factors such as age, single households, unemployment levels, mobility and ethnicity. Taking account of these factors, eight wards have high levels of deprivation Golborne, Colville, St Charles, Avondale and Kelfield in the North of the Borough, Earls Court in the centre and