1. Main points
- An estimated 1.1 million children (8.2%) lived in long-term workless households in 2023.
- Of children in workless households, 82.6% lived in long-term workless households.
- The lowest percentage of children in long-term workless households was in the South East (3.4%).
- The highest percentage of children in long-term workless households was in Northern Ireland (12.7%).
The ongoing challenges with response rates, response levels and weighting approach mean that labour market statistics based on both the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and Annual Population Survey (APS) will be considered official statistics in development until further review. Because of increased volatility of LFS and APS estimates, estimates of change should be treated with additional caution. Read more in Section 3: Data sources and quality.
2. Data on children living in long-term workless households in the UK
Children living in long-term workless households (Table A1)
Dataset | Released 30 October 2024
Annual estimates of the number of children living in households in the UK where all the adults have not worked for at least 12 months.
Children living in long-term workless households, by combined economic status (Table B)
Dataset | Released 30 October 2024
Annual estimates of the number of children living in households in the UK where all the adults have not worked for at least 12 months, by combined economic status of adults in the household.
Children living in long-term workless households, by region (Table D)
Dataset | Released 30 October 2024
Annual estimates of the number of children living in households in the UK where all the adults have not worked for at least 12 months, by region of residence.
3. Data sources and quality
We use Annual Population Survey (APS) Household datasets for the analysis of family or household characteristics. For all analysis in this bulletin, a household is defined as containing at least one person aged 16 to 64 years. This bulletin focuses on the number of children living in workless households, households where no adult is in employment, and long-term workless households, households where no adult has worked in the previous 12 months.
From our March 2024 labour market release, Labour Force Survey (LFS) periods from July to September 2022 onwards have been reweighted based on information on the size and composition of the UK population, consistent with our population estimates published in November 2023.
Our APS and APS Household datasets have not been reweighted to the new populations. Consequently, all APS Household tables remain weighted to the previous 2021 population totals, which will be inconsistent with those used for LFS in the latest periods.
For a comparison of our labour market data sources and the main differences, see our Comparison of labour market data sources methodology.
Official statistics in development
LFS and APS estimates are currently not considered accredited official statistics and are designated as "official statistics in development". Until September 2023, these were called "experimental statistics". Read more about the change in our Guide to official statistics in development.
More information about the APS being classed as "official statistics in development" can be found in our Office for National Statistics (ONS) letter to the Office for Statistics Regulation about the Annual Population Survey.
Back to table of contents5. Cite this statistical bulletin
Office for National Statistics (ONS), published 30 October 2024, ONS website, statistical bulletin, Children living in long-term workless households in the UK: 2023