Economic inactivity

Published 16 October 2019

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Contents

1. Main facts and figures

• 22% of working age people (people aged 16 to 64) in England, Wales and Scotland were economically inactive in 2018, which means they were out of work and not looking for a job
• 20% of White people were economically inactive in 2018, compared with 30% of people from all other ethnic groups combined
• the highest economic inactivity rate was in the combined Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic group, at 38%
• the lowest economic inactivity rate was in the Other White ethnic group, at 15%
• in every region, White people had a lower economic inactivity rate than the combined rate for all other ethnic groups
• in every ethnic group, women were more likely than men to be economically inactive
• the biggest gap between men and women was in the combined Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic group, where 56% of women and 21% of men were economically inactive (a gap of 35 percentage points)

Things you need to know

In 2018, the total working age population (people aged 16 to 64 years) in England, Wales and Scotland was just over 40 million. Of those, just over 34 million people were White, and nearly 6 million people were from all other ethnic groups combined.

The data for this analysis comes from the Annual Population Survey (APS). The APS surveys a random sample of the population to make generalisations about the whole population.

The commentary for this data includes only reliable findings. Findings are reliable ('statistically significant’) when we can be confident they are reflective of the total population. This means we would get similar findings 19 times out of 20 if we carried out the same survey on different random samples of the population.

As with all surveys, the estimates from the APS are subject to a degree of uncertainty as they are based on a sample of the population. The degree of uncertainty is greater when the number of respondents is small, so it will be highest for ethnic minority groups.

Results taken from a low number of responses are more likely to change from year to year. What appear to be changes over time might not reflect real differences. Please use caution when interpreting short-term trends in the data, especially for small groups.

Values based on fewer than 30 responses have been withheld from results for 'All' groups. Values based on fewer than 100 responses have been withheld from results for specific ethnic groups. This is both:

• to protect respondents’ confidentiality
• because the numbers involved are too small to draw any reliable conclusions

Higher-level figures may differ from those published by the Department for Work and Pensions and the Office for National Statistics that use the Labour Force Survey (LFS).

The APS updated its ethnicity questions in 2011 so they were consistent with the censuses in England, Wales and Scotland. As a result, estimates from before and after 2011 may be inconsistent, and data for individual ethnic groups in 2011 is not available.

Download the data for both the data shown and additional estimates for:

• the 2 broad ethnic groups (White and Other than White) at the lower local authority level
• the Other than White ethnic group broken down by age, gender and over time
• data by ethnicity and age over time for all age groups

What the data measures

This data measures the rate of economic inactivity for different ethnic groups in England, Wales and Scotland. Data is also broken down by gender, age group, area and disability.

The rate of economic inactivity is the number of people who are economically inactive as a percentage of the total working age population (people aged 16 to 64 years).

A person of working age is counted as economically inactive if:

• they are out of work
• they have not been actively looking for work in the past 4 weeks
• they are not waiting to start a job

People who are caring for their family or retired are also counted as economically inactive.

A person in full-time education is counted as economically inactive unless they are either:

• in paid work, in which case they are counted as employed
• looking for, and available to start, work, in which case they are counted as unemployed

The figures come from the Annual Population Survey, which is a general household survey covering the UK. It uses data from the Labour Force Survey as well as other local data.

The ethnic categories used in this data

Data is shown for the following ethnic groups:

Asian:

• Indian
• Pakistani and Bangladeshi
• Asian Other (including Chinese)

Black

Mixed

White:

• White British
• White Other

Other

Data broken down by local authority is shown in the download files. For this data, the number of people surveyed was too small to draw any firm conclusions about specific ethnic categories, so the data is broken down into the following 2 categories:

• White – White ethnic groups (including White British and White ethnic minorities)
• Other than White – all other ethnic minorities

People whose ethnicity is not known are included in the figures for ‘All’.

2. By ethnicity

• Location: England, Wales and Scotland
• Time period: 2018
• Source: Annual Population Survey

Percentage and number of 16 to 64 year olds who were economically inactive, by ethnicity

Ethnicity	%	Number of people economically inactive
All	22	8,624,100
Asian	30	960,700
Indian	21	233,100
Pakistani, Bangladeshi	38	469,900
Asian Other	32	257,700
Black	27	374,800
Mixed	28	152,200
White	20	6,849,300
White British	21	6,383,500
White Other	15	465,700
Other	34	275,600

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Economic inactivity By ethnicity Summary

This data shows that:

• 22% of working age people (aged 16 to 64) in England, Scotland and Wales were economically inactive in 2018
• 38% of people from the combined Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic group were economically inactive, the highest percentage out of all ethnic groups
• 15% of people from the Other White ethnic group were employed, the lowest percentage out of all ethnic groups

3. By ethnicity (White and Other than White)

• Location: England, Wales and Scotland
• Time period: 2018
• Source: Annual Population Survey

Percentage and number of 16 to 64 year olds who were economically inactive, by ethnicity (White and Other than White)

Ethnicity	%	Number of people economically inactive
All	22	8,624,100
White	20	6,849,300
Other than White	30	1,763,200

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Economic inactivity By ethnicity (White and Other than White) Summary

This data shows that:

• in 2018, the rate of economic inactivity was lower for the White ethnic group (20%) compared with all other ethnic groups combined (30%)

4. By ethnicity over time

• Location: England, Wales and Scotland
• Time period: 2004 to 2018
• Source: Annual Population Survey

Percentage of 16 to 64 year olds who were economically inactive, by ethnicity over time

Ethnicity	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
All	24	24	23	23	23	23	24	24	23	23	23	22	22	22	22
Asian	37	37	36	36	35	34	34		33	33	32	32	32	31	30
Indian	27	26	25	26	26	25	24		23	24	24	24	23	22	21
Pakistani, Bangladeshi	49	49	48	48	46	44	44		42	41	40	40	39	39	38
Asian Other	36	36	34	33	31	32	36		34	36	33	32	34	32	32
Black	31	30	28	28	28	29	28		27	26	27	26	25	26	27
Mixed	29	30	27	28	31	30	28		29	26	28	28	28	27	28
White	23	22	22	22	22	22	23		22	22	21	21	21	20	20
White British	22	22	22	22	22	22	23		22	22	22	21	21	21	21
White Other	25	23	21	21	21	21	21		20	19	19	17	17	16	15
Other	38	36	36	36	35	36	35		35	35	37	35	34	33	34

Data not collected

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Economic inactivity By ethnicity over time Summary

This data shows that:

• in every ethnic group, the economic inactivity rate was lower in 2018 than in 2004
• the biggest decreases were in the combined Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic group, where the economic inactivity rate went down from 49% to 38% (down by 11 percentage points) and the Other White ethnic group, where the rate went down from 25% to 15% (down by 10 percentage points)
• the combined Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic group had the highest rate of economic inactivity throughout the period covered

5. By ethnicity and gender

• Location: England, Wales and Scotland
• Time period: 2018
• Source: Annual Population Survey

Percentage and number of 16 to 64 year olds who were economically inactive, by ethnicity and gender

	All		Men		Women
Ethnicity	All %	All Number of people economically inactive	Men %	Men Number of people economically inactive	Women %	Women Number of people economically inactive
All	22	8,624,100	17	3,324,600	26	5,299,600
Asian	30	960,700	19	302,300	41	658,400
Indian	21	233,100	14	78,600	28	154,500
Pakistani, Bangladeshi	38	469,900	21	133,800	56	336,000
Asian Other	32	257,700	25	89,900	38	167,800
Black	27	374,800	21	139,500	31	235,300
Mixed	28	152,200	23	60,000	32	92,300
White	20	6,849,300	16	2,722,000	24	4,127,300
White British	21	6,383,500	17	2,593,600	24	3,789,900
White Other	15	465,700	9	128,400	21	337,300
Other	34	275,600	24	97,200	44	178,400

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Economic inactivity By ethnicity and gender Summary

This data shows that:

• 26% of women and 17% of men were economically inactive in 2018
• in every ethnic group, women were more likely to be economically inactive than men
• the gap between men and women was biggest in the combined Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic group, where 56% of women and 21% of men were economically inactive (a 35 percentage point difference)
• the highest economic inactivity rate among women was in the combined Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic group, at 56%
• the highest economic inactivity rate among men was in the Other Asian ethnic group, at 25%
• for both men and women, the lowest economic inactivity rate was in the Other White ethnic group (9% for men, 21% for women)

6. By ethnicity and age

• Location: England, Wales and Scotland
• Time period: 2018
• Source: Annual Population Survey

Percentage and number of 16 to 64 year olds who were economically inactive, by ethnicity and age

	All		16-24		25-49		50-64
Ethnicity	All %	All Number of people economically inactive	16-24 %	16-24 Number of people economically inactive	25-49 %	25-49 Number of people economically inactive	50-64 %	50-64 Number of people economically inactive
All	22	8,624,100	39	2,647,500	13	2,780,200	26	3,196,400
Asian	30	960,700	56	352,600	22	440,100	32	168,000
Indian	21	233,100	52	81,600	13	95,500	25	56,100
Pakistani, Bangladeshi	38	469,900	53	164,900	30	237,500	44	67,400
Asian Other	32	257,700	65	106,100	22	107,100	29	44,600
Black	27	374,800	57	165,000	18	137,900	21	71,900
Mixed	28	152,200	46	85,300	16	46,900	28	20,000
White	20	6,849,300	35	1,945,900	12	2,015,400	26	2,888,000
White British	21	6,383,500	35	1,798,000	12	1,791,800	26	2,793,700
White Other	15	465,700	40	147,900	10	223,600	19	94,300
Other	34	275,600	64	95,100	26	134,400	32	46,000

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Economic inactivity By ethnicity and age Summary

This data shows that:

• 39% of 16 to 24 year olds were economically inactive in total, compared with 13% of 25 to 49 year olds, and 26% of 50 to 64 year olds
• in every ethnic group, 16 to 24 year olds had the highest economic inactivity rate out of the three age groups
• among 16 to 24 year olds, the highest economic inactivity rate was in the Other Asian ethnic group (65%), and the lowest was in the White British group (35%)
• among 25 to 49 year olds, the highest economic inactivity rate was in the combined Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic group (30%), and the lowest was in the Other White group (10%)
• among 50 to 64 year olds, the highest economic inactivity rate was in the combined Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic group (44%), and the lowest was in the Other White group (19%)

7. By ethnicity over time (16 to 24 year olds only)

• Location: England, Wales and Scotland
• Time period: 2004 to 2018
• Source: Annual Population Survey

Percentage of 16 to 24 year olds who were economically inactive, by ethnicity over time

Ethnicity	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
All	32	32	33	33	34	35	38	37	37	38	39	37	38	38	39
Asian	53	54	51	54	52	55	58		56	57	60	57	60	58	56
Indian	46	49	44	45	48	51	51		46	54	58	54	59	49	52
Pakistani, Bangladeshi	56	55	52	56	52	54	56		56	52	55	53	56	58	53
Asian Other	57	60	60	62	59	65	70		68	69	69	67	68	65	65
Black	47	50	48	49	53	52	55		53	53	54	56	50	56	57
Mixed	39	41	38	39	45	47	45		42	38	43	46	48	45	46
White	29	29	30	31	31	32	34		34	35	35	34	35	35	35
White British	29	29	30	31	31	32	34		34	34	35	34	35	34	35
White Other	36	30	27	31	30	35	37		44	42	41	36	36	40	40
Other	55	53	53	55	50	60	61		58	63	65	59	61	63	64

Data not collected

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Economic inactivity By ethnicity over time (16 to 24 year olds only) Summary

16 to 24 year olds were more likely to be economically inactive than older people. This is partly because people in this age group were more likely to be students.

This data shows that:

• between 2004 and 2018, the total economic inactivity rate among 16 to 24 year olds went up from 32% to 39%
• the biggest increase was in the Black ethnic group, where the economic inactivity rate went up from 47% to 57%
• the only ethnic group where economic inactivity went down was the combined Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic group

8. By ethnicity and area

• Location: England, Wales and Scotland
• Time period: 2018
• Source: Annual Population Survey

Percentage of 16 to 64 year olds who were economically inactive, by ethnicity and area

	All		White		Other than White
Region	All %	All Number of people economically inactive	White %	White Number of people economically inactive	Other than White %	Other than White Number of people economically inactive
All	22	8,624,100	20	6,849,300	30	1,763,200
East Midlands	22	638,700	20	519,300	32	118,800
East of England	19	720,400	19	634,900	22	85,400
London	22	1,310,900	17	627,700	28	678,800
North East	25	406,200	24	373,600	39	32,600
North West	23	1,037,200	21	840,900	35	195,000
Scotland	23	777,600	22	710,800	38	66,500
South East	19	1,065,300	19	923,800	24	139,200
South West	19	621,200	18	570,600	27	50,500
Wales	23	446,200	23	415,300	32	30,500
West Midlands	23	826,600	21	599,400	32	226,600
Yorkshire and The Humber	23	773,800	21	633,000	36	139,400

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Economic inactivity By ethnicity and area Summary

This data shows that:

• in every region, White people had a lower economic inactivity rate than people from the Other than White ethnic group (made up of all other ethnic groups combined)
• the gap between the White and Other than White ethnic groups was biggest in Scotland, where 22% of White people and 38% of those from the Other ethnic group were economically inactive
• out of all combinations of ethnicity and region, the lowest rate of economic inactivity was among White people in London, at 17%
• the highest rate was among people from the Other ethnic group in the North East, at 39%

9. By ethnicity, disability and gender

• Location: England, Wales and Scotland
• Time period: 2018
• Source: Annual Population Survey

Percentage of 16 to 64 year olds who were economically inactive, by ethnicity, disability and gender

	All			Men			Women
Ethnicity	All All (%)	All Disabled (%)	All Non-disabled (%)	Men All (%)	Men Disabled (%)	Men Non-disabled (%)	Women All (%)	Women Disabled (%)	Women Non-disabled (%)
All	22	44	16	17	42	12	26	45	21
Asian	30	46	27	19	35	17	41	55	38
Indian	21	36	18	14	31	12	28	40	26
Pakistani, Bangladeshi	38	52	34	21	35	18	56	66	52
Asian Other	32	47	30	25	43	23	38	51	36
Black	27	48	23	21	49	17	31	47	28
Mixed	28	48	23	23	42	19	32	53	27
White	20	43	14	16	42	11	24	44	19
White British	21	44	15	17	43	11	24	45	18
White Other	15	34	13	9	31	7	21	36	19
Other	34	53	31	24	48	19	44	57	41

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Economic inactivity By ethnicity, disability and gender Summary

This data shows that:

• the total economic inactivity rate was 44% for disabled people and 16% for non-disabled people
• in every ethnic group, disabled people had a higher economic inactivity rate than non-disabled people
• among disabled people, the highest economic inactivity rate was in the Other ethnic group (at 53%) and the lowest was in the Other White ethnic group (at 34%)
• among disabled women, the highest economic inactivity rate was in the combined Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic group (at 66%) and the lowest was in the Other White ethnic group (36%)
• among disabled men, the highest economic inactivity rate was in the Black ethnic group (at 49%) and the lowest was in the Indian and Other White ethnic groups (both at 31%)

10. Methodology

The Annual Population Survey is a continuous household survey. Most people are interviewed in person first, and later by telephone.

The sample is formed from:

• waves 1 and 5 of the Labour Force Survey (in which selected addresses are contacted every 3 months)
• boost cases that are in the sample for 4 waves, spread one year apart

Participants are randomly selected from the Royal Mail postcode address file. The NHS communal accommodation list is also used and (in the case of remote parts of Scotland) telephone directories. All eligible individuals found at the selected address may be interviewed.

People are included in the dataset for this analysis if they respond themselves or if a family member responds on their behalf. The complex survey design has been taken into account when calculating confidence intervals.

Weighting:

The sample of approximately 275,000 people undergoes weighting at local authority level, using age and sex dimensions.

Weighting adjusts the results of a survey to make them representative of the population and make them more reliable.

For example, a survey of 25 women and 75 men will not accurately reflect the views of the general population, which is around 50% male and 50% female.

The weighting for this data is based on Office for National Statistics population statistics.

Confidence intervals:

Download the data for confidence intervals for each ethnic group.

The data from the APS is based on a sample of the population in England, Wales and Scotland, rather than the whole population. The estimates obtained from this sample are reliable estimates but it’s impossible to be 100% certain of the true percentage for the whole population.

For example, it is estimated that 20.1% of White people of working age were economically inactive in 2018. It’s 95% certain that somewhere between 19.8% (lower confidence interval) and 20.4% (upper confidence interval) of White 16 to 64 year olds were economically inactive in 2018. In statistical terms, this is a 95% confidence interval. This means that if 100 random samples were taken, then 95 times out of 100 the estimate would fall between the lower and upper bounds of the confidence interval. But 5 times out of 100 it would fall outside this range.

The smaller the survey sample, the more uncertain the estimate and the wider the confidence interval. For example, the sample has less data for individuals from the Black ethnic group than from the White ethnic group, so we can be less certain about the estimate for the smaller group. This greater uncertainty is expressed by a wider confidence interval, of between 24.5% and 28.7% for the Black ethnic group compared to 19.8% and 20.4% for the White ethnic group in 2018.

Suppression rules and disclosure control

In data covering all ethnic groups together, estimates based on sample sizes of less than 30 have been suppressed. For data broken down by ethnic groups, estimates based on sample sizes under 100 have been suppressed.

‘Suppression’ means these figures have not been included in the data, to protect confidentiality and because the numbers involved are too small to draw any reliable conclusions.

Rounding

Estimates in the charts and tables are rounded to whole percentages. Estimates in the download file are rounded to 1 decimal place.

Quality and methodology information

11. Data sources

Source

Annual Population Survey

Type of data

Survey data

Type of statistic

Official statistics

Publisher

Office for National Statistics

Publication frequency

Yearly

Purpose of data source

The Annual Population Survey (APS) is the largest ongoing household survey in the UK and covers a range of topics, including:

• personal characteristics
• labour market status
• work characteristics
• education
• health

The purpose of the APS is to provide information on important social and socio-economic variables at local levels, such as labour market estimates.

The published statistics also allow government to monitor estimates on a range of issues between Censuses.

12. Download the data

Economic inactivity by region - Spreadsheet (csv) 3 MB

This file contains the following: Measure, Measure_type, Ethnicity, Ethnicity_type, Time, Time_type, Region, Age, Age_type, Sex, Value, Confidence_interval, Numerator, Denominator, Sample_size

Economic inactivity by local authority - Spreadsheet (csv) 2 MB

This file contains the following: Measure, Measure_type, Ethnicity, Ethnicity_type, Time, Time_type, Local_authority, Age, Value, Confidence_interval, Numerator, Denominator, Sample_size

Publication release date: 16 October 2019

full page history

1. 16 October 2019 Updated with the latest available data (for 2018).

From: Office for National Statistics

Previous editions:

1. 20 May 2019
2. 26 January 2018

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