FOI reference: FOI-2023-1582
You asked
The information I want is Youth Homelessness (15 to 24 years old) statistics in Birmingham and the West Midlands (preferably from the 2013 to 2023 timeframe).
We said
Thank you for your request.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) does not hold or produce regular statistics on homeless populations in the UK.
Homelessness is a devolved policy area which has led to the four countries of the UK producing their own policies, data collections, and official statistics on this topic. Information about youth homelessness in Birmingham and the West Midlands is best sought from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), who are the main producer of official homelessness statistics for England: HomelessnessStats@levellingup.gov.uk; RoughSleepingStatistics@levellingup.gov.uk.
On 6 December, 2023, the ONS published People experiencing homelessness, England and Wales: Census 2021. This bulletin looks at what Census 2021 data can tell us about the characteristics of people who were counted at hostels and temporary shelters for the homeless over the Census 2021 weekend (only), including a table of this population by age and region. Although tables by age and local authority are separately provided, it does not provide a breakdown of this population by age and local authority simultaneously, due to low population counts in these split categories.
It is important to be aware of the definitions and quality information in this census article, especially as people counted at hostels and temporary shelters for the homeless are just one part of the overall homeless population of England and Wales at any time. No official statistics source has ever captured every person experiencing homeless. In March, the ONS published "Hidden" homelessness in the UK: evidence review, summarising the existing data on different types of homelessness in relation to the "hidden" homelessness across the UK. This publication provides information on the challenges and complexities of the different data sources and definitions of homelessness and sets out the main data gaps. It also includes some analysis of a number of available datasets along with commentary.
You may also be interested in our GSS interactive tools. Our searchable GSS Housing interactive tool summarises the available homelessness data across the UK, meanwhile our GSS Homelessness interactive tool comments on the comparability of homelessness concepts and statistics between the UK countries.