National Parks

North Yorkshire includes large parts of two national parks – the North York Moors National Park and the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Both national parks also cover areas outside North Yorkshire. The figures on this page relate to the whole national parks, including the parts both within and outside North Yorkshire.

The Yorkshire Dales National Park boundary was expanded on 1 August 2016. More information on this can be found in our September 2016 newsletter. However the statistics on this page relate to the old Yorkshire Dales National Park boundary as it was before the expansion.

The national park boundaries are not coterminous with other administrative boundaries such as parishes or wards. As their population figures cannot be calculated by simply aggregating other small area figures, the Office for National Statistics produce the mid-year population estimates below specifically to match the national park boundaries.

The age profile of the population of both national parks varies considerable from that of North Yorkshire overall. While the proportion of the population aged 50 and over across the county is 45%, in both national parks the figure is around 55%. The proportion of younger people in the national parks is smaller than the county average with around 16% aged under 18 in the Yorkshire Dales National Park and around 15% in the North York Moors National Park compared with 19% across North Yorkshire.

The largest age group in both national parks are the 65-69 year olds while the 50-54 years age band is the largest across the county as a whole. This in part reflects the appeal of the national park areas as a place to live in early retirement.

Further information

For more information on this data contact population.statistics@northyorks.gov.uk