Economic activity

Data on the percentage of 25 to 29 year olds who are either in work or looking for work, by socio-economic background.

Summary main findings

In 2021, 88% of all 25 to 29 year olds were economically active, meaning they were either in work or actively looking for work.

77% of 25 to 29 year olds from lower working class backgrounds were economically active – the lowest percentage out of all socio-economic backgrounds. Percentages in all other socio-economic groups were between 88% and 93%.

Data for 2014 to 2021 combined shows that:

• young women were less likely to be economically active than young men from the same socio-economic background – the gap was largest in the lower working class group, where 71% of young women and 86% of young men were economically active
• young people from Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Chinese and Other ethnic backgrounds had lower levels of economic activity
• disabled young people were less likely to be economically active than non-disabled young people from the same socio-economic background – the ‘disability gap’ was relatively small among those from a higher professional background

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By socio-economic background

Percentage of 25 to 29 year olds who were economically active, by socio-economic background (UK, 2021)

Percentage of 25 to 29 year olds who were economically active, by socio-economic background (UK, 2021)

Socio-economic background	Percentage (%)
Higher professional	90.3
Lower professional	92.8
Intermediate	90.1
Higher working	87.8
Lower working	76.9
All backgrounds	88.0

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By area

Percentage point difference in the likelihood of being economically active at 25 to 29 years old, compared to the national average (UK, 2018 to 2021 combined)

41 regions in the UK are ranked from the lowest to highest percentage point difference to the national average. 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.

Q1 - Lowest 20%

Q5 - Highest 20%

Percentage point difference in the likelihood of being economically active at 25 to 29 years old, compared to the national average (UK, 2018 to 2021 combined)

Region	Difference compared to average
Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire	0.42
Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire	0.27
Cheshire	0.62
Cornwall and Isles of Scilly	-0.84
Cumbria	1.55
Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire	0.78
Devon	0.41
Dorset and Somerset	0.54
East Anglia	0.34
East Wales	-0.50
East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire	1.01
Eastern Scotland	-0.53
Essex	0.71
Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Bath/Bristol area	1.31
Greater Manchester	-1.07
Hampshire and Isle of Wight	0.64
Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire	0.24
Highlands and Islands	-1.76
Inner London - East	-0.56
Inner London - West	-0.15
Kent	0.25
Lancashire	0.45
Leicestershire, Rutland and Northamptonshire	-0.33
Lincolnshire	-0.43
Merseyside	-2.03
North Eastern Scotland	0.93
North Yorkshire	-0.18
Northern Ireland	-3.32
Northumberland and Tyne and Wear	-1.72
Outer London - East and North East	1.12
Outer London - South	0.04
Outer London - West and North West	0.80
Shropshire and Staffordshire	0.13
South Yorkshire	-1.32
Southern Scotland	0.46
Surrey, East and West Sussex	1.43
Tees Valley and Durham	0.91
West Central Scotland	-1.03
West Midlands	0.58
West Wales and The Valleys	-0.14
West Yorkshire	-0.01

Show 21 more rows

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By sex

Percentage of 25 to 29 year olds who were economically active, by sex and socio-economic background (UK, 2014 to 2021 combined)

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Percentage of 25 to 29 year olds who were economically active, by sex and socio-economic background (UK, 2014 to 2021 combined)

Socio-economic background	Men (%)	Women (%)
Higher professional	93.0	88.7
Lower professional	93.5	86.9
Intermediate	93.2	83.2
Higher working	92.4	80.0
Lower working	85.9	70.8

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By ethnicity

Percentage of 25 to 29 year olds who were economically active, by ethnicity and socio-economic background (UK, 2014 to 2021 combined)

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Percentage of 25 to 29 year olds who were economically active, by ethnicity and socio-economic background (UK, 2014 to 2021 combined)

Ethnicity	Lower working (%)	Higher professional (%)
Bangladeshi	75.4	90.0
Chinese	64.0	83.9
Indian	85.5	94.5
Pakistani	71.6	88.1
Black African	84.2	94.0
Black Caribbean	89.9	96.3
Mixed	83.8	93.8
White British	87.6	95.4
White other	88.1	95.6
Other	72.7	88.6

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By disability status

Percentage of 25 to 29 year olds who were economically active, by disability status and socio-economic background (UK, 2014 to 2021 combined)

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Percentage of 25 to 29 year olds who were economically active, by disability status and socio-economic background (UK, 2014 to 2021 combined)

Socio-economic background	Disabled (%)	Not disabled (%)
Higher professional	81.3	92.2
Lower professional	72.0	92.9
Intermediate	68.4	91.5
Higher working	64.7	89.9
Lower working	52.2	85.1

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About the data

Data source

Office for National Statistics, Labour Force Survey (LFS), 2021

Time period

2014 to 2021 (combined)

Geographic area

UK

What the data measures

The data shows the percentage of 25 to 29 year olds in the UK who were ‘economically active’, by socio-economic background.

Someone is ‘economically active’ if they are either in work, or available for and actively looking for work.

People can be economically inactive if they are:

• in full-time education
• looking after family
• unable to work due to disability or ill health

Things you need to know

Data is weighted using LFS probability weights.

For data by ethnicity, the estimated percentages are those for men. Percentages are shown only for people from lower working class and higher professional class backgrounds.

For data by disability status, respondents were asked if they had a health condition or illness lasting 12 months or more, and if that condition reduced their ability to carry out day-to-day activities. This is consistent with the definition of disability in the Equality Act 2010.

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.

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Download the data

Download full dataset (CSV, 17KB)

This file contains the following variables:

• Indicator code
• Indicator name
• Area type
• Area code
• Area name
• Time period
• Socio-economic background
• Age
• Sex
• Category type
• Category
• Value
• Sample size
• Lower confidence interval
• Upper confidence interval
• Standard error
• Unit

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