1. Main points
The proportion of workless households increased in 48% of local areas of Great Britain between 2022 and 2023, compared with 52% where it decreased.
South Ayrshire, Clackmannanshire, South Tyneside, North Ayrshire, Dumfries and Galloway, and Wandsworth appeared in the ten areas with the highest percentage of workless households in both 2022 and 2023.
Buckinghamshire, West Berkshire, Kingston, Kingston Upon Thames, and Wandsworth appeared in the ten areas with the lowest percentage of workless households in both 2022 and 2023.
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 workless households for regions across the UK
Households by combined economic activity status of household members by local authority
Dataset | Released on 28 October 2024
Numbers and percentages of working, mixed and workless households for local authorities, annual.
Rankings of percentages of workless households for counties and unitary authority areas in Great Britain
Dataset | Released on 28 October 2024
Rankings of the percentage of workless households for upper tier local authorities in Great Britain, annual.
Rankings of measures of household economic activity for counties and unitary authority areas in Great Britain
Dataset | Released on 28 October 2024
Rankings of the percentages of workless, working and mixed households for upper tier local authorities in Great Britain, annual.
Reasons given by people living in workless households for not working by country and region
Dataset | Released on 28 October 2024
Percentages of types of economic inactivity and unemployment in workless households by UK country and English region, annual.
3. Data sources and quality
We use Annual Population Survey (APS) Household datasets for 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 economic status of household members. For example:
the number of working households, where all adults are in employment
the number of mixed households, where some adults are in employment and some not in employment
the number of workless households, where no adults are in employment
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 28 October 2024, ONS website, statistical bulletin, Workless households for regions across the UK: 2023