Office for National Statistics
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Working and workless households, 2015

Main points

  • Out of the 20.7 million households (where at least 1 member is aged 16 to 64), in April to June 2015, in the UK, 11.6 million (55.9%) were classed as working, a further 5.9 million (28.3%) were classed as mixed and 3.3 million (15.8%) were classed as workless.
  • The broad picture since 1996 is one of an overall increase in the share of working households and a declining share of workless households. There has also been an overall decline in the share of children aged 0 to 15 years old living in workless households since 1996.
  • Growth in the share of working households in the UK has been partly driven by increased proportions of lone parents working. The share of lone parents who were in employment has risen from 43.8% in 1996 to 64.4% in 2015.
  • Workless households contain adult members aged 16 years and over who are either unemployed or inactive. Inactive adults can include students in full-time education as well as those who are sick or disabled, looking after the family or home, or early retired. An analysis of inactive households across the UK for 2014 and earlier years is reported in Workless households for the regions, 2014.

Get all the tables for this publication in the data section of this publication.

 

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