Social mobility by area
Published:
18 December 2025
see all updates
This section shows how different areas in the UK are ranked for 4 different measures of social mobility.
Map of UK regions
Please use caution when comparing regions. This is because most regions are near to the average, and there is little difference between them.
Composite measures by region
There are 4 composite measures of social mobility by region:
- Promising prospects
- Conditions of childhood
- Labour market opportunities for young people
- Innovation and growth
Each of these measures combines data from multiple indicators into a single ‘composite’ score to give a more reliable picture of geographical patterns.
For each composite measure, 205 regions in the UK are put into 7 groups – from ‘most favourable’ to ‘least favourable’ conditions – based on their composite scores.
You can also see changes over time for each composite measure.
These are purely descriptive statistics and cannot demonstrate any causal effects of regions on outcomes. Some of these statistics are based on surveys and are affected by sampling error.
List of UK regions
There are 12 major UK regions shown below, and 205 local authorities in total.
East
East Midlands (England)
London
- Barking and Dagenham
- Barnet
- Bexley
- Brent
- Bromley
- Camden and City of London
- Croydon
- Ealing
- Enfield
- Greenwich
- Hackney
- Hammersmith and Fulham
- Haringey
- Harrow
- Havering
- Hillingdon
- Hounslow
- Islington
- Kensington and Chelsea
- Kingston upon Thames
- Lambeth
- Lewisham
- Merton
- Newham
- Redbridge
- Richmond upon Thames
- Southwark
- Sutton
- Tower Hamlets
- Waltham Forest
- Wandsworth
- Westminster
North East (England)
North West (England)
Northern Ireland
Scotland
- Aberdeen city
- Aberdeenshire
- Angus
- Argyll and Bute Islands
- City of Edinburgh
- Clackmannanshire
- Dumfries and Galloway
- Dundee city
- East Ayrshire
- East Dunbartonshire
- East Lothian
- East Renfrewshire
- Falkirk
- Fife
- Glasgow City
- Highland
- Inverclyde
- Midlothian
- Moray
- Na h-Eileanan Siar
- North Ayrshire mainland
- North Lanarkshire
- Orkney Islands
- Perth and Kinross
- Renfrewshire
- Scottish Borders
- Shetland Islands
- South Ayrshire
- South Lanarkshire
- Stirling
- West Dunbartonshire
- West Lothian
South East (England)
South West (England)
Wales
West Midlands (England)
Yorkshire and The Humber
Northern Ireland is treated as a single unit. This is because the Labour Force Survey – our main data source – does not distinguish between local authorities in Northern Ireland.
Read our technical annex and main report for more information.
Indicators by area
The following indicators also include geographic data.
In these indicators, data is shown for 41 UK regions made up of counties and groups of counties. Each region has 800,000 to 3 million residents.
Differences between regions may not be statistically significant. The regional estimates have a large margin of error – do not rank or compare specific regions.
Intermediate outcomes
- Level of development at age 5
- Attainment at age 11
- Attainment at age 16
- Highest qualification
- Economic activity
- Unemployment
- Occupational level of young people aged 25 to 29 years
- Earnings of young people aged 25 to 29 years
Drivers of social mobility
- Distribution of parental education
- Distribution of parental occupation
- Parental income
- Youth unemployment
- Type of employment opportunities for young people
- Broadband speed
- Business spending on research and development
- Postgraduate education
- Occupations in the 'new economy'
- Gross value added per capita
Page history
Publication release date:
18 December 2025