Demography

With its heritage coastline and mix of urban and rural communities, the county borough lies at the geographical heart of South Wales and has a population of 134,200. Its land area of 28,500 hectares stretches 20km from east to west and occupies the Llynfi, Garw and Ogmore Valleys, the largest town is Bridgend (pop: 39,429), followed by Maesteg (pop: 19,223) and seaside resort of Porthcawl (pop: 16,000).

65.9% of the working age population is in employment and 20% of the population are of retirement age, whilst 5.7% are self-employed.

*Census 2001 and Nomis official labour market statistics