1. Main points
The proportion of workless households increased in 59% of local areas of Great Britain between 2023 and 2024, compared with 41% where it decreased.
North Ayrshire, Clackmannanshire, South Tyneside, and Dundee City appeared in the 10 areas with the highest percentage of workless households in both 2023 and 2024.
Kingston Upon Thames and Reading appeared in the 10 areas with the lowest percentage of workless households in both 2023 and 2024.
The ongoing challenges with response rates, response levels and weighting approach mean that labour market statistics based on the Annual Population Survey (APS) will be considered official statistics in development until further review. Because of increased volatility of APS estimates, estimates of change should be treated with additional caution. Read more in Section 3: Data sources and quality.
2. Data for Workless households for the regions across the UK
Households by combined economic activity status of household members by local authority: Table A1 LA
Dataset | Released on 30 July 2025
Numbers and percentages of working, mixed and workless households for local authorities, annual.
Reasons given by people living in workless households for not working by country and region: Table D
Dataset | Released on 30 July 2025
Percentages of types of economic inactivity and unemployment in workless households by UK country and English region.
Rankings of percentages of workless households for counties and unitary authority areas in Great Britain: Table E
Dataset | Released on 30 July 2025
Annual 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: Table F
Dataset | Released on 30 July 2025
Rankings of the percentages of workless, working and mixed households for upper tier local authorities in Great Britain.
3. Data sources and quality
Annual Population Survey Household (APSH) datasets are used for all analyses of family or household characteristics. For all analyses 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 are not in employment
- the number of workless households, where no adults are in employment
The Annual Population Survey (APS) and APSH datasets have not been reweighted to the new populations. Consequently, all APSH tables remain weighted to the previous 2021 population totals, which will be inconsistent with those used for Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates 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 in relation to the APS being classed as "official statistics in development" can be found in this ONS letter to the Office for Statistics Regulation about the Annual Population Survey.
Nôl i'r tabl cynnwys5. Cite this statistical bulletin
Office for National Statistics (ONS), published 30 July 2025, ONS website, statistical bulletin, Workless households for regions across the UK: 2024.