Statistics Wales quarterly update: March 2025

This is the latest in a series of quarterly updates, for users of Welsh statistics, on our latest developments, consultations, and plans.

A full list of our most recent publications can be found on our upcoming calendar.

Economy

The role of the Welsh Economic Statistics User Group is to engage with and advise Welsh Government analysts on strategic priorities and the work plan for economic statistics in Wales. The group forms part of the Welsh Government’s user engagement plan for economic statistics and provides an external perspective on statistics published under the Code of Practice for Statistics. It’s also a forum for sharing information. The group met in October – items included a presentation from the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) on their systemic review of economic statistics and updates on the transformation of the labour force survey, the annual population survey and the development of input output tables. Past agenda items and presentations, as well as the terms of reference can be found online. The next meeting will be held on 13 March on the topic of Input-Output tables and Trade data. 

We are eager to extend membership of this group to a wider audience. If you would be interested in joining this group, which meets twice a year (either hybrid or online), please contact KASevents@gov.wales. 

In January, we published our Longitudinal small business survey: 2022 which shows different characteristics of small and medium businesses. We also published our Business demography: 2023 release. In February, we published our short-term output indicators: July to September 2024 which shows the short term movements in the output of industries in the production, construction and market services sectors.

If you would like to get in touch, please contact economic.stats@gov.wales 

Labour market

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) have highlighted that the challenges with maintaining response rates for the Labour Force Survey (LFS) continue to affect data quality. As a result LFS-based labour market statistics will be labelled as official statistics in development (OSR) until further review and we continue to recommend caution when interpreting this data. 

We continue to publish our monthly labour market overview release, which brings together a range of different labour market sources. We recommend using the LFS data alongside the trends in these other measures of the labour market to gain a clearer picture of the impact different events have on the Welsh labour market.

In December, ONS published reweighted LFS estimates for Wales. To explore the full impact of this reweighting we published an article titled ‘Impact of reweighting on Labour Force Survey key indicators in Wales’ alongside our monthly labour market overview release. 

ONS are introducing a new Transformed Labour Force Survey (TLFS) which they plan to become the main data source for information on the labour market in the UK and Wales in the future. ONS tested some further design improvements for the TLFS in Autumn 2024 and have indicated that they will report on progress in Spring 2025.

In January we published the annual update for our Claimant count and jobseeker’s allowance StatsWales tables. 

Our Annual Population Survey (APS) labour market statistics data for October 2023 to September 2024 which includes data for UK countries and regions and also for local areas as well as annual statistics from the APS on the participation of young people in education and the labour market for October 2023 to September 2024 were also released in January

Both of the APS outputs were previously classed as accredited official statistics. The APS has seen a fall in sample sizes over recent years. Given this, and the fact that the survey has not been reweighted to latest population estimates, the OSR agreed that this accreditation should be temporarily suspended and that the estimates should be re-designated as official statistics (OSR).

If you would like to get in touch, please contact labourmarket.stats@gov.wales 

Trade Survey for Wales

The analysis of the 2022 data was published 16 July 2024 and is available here: Trade Survey for Wales: 2022.

There has been a gap in data collection in 2024 due to budgetary pressures, but this has also allowed the analytical team to revisit the business case for the continuation of the Trade Survey in future years. It is anticipated that a contract to deliver the next iteration of the survey will be advertised in spring 2025.

Welsh International Goods Trade

Headline results from HMRC Regional Trade Statistics for Wales’s international goods trade for year ending September 2024 were published 11 December 2024, with the next quarter’s data due to be published on 20 March 2025. Welsh international goods trade: 2023 was published on 17 April 2024, which contained further analysis of the 2023 data. Analysis of the 2024 data will be published in April 2025.

Alongside the above statistics, the interactive trade dashboard will be kept updated to the latest quarter’s data. Work to update the dashboard to incorporate volume data, and introducing accessibility improvements, was completed September 2024. 

For further information contact: stats.trade@gov.wales.

Publication of Supply and Use Tables and Input Output Tables

Supply and use tables and input-output tables for 2019 were published as official statistics in development on 11 March 2025. The tables provide a snapshot of the Welsh economy and detail the buying and selling relationships of goods and services between all parts of it for 2019. This is the result of a 3-year project to better understand the Welsh Economy. Professor Calvin Jones joined the Welsh Government on secondment to develop this work, and we are grateful to him for his valuable input. 

Many statistics on post-16 education have now transferred to Medr. If you have any questions related to further education, school sixth form, apprenticeship or adult learning statistics, please contact statistics@medr.cymru, and your query will be passed on to the team in Medr.

Schools

Attendance data

We publish fortnightly data on pupils’ attendance in maintained schools throughout the spring term using our administrative data. The releases now include additional analysis on persistent absence and the distribution of absence.

The official statistical release Absenteeism from primary schools: September 2023 to August 2024 was published on 17 December 2024 to complement the equivalent release for secondary schools that was published on 1 October 2024. On 4 March 2025 we will publish a new release on attendance and absence from schools which will bring together the separate official statistics on absence in primary and secondary schools and allow users to view all the data in one output. This output will be the primary source in measuring improvements in attendance following the Cabinet Secretary for Education's oral statement on improving attendance on 4 December 2024.

My Local School

In January we updated My Local School with final KS4 outcomes for summer 2024 and absence from primary schools for 2023/24.

Other statistical releases

On 5 December we published the final data on Examination results September 2023 to August 2024.

Counselling for children and young people: Sep 2023 to Aug 2024 will be published in March 2025.

If you have any questions or would like to provide feedback, you can contact us on school.stats@gov.wales.

Higher education and student finance

We have published our annual release on Education Maintenance Allowances (EMA) awarded in Wales.

In order to provide feedback, or for any further information, please contact highereducationandstudentfinance.stats@gov.wales.

Estimates of additional housing need

We previously let you know we were considering options for the timing of updating the estimates of additional housing need and asked for your views. 

The latest estimates are becoming out of date, but a full update of all input data at this point is not possible because a key dataset (subnational household projections) will not be available until the second half of 2025. We considered whether an interim update of estimates of housing need was required, based on 2018-based household projections.

We have now decided not to produce interim estimates of additional housing need but to publish a full update towards the end of 2025, based on the subnational projections due to be published later this year. The reasons for this are: 

• users didn’t identify requirements for new estimates in the first half of 2025
• as the latest 2018-based household projections no longer reflect the latest demographic data and trends, we feel that using them would lead to considerable statistical uncertainty in any interim estimates
• producing two sets of estimates, potentially with different values, in a relatively short period of time, risks creating confusion.

In the coming months we will review the existing methodology in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics. This will include updating our understanding of the user need, reviewing the data sources and assumptions used and the way in which the data are presented. Please get in touch if you would like to be involved in this work.

Housing Information Group (HIG) Annual Seminar

On 26 June we will be holding an in-person seminar in Cardiff the theme being homelessness data. During the event we will share an update on developing case-level homelessness data for Wales, recent research work, and invite guest speakers from other parts of the UK and outside of government to share their work. If you would like more information about this or have presentation ideas for the seminar you’d like us to consider, please get in touch. 

Statistical outputs

Since the last update, the following statistical outputs have been published:

Homelessness accommodation provision and rough sleeping: December 2024 (published 27 Feb)

Housing hazards: April 2023 to March 2024 (published 13 February)

Houses in multiple occupation (HMO) licensing: as at 31 March 2024 (published 13 February)

New house building: July to December 2024 (published 23 January)

Housing demolitions: April 2023 to March 2024 (published 23 January)

Help to Buy – Wale (Shared Equity Loan Scheme): July to September 2024 (published 7 Jan)

Affordable housing provision: April 2023 to March 2024 (published 11 December)

Please contact us via the stats.housing@gov.wales mailbox with any queries or requests.

Hospital statistics

This quarter we updated our usual monthly update to our NHS activity and performance summary and our recently developed quarterly output on a deep dive of NHS performance for each Welsh Local Health Board.

Primary and social care

This quarter saw the publication of updated quarterly data on General practice activity and NHS dental services. There was also an update to annual statistics on Primary care prescriptions, with data on items prescribed, dispensed, as well as breakdowns by local heath board, deprivation cluster and UK comparisons.

NHS workforce and expenditure

This quarter saw an update to our annual output on General practice workforce including analysis of headcount and full-time equivalent of general practitioners (GPs), nurses and other staff working in general practices as well as characteristics of these staff groups. There were also updates to data on a suite of others quarterly NHS workforce statistics including; Staff directly employed by the NHS, Sickness absence in the NHS and NHS vacancy statistics.

Mental health

The quarter saw the publication of a new interactive dashboard on mental health. Mental health statistics can be very dispersed across datasets and outputs, and this can make them difficult to find or see an overall picture of the area. This dashboard is intended to bring together all data related to mental health or wellbeing on StatsWales together in one place and provide a high-level trend for each of these. In time we intend to increase the scope to all mental health statistics for Wales, including those also produced by the ONS on a frequent schedule. Before we commit to this, we are keen to get feedback from you as to how this new product meets your needs and what frequency and content would be helpful. 

This quarter also saw an update to our annual output on Patients in mental health hospitals and units, this year publishing several years’ worth of data following disruption to this output during the Covid-19 pandemic. We also published our regular quarterly update of data for the Mental Health (Wales) Measure 2010.

Other health and social services statistics

This quarter also saw an update to our annual output on Children looked after by local authorities including data on children on care orders and in placements, adoptions from care and numbers of children and young persons leaving care.

This quarter has also seen regular updates to a range of other statistics including; Breastfeeding statistics, the Healthy Child Wales Programme, Eye care measures and Smoking cessation services.

A number of other outputs are available from partner organisations including updates to: Data from the Real Time Suspected Suicide surveillance from Public Health Wales, Substance misuse from DHCW and regulated Care services and places regulated by the Care Inspectorate Wales from Care Inspectorate Wales. 

All our statistical releases are available on the Statistics and research website and more detailed underlying data is available on the health and social care area of StatsWales. 

For further information or to get in touch please email stats.healthinfo@gov.wales.

National Survey 2024 to 2025 fieldwork is currently under way, with the first results to be published in July 2025.

Cost pressures, and the falling response rates that are being experienced by surveys generally, mean that the estimated achieved sample size for 2024 to 2025 is substantially lower than the c. 12,000 a year achieved in previous years. This will limit the scope for the analysis, which we know is vital to survey users, of small demographic and geographic groups. It also limits our ability to improve data availability by protected characteristics.

It has therefore been decided that fieldwork for 2025 to 2026 will not proceed. Work has begun on a redesign of the National Survey for future years. In the autumn, Cabinet will discuss options for the survey redesign and at that stage we will send you a further update on the way forward.

Please contact us at surveys@gov.wales if you have any questions.

Poverty and cost of living

On Thursday 23 January 2025 DWP published updated Official Statistics in Development in the Below Average Resources for financial year 2022 to 2023 (DWP) report. DWP sought user feedback on the new measure through an analytical consultation running from 18 January to 11 April 2024. Future development work is set out in the consultation response (DWP) also released 23 January 2025.

On 27 February 2025 we will publish the fifth release in a quarterly series of Discretionary Assistance Fund statistics, with more detailed breakdowns by age and local authority. 

We expect to publish updates to annual data summaries for Wales on relative income poverty, material deprivation and persistent poverty in late March 2025 (awaiting confirmation of date from DWP), when latest data will relate to financial year ending 2024. 

Expected on the same day as the annual poverty statistics, the DWP plan to publish an update to their children in low income families local area statistics (DWP). They have announced new plans to calibrate figures to “Households Below Average Income” single-year UK estimates (not regional estimates), so there will be revisions to the back-series at UK, regional and local area level.

Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation (WIMD)

Our survey on proposed indicators for WIMD 2025 closed on 16 December 2024, and we plan to publish our response to the feedback received in April 2025. 

If you want to receive notification of publication updates for WIMD, please email stats.inclusion@gov.wales to subscribe.

Community safety

There were no new publications related to fire this quarter. We are looking for feedback from users of our fire statistics. If you have an interest in any of our statistical outputs, please contact us at stats.inclusion@gov.wales.

Crime and justice

On 28 February 2025 we will publish a new dashboard presenting data for the prison and probation services in Wales. Please send any feedback or requests to stats.inclusion@gov.wales.

On 5 January 2025 we published a Review of Welsh Government equality data sources and outputs.

We are reviewing the Gypsy and Traveller caravan count statistics. Please email equalityevidenceunit@gov.wales if you have any feedback.

We welcome any feedback around how you use the Equality and Diversity section of StatsWales, or what you want from Census 2021 data, at stats.inclusion@gov.wales.

In October, we published provisional estimates for police recorded road collisions: July to September 2024 and updated our interactive dashboard, including breakdowns such as severity of injury, type of road user and collision location on a map. 

For feedback and comments please contact stats.transport@gov.wales 

Wales National Travel Survey

The new Wales National Travel Survey launched in March 2025. It will collect data on travel attitudes, behaviour and use from people living in Wales. 

The survey includes a travel diary which captures information for journeys undertaken by the respondent in the previous two days using integrated Ordnance Survey mapping.

The survey is being delivered by the National Centre for Social Research on behalf of Transport for Wales and Welsh Government.

Transport for Wales anticipate being able to publish: 

• Preliminary, 6-month data at the national level in March 2026.
• Finalised, 12-month data at the national and regional level from in October 2026.

We will prioritise our analysis to produce statistics on topics and research areas that users will find most valuable. To have your say, please complete this short questionnaire. You can select up to three topics that you are most interested in.

Any further comments, questions or feedback can be sent to travelsurvey@tfw.wales

Annual Population Survey

Welsh language data from the Annual Population Survey for the year ending September 2024 was published on 23 January. We also updated our StatsWales tables (Annual Population Survey: Welsh language) with the latest data.

These estimates were previously classed as accredited official statistics. The APS has seen a fall in sample sizes over recent years. Given this, and the fact that the survey has not been reweighted to the latest population estimates, the OSR has agreed that this accreditation should be temporarily suspended and that the estimates should be re-designated as official statistics (OSR).

Welsh language use survey

The remaining data tables for the Welsh Language Use Survey 2019-20 have now been published. These spreadsheets include additional data breakdowns to accompany the existing topic summaries. 

The tables are available to download under the relevant thematic heading on the Welsh Language Use Survey webpage.

New Welsh language in education data dashboard

A new interactive dashboard presenting data on Welsh language in education by local authority is now available. 

This tool provides data on Welsh-medium early years settings, the number and percentage of pupils studying in Welsh, registrations for Welsh language GCSEs, AS, and A levels, and the Welsh language ability of the school workforce. 

Previously available in a different format, the data is now presented in a more accessible and user-friendly way, ensuring easier exploration of key insights.

Explore the dashboard here: Welsh Language in Education.

Data on the Welsh language outside of Wales

Comprehensive data on Welsh speakers in England and the rest of the UK is currently limited, and we are exploring ways to address this. As populations become more mobile, understanding these trends becomes increasingly important.

As part of our joint programme of work with the ONS, we will be documenting user requirements for data about the Welsh language outside Wales. We would like to hear your views on what data might be valuable to you and how you would use it.

Your feedback will help shape our approach and ensure that any data collected is relevant and useful. You can share your thoughts by completing our short survey on Data on the Welsh language outside of Wales by 5 May 2025.

If you have any feedback or would like further information about any aspect of our work, please email: welshlanguagedata@gov.wales.

Decarbonisation and climate change

Latest quarterly municipal waste figures by local authority for April to June 2024 were published on 31 January. 

Please email stats.environment@gov.wales for further information.

Agriculture

Estimates for Welsh agricultural land and livestock, Survey of agriculture and horticulture: June 2024 was published on 21 November 2024.

Annual farm incomes release, Farm incomes April 2023 to March 2024, from Farm Business 

Survey was published on 16 January 2025.

If you have any feedback or would like further information about any aspect of our work, please email: stats.agric@gov.wales

Council tax dwellings

In January, we published details of council tax dwellings for the 2025-26 financial year and associated data on StatsWales.

For further information or to get in touch please email stats.popcensus@gov.wales.

General statistics enquiries

Email: stats.info.desk@gov.wales 

Tel: 0300 025 5050

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