Proportion of children in poverty before and after housing costs by London borough (2023/24)
Last update: July 2025
Next update: June 2026
What’s this indicator?
This indicator shows the proportion of children in each London borough that are growing up in poverty. We can see the poverty rate for each borough both before and after housing costs are taken into account.
View a map of the data at the bottom of the page.
High levels of child poverty across London
In every London borough - except Richmond - more than one in five children are growing up in poverty. But across the capital there are huge disparities in child poverty rates.
For example, in Tower Hamlets almost half of children (47%) are in poverty, compared to 22% in Bromley. Similarly, a child born in Hounslow is more than twice as likely to be in poverty than one born in the neighbouring borough Richmond - 35% compared to 15%.
The impact of housing costs
This also shows us the large impact that the cost of housing has on poverty in the capital. In the borough with the highest poverty levels (Tower Hamlets), 29% of children are classified as being in poverty before housing costs are considered. Taking account of housing costs increases this figure to 47%.
The child poverty rate at least doubles when housing costs are accounted for in 21 of the 33 boroughs, and even in the borough with the lowest gap between before and after housing costs (Barking and Dagenham) housing costs still increase the child poverty rate by 62%.
Map of child poverty by London borough
Child poverty rate (AHC) (2023/24)
Want to know more?
If you want to explore this data in more depth, check the 'data source and notes' button on the above charts. This will tell you where the data comes from, where you may be able to dig deeper.