1. Main points
The proportion of workless households increased in 55% of the local areas of Great Britain between 2020 and 2021, compared with 43% where the proportion decreased.
Glasgow City, Blaenau Gwent, North Ayrshire, Fife, Dumfries and Galloway and South Tyneside appeared in the 10 areas with the highest percentage of workless households in both 2020 and 2021.
West Berkshire, Wokingham and Bath and North East Somerset appeared in the 10 areas with the lowest percentage of workless households in both 2020 and 2021.
2. Workless households for the regions across the UK data
Households by combined economic activity status of household members by local authority
Dataset | Released 20 October 2022
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 20 October 2022
Quarterly and historical data on people living in UK households by age and combined economic 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 20 October 2022
Rankings of the percentages of workless, working and mixed households for upper tier local authorities in Great Britain.
Reasons given by people living in workless households for not working by country and region
Dataset | Released 20 October 2022
Percentages of types of economic inactivity and unemployment in workless households by UK country and English region.
3. Measuring the data
Annual Population Survey (APS) household datasets are used 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:
number of working households where all adults are in employment
number of mixed households, where some adults are in employment and some not in employment
number of workless households where no adults are in employment
APS reweighting
APS estimates published in the bulletin have been reweighted for periods from January to December 2020, using updated Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Real Time Information (RTI) data. The non-response bias adjustment previously implemented for data for England, Wales and Scotland, has now also been applied to data for Northern Ireland.
Our Impact of reweighting on Labour Force Survey key indicators: 2022 article explains the impact and gives a more detailed reweighting timeline.
Coronavirus
For information on how labour market data sources are affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, see our Coronavirus and the effects on UK labour market statistics article, published on 6 May 2020. This article details some of the challenges that we have faced in producing estimates.
Our Comparison of labour market data sources article, published on 27 April 2022, compares our labour market data sources and discusses some of the main differences between them.
Nôl i'r tabl cynnwys5. Cite this statistical bulletin
Office for National Statistics (ONS), released 20 October 2022, ONS website, statistical bulletin, Workless households for regions across the UK: 2021