You may live near a Tube station, but in fact you are living in Middle England, writes SIR SYDNEY CHAPMAN, the Conservative MP for Chipping Barnet

Earlier this month I passed a political milestone: 25 years as MP for Chipping Barnet.

In my column last month I looked back at the changing environment in Britain and Barnet over the last quarter of a century.

Today I reflect upon the changing demography and lifestyle of our country and borough.

Since 1979 Britain's population has grown by seven per cent and Barnet's by eight per cent but there are strong grounds to suggest that our 2001 Census total of 315,000 understated the actual figure.

We are an ageing population simply because we are living longer and the birth rate has been declining. People over the age of 65 now outnumber those under 16, the latter group having fallen from 25 to 20 per cent of the total. Meanwhile, the number of people over 85 has doubled.

Back in 1979, life expectancy was 69 for a man and 76 for a woman. Today the respective figures are 76 and 81.

The working age group was 50 per cent of the population then, but now it is under 45 per cent. However, the number of women in jobs has increased from 60 to 70 per cent, while the number of men employed has declined from 88 to 79 per cent.

Lone parents with children have doubled in the last quarter of a century, while one-person households have grown to nearly 30 per cent of the total in both Britain and Barnet. The proportion of households consisting of couples with children has fallen from 33 to 22 per cent.

The more I have examined the comparable figures of country and our community, the clearer it has become that Barnet has changed more or less in line with Britain, and Barnet is similar to Britain's average.

Obviously, there are some significant differences, such as density of population, house prices and ethnic groups. But there are some surprising similarities, such as the age structure even though there are relatively fewer over-75s living in Barnet than in Britain (7.2 to 7.5 per cent).

And so I conclude: Barnet may be in north London but it is very much part of Middle England.