Society 'becoming more polarised'

Society in Shropshire has become more polarised since the 1980s with larger numbers of poor and wealthy people, a survey suggests.

The Changing UK report, commissioned by the BBC, looked at the Census and other statistics to see how communities had changed over the past 40 years.

The number of breadline poor in the BBC Radio Shropshire area rose 7.7% to 23.4% between 1980 and 2000.

The number of asset wealthy rose 5.8% to 26.4% over the same period.

Meanwhile the number of people who fall into neither category dropped from 63.8% to 50.2%.

'Own kind'

The findings fit in with those for the rest of the country.

Researchers say they have found Britain has become more polarised and socially fragmented.

The country is now more polarised with people living among their "own kind" in terms of age, economic status and other factors, the researched at Sheffield University found.

The report, led by Professor Danny Dorling, considered communities in terms of the BBC's 15 television regions and 45 local radio areas.