The popularity of the area, being close to the New Forest, Bournemouth and the Dorset coast saw a rapid expansion in housing from the 1970s with the Verwood, Ferndown, West Moors and Corfe Mullen populations more than quadrupling.

Female life expectancy at birth for the same period was 83.4 years, ranking seventh in the UK.

After 1976 the Conservative party held a majority on the council apart from a period between the 1995 and 1999 elections when the Liberal Democrats had control.

[6] Until 2016 the council was based at Woodleaze, a large house at Furzehill in the parish of Colehill, just north of the town of Wimborne Minster.

[7] In 2016 the council moved to Allenview House on Hanham Road in the town centre of Wimborne Minster.