Updated 28 September 2012

Proportion of Children living in workless households

This indicator measures the proportion of children who live in workless households. Estimates focus on households in the UK that contain at least one person aged 16-64. Such households are defined as workless if none of the household members aged 16 or over are in employment. Children are defined as those aged under 16.

• Technical description Proportion of children living in workless households

The latest data shows that the estimated proportion of children living in workless households was 15.1% in April-June 2012. This is 0.6 percentage points lower than the 15.6% estimated for April-June 2011 (allowing for rounding).

The decrease over the latest year was not statistically significant. The April-June 2012 estimate (15.1%) has a sampling variability of ± 0.7 percentage points. A change over time has estimated sampling variability of approximately ± 1.0 percentage points. The survey sample size is around 45,000 households.

Proportion of children living in workless households in the UK (%). Year on year comparison only

• Working and workless households bulletin (Office for National Statistics)
• Children in households by combined economic activity status of household members (44KB)
• CSV file – Children in households by combined economic activity status of household members (4KB) CSV