MARRIAGE may be on the way out in Wyre Forest but our love affair with cars is definitely getting more intense, according to figures from the latest census.

The number of people living together outside marriage went up from five per cent to nine per cent between 1991 and 2001 while the number of married couple households dropped by nearly 20 per cent from 60 per cent to 41 per cent. Lone parent households increased from three per cent to five per cent.

Over the decade, the population of Wyre Forest rose slightly from 94,814 to 96,981, a growth of just over two per cent.

Men and women stayed just about equal at 49 per cent and 51 per cent respectively and most - 73 per cent - are aged between 16 and 74, the same as 1991.

Of this group, 15 per cent are retired and 66 per cent are working, with just 0.5 per cent classed as long term unemployed.

There's also evidence of a slight ageing as the number of children up to 15 has gone down a little from 20 per cent to 19 per cent while the number of over 75s is up from seven per cent to eight per cent. The general health of nine per cent is "not good" and 18 per cent have a limiting long-term illness.

White people make up 98.2 per cent and minority ethnic groups account for 1.8 per cent, lower than the Worcestershire total of 2.4 per cent. The largest group is Bangladeshi, compared to Pakistani in the county overall.

The number of people using the car to get to work has gone up to 73 per cent, a rise of 11 per cent. And of the four per cent who use public transport, 80 per cent also have a car.

To reflect this, the census included a question on how many households owned four or more cars and found one per cent in Wyre Forest, less than the two per cent Worcestershire figure. The number of households without a car went down from 24 per cent to 20 per cent.

A new voluntary question asked people what religion they were and discovered 79 per cent counted themselves as Christian. The next biggest group - at 12 per cent -had no religion.

The number of owner-occupied households went up from 71 to 76 per cent and it got warmer inside - the number of homes without central heating dropped from 15 per cent to just eight per cent. But there are still a few without their own bath or shower and toilet - 90 houses or 0.2 per cent of the total.