Poverty

One of the most common way of measuring poverty in the UK is relative poverty. Someone is defined as living in relative poverty if their household income is below 60% of the median income across the country that year. It measures whether people are falling behind the living standards of the rest of the population. In some sense, it is a measure of inequality.

Income can be measured before or after housing costs. After housing costs better reflects the money people have left to live on.

In 2024/25, 20% of people were in relative poverty after housing costs. That's 13.4 million people.

Children are the most likely to be in poverty: 27% of children were in relative poverty after housing costs. For pensioners, it was 14%, down from 29% in the late 1990s.

Absolute poverty uses a fixed poverty line that only rises with inflation.

Until 2021, the poverty line was set at 60% of what the country's median income was in 2011. On that measure, absolute poverty fell a lot: from 41% of people in 1995 to 17% in 2021, after housing costs. For pensioners, it fell from 53% to 11%.

From 2021, the government changed its measure of absolute poverty to be against the median income in 2024/25. That increased the poverty line, so rates since 2021 are higher and aren't comparable with earlier years.

In 2024/25, 13.4 million people were in relative poverty after housing costs. This included 4 million children, 7.7 million working-age adults and 1.7 million pensioners.

Poverty rates differ a lot across the UK. The chart shows relative child poverty across different regions, after housing costs. But you can use the dropdown to look at other measures, including before housing costs, and poverty rates for different populations (such as old-age poverty).

Child poverty after housing costs is highest in London, where 38% of children were in relative poverty in the three years to 2024/25. A large part of this is London's high housing costs: before housing costs, London's child poverty rate (19%) is slightly below the English average.

It's lowest in Northern Ireland (19%), the South West (21%) and Scotland (21%).

Local estimates of child poverty come from benefit and tax records. Before housing costs, Pendle, Birmingham and Bradford had the highest rates of child poverty in 2024/25, at around 40%. Richmond upon Thames had the lowest, at 5%.

After housing costs, the picture changes: around half of children in Tower Hamlets and Hackney were in poverty.

You can switch between rates before and after housing costs using the buttons above the chart.

Fuel poverty measures whether households can afford to keep their homes warm. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland measure this in a different way.

In England, a household is fuel poor if it lives in a home with an energy efficiency rating of D or below, and its income after housing and energy costs is below the poverty line.

On this measure, 9.4% of households in England were fuel poor in 2025, according to provisional figures. That's down from 22% in 2010.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland count households as fuel poor if they spend more than 10% of their income on energy.

In 2024, 29% of households in Scotland were fuel poor; in Wales it was 25%. In Northern Ireland, it was 33% in 2023.

These numbers across the four UK nations are not comparable.

In the three charts below, you can explore fuel poverty rates at the local level in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

In England, fuel poverty is highest in Stoke-on-Trent, Blackpool and Birmingham, and in the West Midlands as a whole. It's lowest in parts of the South East, such as Wokingham.

In Scotland, rates are highest in Orkney (51%), West Dunbartonshire (43%), Na h-Eileanan Siar and Shetland (both 40%).

The government measures food insecurity by asking households whether, in the past 30 days, they worried about food running out, ate less, or skipped meals because they didn't have enough money.

In 2024/25, 9% of people lived in food insecure households. For children, it was 14%. Food insecurity rose sharply in 2022/23 and peaked in 2023/24, when 18% of children were in food insecure households.

In the chart, you can see rates of food insecurity by region. Again, food insecurity is based on whether households said that, in the past 30 days, they worried about food running out, ate less, or skipped meals because they didn't have enough money.

Food insecurity is highest in London, the North East, the North West, and Yorkshire and the Humber. It's lowest in the South West and Northern Ireland.

Food banks in the Trussell network gave out 2.6 million emergency food parcels in 2025, including 900,000 for children. That's down from a peak of 3.2 million in 2023, but still 45% more than in 2019.

These figures don't include independent food banks, so total food bank use is higher.

Households Below Average Income is the government's main source of poverty statistics. It is based on the Family Resources Survey, which asks around 20,000 households a year about their incomes. Income is measured after taxes and benefits, and adjusted for the size of the household.

Relative poverty compares incomes with the median income in the same year. Absolute poverty compares them with a fixed poverty line, adjusted for inflation.

Before housing costs measures income before rent, mortgage interest and similar costs are paid. After housing costs subtracts them. Pensioners, many of whom own their homes outright, are less likely to be in poverty after housing costs; families with children are more likely to be.

From 2021/22, the survey uses government records of benefit income instead of what people report. This improved the figures, but means that years before and after aren't directly comparable.