Demography
During the boom times of tourism in the 1950s there was not a large enough local workforce to service the needs of the tourism industry during the summer months. Many local businesses advertised in Northern cities like Manchester and Liverpool to allieviate this problem. At its peak over 10,000 holidaymakers used the railway each Saturday during peak season, and passenger ferries brought still more. When the tourism market faltered with the arrival of cheap foreign package holidays in the 1960s, and the closure of the railway, unemployment levels rose. This 'inward migration' caused social problems and friction between these people and those with a long history of residence. In 2001, Ilfracombe Central Ward was designated the most deprived super output area in Devon.
These problems are now being addressed by the implementation of local government schemes e.g. Sure Start now known as Mystart covering the Ilfracombe Learning area - a project to help support families with young children - and, since 2004, the Neighbourhood Management Transform programme: both were the first such government sponsored social development schemes covering rural areas in England. Better policing, the use of neighbourhood wardens and CCTV have led to a reduction in crime rates recorded by the police on the police and crime website to levels relevant the North Devon regional average (a fraction of those nationally).
In the late "noughties" the demographics have changed - a MOSAIC Study published in mid 2007, by Devon County Council Economic Intelligence Unit on their website www.devon.gov.uk showed within Ilfracombe parish, Ilfracombe Central, East and West wards have higher proportion of people "who live in close knit communities, majority of working age, own their own homes, cars and hold down responsible jobs than the average for the area as a whole. There are also higher proportions of pensioners who own their own homes and have some source of income beyond the state pension, and of residents who are typically in white collar occupations and predominately married, have had children and are beginning to think about retirement".
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