Childhood poverty
Data on the percentage of children in the UK living in relative poverty after housing costs.
Summary main findings
The percentage of children living in relative poverty has gone up since 2012, but is below the levels reached in the 1990s.
Between 2017 and 2022, the percentage of children living in relative poverty stayed roughly the same at around 30%.
By year
Visualisation for by year
Percentage of children living in relative poverty after housing costs, by country over time (UK, 1994 to 2022)
Click or tap on legend items to toggle visibility
Data for by year
| Year | England (%) | Scotland (%) | Wales (%) | Northern Ireland (%) | UK (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 30.8 | 24.5 | 27.9 | 22.2 | 29.9 |
| 2021 | 30.6 | 24.6 | 31.3 | 24.8 | 30.0 |
| 2020 | 30.4 | 24.3 | 30.6 | 24.0 | 29.8 |
| 2019 | 30.4 | 23.2 | 28.5 | 25.1 | 29.6 |
| 2018 | 30.3 | 24.2 | 29.1 | 24.0 | 29.6 |
| 2017 | 30.1 | 23.4 | 27.7 | 25.6 | 29.3 |
| 2016 | 29.0 | 22.8 | 29.2 | 25.7 | 28.5 |
| 2015 | 28.3 | 21.6 | 29.1 | 25.3 | 27.7 |
| 2014 | 27.6 | 21.0 | 31.0 | 25.0 | 27.2 |
| 2013 | 27.5 | 20.7 | 31.6 | 24.3 | 27.1 |
| 2012 | 28.2 | 21.4 | 32.3 | 26.4 | 27.8 |
| 2011 | 29.5 | 23.5 | 30.7 | 26.0 | 29.0 |
| 2010 | 30.9 | 24.4 | 32.7 | 26.6 | 30.3 |
| 2009 | 31.5 | 24.5 | 31.8 | 24.8 | 30.8 |
| 2008 | 31.1 | 24.1 | 32.6 | 25.5 | 30.4 |
| 2007 | 29.9 | 24.6 | 30.0 | 25.4 | 29.4 |
| 2006 | 29.0 | 25.0 | 28.7 | 26.7 | 28.6 |
| 2005 | 28.8 | 25.8 | 30.4 | 26.2 | 28.5 |
| 2004 | 29.5 | 27.9 | 31.3 | No data | 29.4 |
| 2003 | 30.1 | 29.6 | 33.6 | No data | 30.2 |
| 2002 | 31.1 | 31.2 | 34.0 | No data | 31.3 |
| 2001 | 32.2 | 31.2 | 35.1 | No data | 32.3 |
| 2000 | 33.1 | 31.0 | 35.5 | No data | 33.0 |
| 1999 | 33.5 | 31.6 | 35.7 | No data | 33.4 |
| 1998 | 33.0 | 31.9 | 36.8 | No data | 33.1 |
| 1997 | 32.9 | 31.7 | 35.8 | No data | 33.0 |
Download for by year
For the full download file, see Download the data.
By area
Visualisation for by area
Percentage of children living in relative poverty after housing costs, by region (UK, 2018 to 2019)
41 regions in the UK are ranked from the lowest to highest percentages. They are then divided into 5 equally-sized groups (‘quintiles’), from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest).
The regional estimates have a large margin of error – do not rank or compare specific regions.
The lines either side of the dots represent confidence intervals – the range of values that the 'true' value for each region is highly likely to be within. In many cases the confidence intervals overlap. This suggests differences between specific regions may not be statistically significant.
See the composite indices for more precise estimates and to understand overall regional patterns.
Data for by area
| Region | Percentage (%) |
|---|---|
| Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire | 24.2 |
| Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire | 23.4 |
| Cheshire | 24.1 |
| Cornwall and Isles of Scilly | 29.8 |
| Cumbria | 28.6 |
| Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire | 27.8 |
| Devon | 27.2 |
| Dorset and Somerset | 24.4 |
| East Anglia | 27.5 |
| East Wales | 27.1 |
| East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire | 31.3 |
| Eastern Scotland | 23.4 |
| Essex | 26.1 |
| Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Bath/Bristol area | 23.3 |
| Greater Manchester | 34.7 |
| Hampshire and Isle of Wight | 25.3 |
| Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire | 26.6 |
| Highlands and Islands | 23.2 |
| Inner London - East | 46.5 |
| Inner London - West | 31.7 |
| Kent | 29.3 |
| Lancashire | 32.2 |
| Leicestershire, Rutland and Northamptonshire | 26.0 |
| Lincolnshire | 27.4 |
| Merseyside | 32.1 |
| North Eastern Scotland | 18.3 |
| North Yorkshire | 22.5 |
| Northern Ireland | 25.0 |
| Northumberland, and Tyne and Wear | 34.9 |
| Outer London - East and North East | 41.9 |
| Outer London - South | 32.7 |
| Outer London - West and North West | 35.5 |
| Shropshire and Staffordshire | 30.5 |
| South Yorkshire | 33.1 |
| Southern Scotland | 25.3 |
| Surrey, East and West Sussex | 23.1 |
| Tees Valley and Durham | 35.1 |
| West Central Scotland | 26.2 |
| West Midlands | 38.5 |
| West Wales and The Valleys | 28.6 |
| West Yorkshire | 34.4 |
Download for by area
For the full download file, see Download the data.
About the data
Data source
Department for Work and Pensions, Households below average income (HBAI) statistics.
Time period
1994 to 2022
Geographic area
UK
What the data measures
The data shows the percentage of children living in households in relative poverty after housing costs in the UK.
Data is calculated using 3-year averages. For example, the figure for 2019 represents the average of the financial years starting in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
Things you need to know
A household is in relative poverty if their equivalised income is below 60% of the median income for all households in the UK. ‘Equivalised’ means adjusted for the number and ages of the people living in the household.
The data for the analysis by area comes from statistics produced by the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University. These statistics use Valuation Office Agency rent data and the Understanding Society survey for the year 2018 to 2019.
The error bars show 95% confidence intervals. These intervals show where we expect the true value from a population to be 95% of the time. For example, a confidence interval with the range of values from 5 to 10 implies that there is a 95% chance that the true population value is between 5 and 10, and a 5% chance that it is outside of this range. The narrower the confidence interval or range, the more precise the estimate. Read more about confidence intervals
Type of data
Survey data
Full report
Read more in State of the Nation 2023 on GOV.UK.
Download the data
Download full dataset (CSV, 18KB)
This file contains the following variables:
- Indicator code
- Indicator name
- Area type
- Area code
- Area name
- Time period
- Sex
- Value
- Sample size
- Lower confidence interval
- Upper confidence interval
- Standard error
- Unit