You asked

Please could you provide:

  • Unemployment figures for London (and if possible broken down between boroughs)

  • Deprivation statistics from across the city

  • Education figures from the different borough in London

  • Any other information that you may hold on other key challenges that young people may face in London (mental health, homelessness, gang culture, crime etc)

We said

Thank you for your query regarding young people in London.

We have some data that will be of interest to you in this work, but much of the data you will be interested in would come from other departments, which we will only be able to signpost you to.

Generally, statistics broken down by ages within boroughs are not common, because surveys, that provide a significant proportion of statistical output, do not have sample sizes that allow estimates to be produced at that level of detail.

Figures on unemployment and youth unemployment for London, for local areas, come from the Annual Population Survey (APS). This is a household survey with people classified to a labour market status based on their responses at interview. Attached is a file with the unemployment and youth unemployment (aged 16 to 24) estimates for London and each of the London Boroughs taken from the APS.

Because sample sizes become quite small when we get to London Boroughs, in addition to the survey estimates, we also calculate model-based estimates of unemployment which borrow strength from both the APS and the Claimant Count. Attached is a file with the model-based unemployment estimates for London Boroughs.

We only produce the model-based estimates for total unemployment at local level. However, we do this due to small sample sizes for total unemployment, giving you an indication that youth unemployment estimates, which will be based on even smaller sample sizes, should be used with caution, since they will be subject to large sampling variability. If you look at the APS spreadsheet, you will see they come with large confidence intervals and some are based on samples too small for us to calculate a confidence interval.

Alternative information relating to unemployment for local areas comes from the Claimant Count. This is the number of people claiming benefit principally for the reason of being unemployed. However, two issues around this are that due to eligibility, there are larger differences between the Claimant Count and unemployment for younger people. Secondly, with the roll-out of Universal Credit (UC), a broader span of claimants would be included in the count than under its predecessor Job Seekers Allowance (JSA). The problem with this is that the roll-out has been based on different areas at different times, meaning that different boroughs would be affected by this uplift at different times. Despite these issues, we have included our Claimant Count figures, for information.

Due to the issues around the Claimant Count during the roll-out, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) are currently modelling a series of what they think the Claimant Count would look like when UC is fully rolled out. Although this is modelled data, based on take-up of other benefits, it should remove some of the geographic imbalance that would be present in the current Claimant Count series. This Alternative Count is available from DWP, who would be able to assist you with any queries regarding the modelled series; https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/alternative-claimant-count-statistics

Deprivation statistics and more specifically the English Indices of Deprivation are produced by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. They produce and publish extensive information regarding these indices; https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/english-indices-of-deprivation-2015

Education statistics regarding the numbers of schools and students etc, are produced and published by the Department for Education; https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-school-and-pupil-numbers

We produce a release on Crime in England and Wales, based on the Crime Survey for England and Wales. However, tables either have a geographic breakdown, or an age breakdown, rather than both, due to sample sizes. You may also be interested in the Police Recorded Crime statistics published by the Home Office. The Crime in England and Wales release includes information about the strengths and limitations of each of these sources. Additionally the Ministry of Justice produce information specifically relating to the Youth Justice System (young people aged 10-17); https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/crimeinenglandandwales/yearendingseptember2018

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-recorded-crime-open-data-tables

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/youth-justice-statistics

Last year we produced a few articles relating to the lives of young people in the UK, to mark the fact that people born in 2000 would now be turning 18. These are not generally related to specific geographic locations and are more of a UK overview. A selection of those are linked below; https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationprojections/articles/being18in2018/2018-09-13

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/incomeandwealth/articles/howwellareyoudoingcomparedwithotheryoungpeople/2018-10-04

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/articles/youngpeoplescareeraspirationsversusreality/2018-09-27

Another dataset that may be of interest would be our mortality statistics, which would allow you identify cause of death by age within local authority; https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/query/construct/summary.asp?mode=construct&version=0&dataset=161

Although the figures relate to 2011, the Census, which are one of the few sources of information that would allow extensive statistics to be produced at the kind of granular level you are interested in. https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/data_finder

The Greater London Authority, who produce a range of statistics specifically for London Boroughs that we would not necessarily produce across all the local authorities across the UK may be able to provide further information. https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset