"Figure 3: The sickness absence rate has generally been falling for both men and women since 1995 ","" "Sickness absence rate, by sex, UK, 1995 to 2018","" "","" "Notes","" "Unit","%" "","" "Year","Men","Women","People " "1995","2.6","3.8","3.1" "1996","2.5","3.6","2.9" "1997","2.6","3.8","3.0" "1998","2.5","3.6","2.9" "1999","2.6","3.7","3.0" "2000","2.5","3.5","2.9" "2001","2.5","3.5","2.8" "2002","2.4","3.5","2.8" "2003","2.5","3.4","2.8" "2004","2.3","3.3","2.7" "2005","2.2","3.1","2.5" "2006","2.2","2.9","2.5" "2007","2.1","3.2","2.5" "2008","2.0","3.1","2.4" "2009","1.9","3.0","2.3" "2010","1.8","2.8","2.2" "2011","1.7","2.6","2.1" "2012","1.7","2.7","2.1" "2013","1.6","2.6","2.0" "2014","1.6","2.5","2.0" "2015","1.7","2.6","2.0" "2016","1.6","2.5","2.0" "2017","1.5","2.4","1.9" "2018","1.6","2.5","2.0"