TENS of thousands of people have left the region following the decline in traditional industries.

The population of the North-East has dropped dramatically over the past ten years, while it has risen in every other part of the country.

The number of people living in the Teesside, Durham, Northumberland and Tyne and Wear areas has fallen by 25,000 to just over 2.5 million.

The one per cent decrease compares with a national growth over the 1991 to 2000 period of 3.6 per cent.

The drop is being blamed on the loss of traditional industries and jobs in the region, which was hard-hit by the closure of the coal mines in the area.

Tyne and Wear has seen a fall of 2.4 per cent, while North Yorkshire grew by 30,000 people,

Population expert Dr David Byrne, of Durham University, said: "This kind of movement has been going on for 80 to 90 years. People from south Teesside are moving from the old Cleveland county into North Yorkshire, which accounts for part of its growth in population,

"In the same way, they are moving out of conurbations into suburbs which are just over the Tyne and Wear border.

"There are other factors. In places such as Easington, in east Durham, there has been a loss of the main coal mining industry.

"We have also lost some international businesses - accountancy firms and to a lesser degree law firms - to cities such as Leeds.

'We do attract young people from the South to the region to study, but we do not keep hold of them.

"It is a worry in some sense because it means the region has got an ageing population."