economy and public finances · the national record
Economic inactivity: the millions out of the labour force
9,107,934 people aged 16 to 64 in the UK were economically inactive in March to May 2026, a rate of 20.9 per cent, ONS's own latest published Labour Force Survey figure. Long term sickness is now the single biggest reason for inactivity and the one that has grown the most since before the pandemic, and these Labour Force Survey statistics carry a data quality warning from ONS itself.
How to read this
Economically inactive is not the same as unemployed. Unemployed means without a job but actively seeking one and available to start within two weeks. Economically inactive means neither working nor meeting that jobseeking test, for any reason, including studying, looking after family or home, being retired, or being too sick to work. The rate on this page is the share of people aged 16 to 64 who are economically inactive: a different measure, with a different denominator, from the unemployment rate, which is the share of the economically active (in work or seeking work) who do not have a job. The two rates can and do move in different directions, and a rise in one is not evidence of a rise in the other.
A note on data quality
These figures come from the Labour Force Survey, the household survey ONS uses to measure employment, unemployment and inactivity, and it has well documented quality problems. In ONS's own words, from the 21 July 2026 Employment in the UK bulletin: “the ongoing challenges with response rates and levels mean that LFS-based labour market statistics are now badged as official statistics in development until further review”, in line with a request from the Office for Statistics Regulation that these statistics should not be published as accredited official statistics until it has reviewed them. ONS's own advice is that “we advise users to use caution when drawing conclusions from short-term changes, and to focus on long-term movements in the data”. The national rate and reason breakdown on this page (tables A02SA and INAC01) are both currently labelled by ONS as official statistics in development for this reason. Local authority figures further down draw on the Annual Population Survey, a larger, boosted sample of the same underlying survey, but still carry wide margins of error in smaller areas, shown alongside each figure.
Computed from ONS Table A02SA and Table INAC01 (21 July 2026 release), the ONS Employment in the UK bulletin for the same release, the ONS Rising ill health and economic inactivity article (2019 to 2023 vintage, used only for the supplementary health conditions note), and NOMIS/ONS Annual Population Survey local and national economic inactivity rates (Oct 2024-Sep 2025).
The scale of it
9,107,934 people are economically inactive, aged 16 to 64
ONS's latest published Labour Force Survey estimate is that 9,107,934 people aged 16 to 64 in the UK, 20.9 per cent of that age group, were economically inactive in March to May 2026. That is down 0.1 percentage points on March to May 2025 and down 0.1 percentage points on the previous quarter, ONS's own words for both changes. Against December to February 2020, the last comparable quarter before the coronavirus pandemic, the rate is still 0.6 percentage points higher and the level is 662,144 people higher, out of a working age population that has itself grown over the same period.
Since before the pandemic
The rate rose sharply in the pandemic and has only partly unwound
The economic inactivity rate stood at 20.9 per cent in March to May 2019, rose through the pandemic and its aftermath to a peak of 22.1 per cent in March to May 2024, and has since eased back to 20.9 per cent in March to May 2026, barely different from where it started. Points are ONS's seasonally adjusted Labour Force Survey estimate for the same three month quarter (March to May) each year, so the comparison is not affected by the normal seasonal pattern within a year.
UK economic inactivity rate, aged 16 to 64, seasonally adjusted, March to May of each year. Source: ONS Labour Force Survey, Table A02SA.
Why people are inactive
Long term sickness is the single biggest reason, and has grown the most
Of the 9,107,934 people counted as economically inactive in March to May 2026, the largest group, 30.2 per cent, are long term sick. Students are the next largest group at 26.9 per cent, followed by people looking after family or home. Since March to May 2019, the number of people inactive because of long term sickness has risen by 721,643 (35.6 per cent), more than any other reason, both in absolute numbers and as a share of all the reasons that grew. Over the same period the number looking after family or home fell by 495,056 (24.2 per cent), the largest fall of any reason. Categories are self reported by survey respondents and are not mutually exclusive in practice: someone could reasonably describe themselves as both retired and long term sick, but the survey records a single main reason.
2,747,269 people
2,445,556 people
1,547,390 people
1,113,561 people
1,040,504 people
184,576 people
29,079 people
Reason for economic inactivity, aged 16 to 64, UK, seasonally adjusted, March to May 2026. 9,107,934 people in total. Source: ONS Labour Force Survey, Table INAC01.
The biggest single driver
Long term sickness has risen from 23.3 to 30.2 per cent of all inactivity
The number of people economically inactive because of long term sickness has risen from 2,025,626 in March to May 2019 to 2,747,269 in March to May 2026, an increase of 721,643 people. As a share of everyone who is economically inactive, long term sickness has risen from 23.3 per cent to 30.2 per cent over the same period. A separate ONS analysis, using data to January to March 2023 only and not updated since, found that depression, bad nerves or anxiety was the most commonly reported health condition among people inactive because of long term sickness, reported by 53 per cent (1.35 million people) in 2023, up from 48 per cent in the same quarter of 2019, and that 38 per cent of the long term sick group reported five or more health conditions in 2023, up from 34 per cent in 2019, suggesting increasingly complex, overlapping health problems rather than a single condition.
People economically inactive because of long term sickness, aged 16 to 64, UK, seasonally adjusted, March to May of each year. Source: ONS Labour Force Survey, Table INAC01.
By nation
Northern Ireland and Wales run well above the UK rate
The Annual Population Survey, a boosted sample version of the same Labour Force Survey used for local and national breakdowns, put the UK economic inactivity rate at 21.1 per cent and the Great Britain rate at 21.0 per cent in October 2024 to September 2025. This is a different survey period and a different sample from the quarterly headline above, so the figures are close but not identical. Northern Ireland had the highest rate of the four nations, at 24.7 per cent, and England the lowest, at 20.7 per cent.
Annual Population Survey economic inactivity rate, aged 16 to 64, Oct 2024-Sep 2025, with published confidence interval (plus or minus percentage points). Source: ONS/NOMIS.
By local authority
A wide local spread, with wide margins of error to match
Among the 363 local authorities in Great Britain with a usable Annual Population Survey estimate for October 2024 to September 2025, the rate ranges from 8.3 per cent in Dacorum to 33.7 per cent in Kensington and Chelsea. The tables below show the eight highest and eight lowest. Every figure carries a published confidence interval, shown as a plus or minus range: even authorities ONS does not flag as unreliable can have wide margins. Na h-Eileanan Siar, for example, has a published rate of 27.4 per cent plus or minus 13.5 percentage points, wide enough that its true position in this ranking is genuinely uncertain. Treat the ranking as indicative, not precise. 6 further authorities (Broxbourne, Corby, Melton, Orkney Islands, Richmondshire, Shetland Islands) are left out of the tables below altogether, marked '-', because ONS flags their sample as too small (3 to 9 respondents in the relevant group) for even the point estimate to be considered reliable; of those, Shetland Islands would otherwise have ranked among the lowest shown here.
Highest inactivity rate
±6.2 percentage points
±4 percentage points
±4 percentage points
±5.9 percentage points
±4.4 percentage points
±4.7 percentage points
±4.4 percentage points
±7.1 percentage points
Lowest inactivity rate
±5.5 percentage points
±6.4 percentage points
±4.7 percentage points
±5 percentage points
±6.5 percentage points
±5.2 percentage points
±5.3 percentage points
±6 percentage points
6 authorities marked “-”: Broxbourne, Corby, Melton, Orkney Islands, Richmondshire, Shetland Islands. ONS flags the sample behind each of these as too small for a reliable estimate, so no rate is shown for them here.
Annual Population Survey economic inactivity rate by local authority, aged 16 to 64, Oct 2024-Sep 2025. Of 371 Great Britain local authorities, 2 have no data and are excluded, and 6 are suppressed as unreliable, leaving 363 shown here. Source: ONS/NOMIS.
Questions this raises
For economic inactivity
- 1.
Long term sickness has grown more than any other reason for inactivity since before the pandemic. The data cannot say on its own how much of that is a genuine rise in ill health, how much is a change in what people are willing to report, and how much is a change in the availability of health and disability benefits and health services; ruling any of these out is beyond what a survey of self reported reasons can support.
- 2.
ONS itself has flagged the Labour Force Survey as having reduced quality since the pandemic and badges these statistics as official statistics in development. How much confidence should be placed in a headline national economic indicator that its own producer will not yet call fully official?
- 3.
The reason categories are self reported and not mutually exclusive in practice, so a fall in one reason and a rise in another, such as fewer people looking after family or home and more long term sick, could partly reflect how people describe themselves rather than a real change in circumstances.
- 4.
Local authority rates vary widely, but so do the published margins of error. How useful is a local ranking when the confidence interval on some of the highest and lowest authorities is wide enough to overlap several places either side of them?
Sources & method
Data provenance
- Employment in the UK: July 2026 (ONS bulletin) ↗· Open Government Licence v3.0
- A02SA: Employment, unemployment and economic inactivity for people aged 16 and over and aged from 16 to 64, seasonally adjusted (ONS) ↗· Open Government Licence v3.0
- INAC01: Economic inactivity by reason, seasonally adjusted (ONS) ↗· Open Government Licence v3.0
- Rising ill health and economic inactivity because of long-term sickness, UK: 2019 to 2023 (ONS article) ↗· Open Government Licence v3.0
- Annual Population Survey, economic inactivity rate by local and national geography (NOMIS/ONS, NM_17_5) ↗· Open Government Licence v3.0
Caveats & data notes
- The Labour Force Survey has known, ONS acknowledged quality problems since the coronavirus pandemic, principally a fall in response rates. ONS badges the national rate and reason breakdown on this page as official statistics in development, and advises caution when reading short term movements; see the quality note above for ONS's own wording.
- The national headline (A02SA) and the reason breakdown (INAC01) are both seasonally adjusted quarterly series with a three month rolling reference period (for example, March to May 2026 means interviews conducted across those three months); they are not a snapshot of a single date.
- The pre-pandemic comparison quarter is December to February 2020, the standard comparator ONS itself uses; the annual trend chart instead compares March to May of each year, so the two comparisons use slightly different reference quarters and will not match to the decimal point.
- The supplementary note on health conditions among the long term sick group uses a separate ONS article with data only to January to March 2023; it has not been updated and is not on the same vintage as the main figures on this page.
- The nations and local authority figures use the Annual Population Survey, a larger sample of the same underlying Labour Force Survey used for lower geography estimates, for the twelve months from October 2024 to September 2025; this is a different period and a different sample design from the quarterly UK headline above, so the figures are close but not directly comparable.
- Of 371 Great Britain local authorities, 2 (City of London and the Isles of Scilly) have no published estimate at all and are excluded, and 6 more (Broxbourne, Corby, Melton, Orkney Islands, Richmondshire, Shetland Islands) are marked '-' and left out of the highest and lowest tables, because ONS flags their sample as too small (3 to 9 respondents in the relevant group) for even the point estimate to be considered reliable. The remaining 363 authorities all have a published confidence interval, shown alongside each figure in the tables above, and some of those are wide.
- Northern Ireland local council areas are not covered by this geography and are not part of the local authority league table; the Northern Ireland figure in the nations table above is a separate national estimate.
- Reason for inactivity is self reported by survey respondents from a fixed list of categories and reflects a single main reason; it does not capture people who would describe themselves as fitting more than one category.
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