THE booming Highland capital was given another boost yesterday as new figures revealed it has become a magnet for young people.
Business leaders hailed statistics which show Inverness is bucking the ageing population trend by managing to lure a more youthful workforce.
Hopes are now high that the ready availability of skilled workers will attract more investment to the north.
Census results show the Inverness population is burgeoning and has swelled by almost a fifth over a decade to 79,202. The city recorded a growth rate of 17.8% – compared to a Highland-wide figure of 11.1%. The Inverness workforce is younger than both the Highland and Scottish average.
Last night, the young owners of one local business said Inverness was the best place for them to be based.
Chris Wilson and James King said the city location put their skate shop at the centre of a huge market covering the whole Highlands and islands.
The study also shows more young people are returning to the city after moving away for further education.
The new multimillion-pound Inverness Campus is also expected to halt the so-called “brain drain” to the central belt and encourage more young people to study and work in the north.
Business leaders welcomed the figures. Inverness Chamber of Commerce chief executive Stewart Nicol said the Census results showed young people that they could stay and make a career in the city, and also encouraged businesses to invest in that workforce.
He said: “This is confirmation of just how well Inverness is doing. It’s hugely important that we’ve got young people coming back and the Inverness Campus will help embed that more and take things forward to where they should be.
“It’s of great importance young people know that they can make a career out of living and working in the area. They have got a great future ahead of them and have got fantastic skills.
“It’s a massively important message to get out to inward investors that we have a skilled, dynamic, workforce keen to do well in their careers and to continue to live in Inverness.”
Manager of Inverness Business Improvement District, Mike Smith, said: “The Census highlights the available workforce at the right age group. Any business I’ve been involved with which has been looking to expand is always interested in what the employment situation is.
“This is a really good positive thing to sell to businesses to attract them to the area.” Speaking at yesterday’s city of Inverness area committee, the local authority’s research officer, Cameron Thomas, said: “From the age of 21 right through to the early 40s we have a much higher percentage of young working people in Inverness than elsewhere in the Highlands and we don’t have the same plateau of people moving into retirement age.
“Inverness is losing people to higher and further education in bigger cities, but we are doing well in attracting young people back into the city and the University of the Highlands and Islands’ new Inverness campus is specifically designed to overcome this problem.”
Mr Thomas told committee members that the comparatively youthful workforce in Inverness “should prove attractive” to companies looking to relocate.
Inverness South councillor Carolyn Caddick said: “I’m particularly comforted by the fact that the census is showing youngsters are coming back. There may be a blip for university but youngsters are coming back and that’s a great thing.”
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