Relative income poverty: April 2023 to March 2024
For the period up to March 2024 households with income less than 60% of the UK median, analysed by attributes such as age, economic status and family type.
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What is relative income poverty?
We define a person to be living in relative income poverty if they live in a household where the total household income from all sources is less than 60% of the average UK household income (as given by the median). All figures in this report relate to relative income poverty in Wales after housing costs such as mortgage interest payments/rent, water rates and structural house insurance were paid.
The data we have for relative income poverty comes from the Households Below Average Income (HBAI) report published by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).
The Family Resources Survey (FRS) is an annual household survey managed by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). It forms the basis for the Households Below Average Income (HBAI) datasets (DWP), from which official statistics on low income, including relative income poverty, are produced on an annual basis.
All data in this report is Welsh Government analysis of the DWP Households below average income dataset, based on the Family Resource Survey (DWP).
As explained in the quality and methodology information section, any data points that span the FYE 2021 period do not include the FYE 2021 survey data in calculations, as it is judged to be of low quality. DWP continue to advise users that changes in estimates over recent years should be interpreted being mindful of the differences in data collection approaches across the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic period and the effect this had on sample composition.
Also explained in the quality and methodology section, some revised data for FYE 2023 has been included in this release and associated tables.
Main findings
- Between financial year ending (FYE) 2022 and FYE 2024, 22% of all people in Wales were living in relative income poverty.
- The percentage of people living in relative income poverty has been relatively stable in Wales for over 19 years.
Figure 1: Percentage of people in each UK country living in relative income poverty (after housing costs), three-financial-year averages
Description of Figure 1: A line chart showing that in England the percentage of people living in relative income poverty was similar to Wales at 22% between FYE 2022 and FYE 2024. In Scotland and Northern Ireland the figures were 20% and 17% respectively.
Children in relative income poverty
In Wales, 31% of children were living in relative income poverty in FYE 2022 to FYE 2024. This figure has increased slightly from 29% in the previous period (FYE 2021 to FYE 2023). However, please take care when interpreting change over the short term because trends can be volatile due to small sample sizes.
Figure 2: Percentage of children in each UK country living in relative income poverty (after housing costs), three-financial-year averages
Description of Figure 2: A line chart showing that in England the percentage of children living in relative income poverty was similar to Wales at 31% between FYE 2022 and FYE 2024. In Northern Ireland and Scotland the figures were 24% and 23% respectively.
Figure 3: Percentage of each age group in Wales living in relative income poverty (after housing costs), three-financial-year averages
Description of Figure 3: A line chart showing that children are consistently the age group most likely to be in relative income poverty in Wales.
This was also true across all four UK nations. A possible reason for this is that adults with children are more likely to be out of work or working fewer hours due to childcare responsibilities.
Working-age adults in relative income poverty
- 21% of working-age adults in Wales were in relative income poverty for the period FYE 2022 to FYE 2024, this is the same percentage as the previous period (FYE 2021 to FYE 2023)
- This is above that seen for England, Scotland (both 20%) and Northern Ireland (16%) for the latest period.
Pensioners in relative income poverty
- 15% of pensioners in Wales were living in relative income poverty between FYE 2022 and 2024, a decrease from 16% in the previous period (FYE 2021 to FYE 2023).
- In England the percentage of pensioners living in relative income poverty was 17%; in Scotland it was 15% and in Northern Ireland it was 13%.
This release contains data for one of the national wellbeing indicators (18: Percentage of people living in households in income poverty relative to the UK median: measured for children, working age and those of pension age).
There is an associated milestone with this national indicator: reduce the poverty gap between people in Wales with certain key and protected characteristics (which mean they are most likely to be in poverty) and those without those characteristics by 2035. Commit to setting a stretching target for 2050.
Housing tenure
Figure 4: Percentage of people in each type of housing tenure in Wales, living in relative income poverty (after housing costs), FYE 2022 to FYE 2024
Description of Figure 4: A bar chart showing that people in social rented housing were more likely to be in relative income poverty (43%) than those in private rented (37%) or owner occupied housing (13%).
However, when considering all people in Wales in poverty (700,000), most people lived in owner occupied housing (40%) followed by those living in social rented housing (32%).
Economic status and type of employment
Although care should be taken with interpretation due to the small number of sampled households, children living in a workless household remained at higher risk of relative income poverty (at 56%) compared to children living in a working household (at 27%) in FYE 2022 to FYE 2024.
Within working households, there was also a marked difference between the likelihood of poverty for children in households where all the adults work (17%) compared to households where some (but not all) adults work (51%).
Figure 5: The children in Wales who were living in relative income poverty (after housing costs), by economic status of household, three-financial-year averages
Description of Figure 5: A 100% stacked bar chart that shows, in the most recent period, 72% of children who were living in relative income poverty lived in working households (around 150,000 children). This share has increased from 60% in the period FYE 2012 to FYE 2014.
Figure 6: Percentage of working-age adults in each household employment type in Wales, who were living in relative income poverty (after housing costs), FYE 2022 to FYE 2024
Description of Figure 6: A bar chart showing that 44% of working-age people living in workless households lived in poverty in FYE 2022 to FYE 2024.
Living with people who work reduces the likelihood of poverty. This risk is especially reduced where all adults work full time. However, there were still an estimated 50,000 working-age adults in relative income poverty despite living in households where everyone worked full-time.
Family characteristics
Figure 7: Percentage of people in each family type in Wales who were living in relative income poverty (after housing costs), FYE 2022 to FYE 2024
Description of Figure 7: A bar chart that shows that in the period FYE 2022to FYE 2024:
- lone parent households were the family type most likely to be in relative income poverty (at 35%)
- 27% of households composed of a couple with children and 25% of single male households were in relative income poverty.
What type of families live in poverty?
Around a decade ago, most people living in relative income poverty were living in households with children. However, the pattern is now less clear with a similar proportion of those who are in relative income poverty living in households with children and without children.
Figure 8: The people in Wales who were living in relative income poverty (after housing costs), by family type, FYE 2022 to FYE 2024
Description of Figure 8: A pie chart showing that, of people living in relative income poverty, 50% were in families with children, 34% were in families without children and 16% were in pensioner families. Families here include single people.
Children who lived in households where the youngest child was aged 0 to 4 accounted for 57% of all children that were in relative income poverty in FYE 2021 to FYE 2024.
Figure 9: Percentage of children in Wales who were living in relative income poverty (after housing costs), by number of children in the household, three-financial-year averages
Description of Figure 9: Line chart showing that children who lived in households where there were three or more children were more likely to live in relative income poverty between FYE 2022 and FYE 2024 compared with those who lived in households with one or two children.
Ethnicity
Households in which the head of household was from a Black, Asian or minority ethnic group were more likely to be in relative income poverty than those with a head of household from a white ethnic group.
FYE 2020 to FYE 2024
There was a 50% likelihood of people whose head of household comes from a Black, Asian or minority ethnic group living in relative income poverty.
This compares to a 21% likelihood for those whose head of household comes from a white ethnic group.
However, because the vast majority of households in Wales have a head who is from a white ethnic group, most people (90%) who were living in relative income poverty were from such households.
For UK data by ethnic group (including further breakdowns by ethnicity) please see the HBAI tables produced by the DWP.
Disability
In the survey data, disabled people are identified as those who report any physical or mental health condition or illness that are expected to last 12 months or more, and which limit their ability to carry out day-to-day activities a little, or a lot. This is in line with the Equality Act definition.
Figure 10: Percentage of children and working-age people in Wales who were living in relative income poverty (after housing costs), by disability in the family, three-financial-year averages
Description of Figure 10: A line chart showing that working age people who do not live with a person who has a disability have a lower risk of living in relative income poverty than those who do live with a person who has a disability.
In the latest period (FYE 2022 to FYE 2024)
For working-age adults, 27% who lived in a family where there was someone with a disability were in relative income poverty compared with 18% of those in families where no-one was disabled.
35% of children who lived in a family where there was someone with a disability were in relative income poverty compared with 28% of those in families where no-one was disabled.
Food banks and food security
Between FYE 2022 and 2024 almost half (47%) of people whose head of household had used a foodbank in the last 12 months were in relative income poverty.
On the other hand, almost 1 in 10 (9%) of all people in relative income poverty said they had used a foodbank in the last 12 months. This compares with 4% of the general population.
The FRS includes questions related to household food security. Food security is separate from food bank usage and is derived from information on a household’s access, attitude and behaviour around food over the last 30 days. Based on this information households are grouped into four food security categories: high, marginal, low and very low. More detail on food security can be found in the methodology report.
Figure 11: Percentage of all people, working age adults and children in each food security category for those in relative income poverty and the general population, FYE 2022 to FYE 2024
Description of figure 11: A 100% stacked bar chart that shows those in relative income poverty were less likely to be in households with high food security compared with the general population. In the general population 75% of children, 82% of working aged adults and 83% of all people were in households with high food security between FYE 2022 and 2024. This compares with 60% of children,63% of working aged adults and 66% of all people in relative income poverty.
Note that pensioner data is not presented in the above figure due to low sample sizes. 95% of pensioners lived in households with high food security. This means that 5% of pensioners lived in households with marginal, low or very low food security.
Migrants
People in households whose head of household was a migrant (those born outside of the UK) were more likely to be in poverty compared to those who lived in households with a non-migrant head. Between FYE 2020 and 2024, 34% of people in households whose head of household was a migrant were in relative income poverty compared with 21% of those in households headed by non-migrants.
This is a similar to rate to England (34%) and Scotland (32%) and higher than Northern Ireland (25%).
While people in households whose head of household was a migrant have a higher rate of poverty compared with non-migrants they comprise only 13% of those in relative income poverty due to the comparatively small number of migrants in Wales.
Sexual orientation
The poverty rate was lower for households where the head of household was heterosexual compared with households where the head of household was lesbian, gay, bisexual or thought of themselves as something other than heterosexual.
Between FYE 2022 and 2024, 22% of people in households where the head of household was straight were in poverty compared with 29% of people in households where the head of household was lesbian, gay, bisexual or thought of themselves as something other than heterosexual.
There is no data on the sexual orientation of the head of household for 28% of households in relative income poverty. This is because the head of household was either not present at the interview (and therefore was not asked the question) or chose not to give an answer. 21% of those in this group were in poverty.
Quality and methodology information
Summary information on what to keep in mind when interpreting these statistics can be found on the Relative income poverty series page.
It’s important to remember that these figures are based on results from the Family Resources Survey (FRS) which is based on a small sample for Wales (around 1,300 households in FYE 2024). We advise caution when looking at year on year changes as these are unlikely to be statistically significant. For more detailed methodological information go to the Relative income poverty: methodology page.
FRS fieldwork during FYE 2024
During the survey years spanning the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, FRS interviewing was conducted by telephone rather than using the established face-to-face method. Fieldwork operations during FYE 2024 returned to the arrangements in place prior to the pandemic.
In Great Britain, survey fieldwork operations used face-to-face interviewing as the preferred method of data collection for the duration of the year. Telephone interviewing was retained as an alternative based on household preference and interviewer availability. Across the UK, 86% of FRS households were interviewed face-to-face during FYE 2024.
Impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic
Fieldwork operations for the FYE 2021 FRS were rapidly changed in response to COVID-19 and the introduction of public health measures. Several factors impacted on response rates and characteristics of respondents to the survey.
Due to the issues described above, in 2022 we did not publish the usual range of additional Welsh Government analysis of the poverty data. Instead, we published an article describing the data quality issues. This article presented Welsh poverty-related figures using the FYE 2021 HBAI data to ensure full transparency but advised against use of the unreliable FYE 2021 dataset for Wales.
We resumed normal publication of data for Wales when FYE 2022 data became available, although any data points that span the FYE 2021 period do not include the FYE 2021 survey data in calculations, as it is judged to be of low quality. This means that affected estimates formerly calculated as 3 to 5 year rolling averages are based on 2 to 4 year rolling averages that omit the FYE 2021 survey data.
Due to the missing data year and the impact of the pandemic on survey response rates, the sample size was smaller than usual in the two periods ending FYE 2021 and FYE 2022. This means that for these periods data are more volatile, and larger changes need to be interpreted carefully.
More information on the FRS fieldwork can be found in the FRS Background Information and Methodology report, and the HBAI Quality and Methodology Information (DWP) document provides further details on the composition of the FRS sample.
DWP continue to advise users that changes in estimates over recent years should be interpreted being mindful of the differences in data collection approaches across the period and the effect this had on sample composition. Details of this can be found in the technical reports which were issued alongside the statistical releases covering the pandemic.
Revisions to FYE 2023 data
During quality assurance of the DWP’s FRS-based publications for FYE 2024, they identified that one Cost of Living payment had been omitted for Pension Credit recipients from the final FYE 2023 FRS dataset which underpinned the FYE 2023 Households Below Average Income dataset across the UK. Revised data for FYE 2023 has been included in this release and associated tables. More details can be found at the FRS collection page (DWP).
As a result, around a third of statistics for Wales published for FYE 2023 have been revised although most of the rates (over 85%) have changed by less than 2 percentage points.
Official statistics status
All official statistics should show the standards of the Code of Practice for Statistics.
These official statistics have been accredited as National Statistics, in accordance with the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007, signifying compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics.
National Statistics are accredited official statistics that meet the highest standards of trustworthiness, quality and public value.
They are accredited as National Statistics following an independent review by the UK Statistics Authority’s regulatory arm, the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR).
It is Welsh Government’s responsibility to maintain compliance with the standards expected of accreditation. If we become concerned about whether these statistics are still meeting the appropriate standards, we will discuss any concerns with OSR promptly. Accreditation can be cancelled or suspended at any point when the highest standards are not maintained, and reinstated when standards are restored.
The data we have for relative income poverty comes from the Households Below Average Income (HBAI) report published by DWP. Since the latest review by the Office for Statistics Regulation, DWP have continued to comply with the Code of Practice for Statistics, and have made a number of improvements. For more information please refer to the latest HBAI report on the gov.uk website. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics.
Accredited official statistics (Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR)) are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.
Statement of compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics
Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.
All of our statistics are produced and published in accordance with a number of statements and protocols to enhance trustworthiness, quality and value. These are set out in the Welsh Government’s Statement of Compliance.
These official statistics demonstrate the standards expected around trustworthiness, quality and public value in the following ways.
Trustworthiness
These statistics were compiled from Households Below Average Income data derived from the Family Resource Survey, both managed by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). Publications have been pre-announced four weeks ahead of publication and are jointly released with DWP to ensure data is made available to all users at the same time.
There may infrequently be small discrepancies between equivalent figures published by Welsh Government and by DWP relating to relative income poverty. This is because of a difference in the way rates are calculated for datasets that are pooled across multiple years.
These statistics are compiled by professional analysts and statisticians who work under the supervision of the Welsh Government Chief Statistician to ensure that the statistics, data and explanatory material are presented impartially and objectively and are in accordance with the requirements of the Data Protection Act 2018.
Quality
HBAI data is managed and processed by DWP statisticians with statisticians from Welsh Government and other devolved administrations providing additional quality assurance checks.
Additional analysis of HBAI data for Wales is performed by Welsh Government statisticians to provide additional breakdowns. These results are published as a three-to-five-year average to improve accuracy. Results based on fewer than a hundred responses are suppressed and fewer than two hundred are highlighted in the report and flagged as low quality in accompanying tables.
Figures between nations can, in general, be directly compared as can changes over time however any comparisons should take into account any caveats stated (e.g. impact of differing data collection during the pandemic).
The published figures provided are compiled by professional analysts using the latest available data and applying methods using their professional judgement and analytical skillset. This included careful and independent validation of all elements of the compiling and drafting process by Welsh Government statisticians.
Statistics published by Welsh Government adhere to the Statistical Quality Management Strategy which supplements the Quality pillar of the Code of Practice for Statistics and the European Statistical System principles of quality for statistical outputs.
Further information on the quality of the underlying dataset can be found in DWP’s latest HBAI quality and methodology information report.
Value
In publishing this data, we aim to provide evidence for ministers, policy makers and external stakeholders on poverty, and to inform the wider public.
As mentioned above, in addition to the first release of this data by DWP, further breakdowns of HBAI data for Wales are published by Welsh Government statisticians reflecting key household and protected characteristics, where sample sizes allow reasonably robust estimates.
In the last two years we have seen an increased FRS sample size in Wales following a Welsh Government funded boost of the issued sample. Because of this, we have extended our range of further breakdowns of HBAI data for Wales to include new poverty data for Wales by:
- Food bank use
- Food security status
- Migrant status
- Sexual orientation
The statistics and figures have been styled and published in an accessible format in line with accessibility legislation. The figures in this report are also available in the accessible open document spreadsheet (ODS) format and on the StatsWales website.
You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.
Well-being of Future Generations Act (WFG)
The Well-being of Future Generations Act 2015 is about improving the social, economic, environmental and cultural wellbeing of Wales. The Act puts in place seven wellbeing goals for Wales. These are for a more equal, prosperous, resilient, healthier and globally responsible Wales, with cohesive communities and a vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language. Under section (10)(1) of the Act, the Welsh Ministers must (a) publish indicators (“national indicators”) that must be applied for the purpose of measuring progress towards the achievement of the wellbeing goals, and (b) lay a copy of the national indicators before Senedd Cymru. Under section 10(8) of the Well-being of Future Generations Act, where the Welsh Ministers revise the national indicators, they must as soon as reasonably practicable (a) publish the indicators as revised and (b) lay a copy of them before the Senedd. These national indicators were laid before the Senedd in 2021. The indicators laid on 14 December 2021 replace the set laid on 16 March 2016 and this release includes one of the national indicators:
Information on the indicators, along with narratives for each of the wellbeing goals and associated technical information is available in the Well-being of Wales report.
As a national indicator under the Act they must be referred to in the analyses of local well-being produced by public services boards when they are analysing the state of economic, social, environmental and cultural well-being in their areas.
The Act states national milestones must be set that “…the Welsh Ministers consider would assist in measuring whether progress is being made towards the achievement of the well-being goals.” In doing so Welsh Ministers must specify how we know that a national milestone has been achieved and the time by which it is to be achieved.
National milestones are not performance targets for any individual organisation, but are collective measures of success for Wales.
In this release indicator 18: Income poverty relative to the UK median (different age groups) corresponds to one milestone:
- Reduce the poverty gap between people in Wales with certain key and protected characteristics (which mean they are most likely to be in poverty) and those without those characteristics by 2035. Commit to setting a stretching target for 2050.
Further information on the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.
The statistics included in this release could also provide supporting narrative to the national indicators and be used by public services boards in relation to their local wellbeing assessments and local wellbeing plans.
