Ethnicity

GCSE attainment is higher in London than in England overall. This was true for both boys and girls, students who do not speak English as a first language, students with Special Educational Needs and students from minority ethnic backgrounds.

Attainment decreased from 2020/21 to 2021/22 in London and England across almost all groups. The only exception were Asian students in England overall, whose grades stayed stable. The largest relative fall in attainment was recorded for students with special education needs.

The decrease in grades from 2020/21 to 2021/22 is likely due to a return to normal examination formats after the big disruptions to the education system caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the previous two years, GCSE exams were cancelled; instead, students obtained teacher-produced grades, which very likely contributed to grade in…

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Data source: Mid-year population estimates, ONS (2021). Population of the UK by country of birth and nationality, 2021 Census. Ethnic group populations, 2021 Census..

Around 8.8 million people live in London, which had overall growth since 2011 of 6.7% - slightly higher than the rest of England’s growth of 5.9%. This growth was strongest in East London which saw an increase of 10%. North, South and West London also had sizeable population increases of 5.6%, 6.5% and 7.5% respectively, but Central London only increased by 0.3%.

Central London has the highest level of population density with 10,936 people per km2, which is almost twice the level of London overall. Still, London overall is 15 times more dense than the rest of …

This page looks at jobs held by London residents that are paid below the London Living Wage broken down by:

• employment type (full-time and part-time)
• sex
• sex and employment type
• ethnicity
• disability
• qualification level
• employment status (permanent and non-permanent)

These jobs may be located within London or outside the capital. For a similar analysis focused on jobs located in London only, please see 'Low-paid jobs in London'.

The London Living Wage was introduced in 2005. It is a voluntary wage rate based on the amount of money that people need to live. The rate in London in April 2022 when the earnings survey we use for this analysis was conducted was £11.05. Low-paid jobs held by Londoners rose over the decade to 2015, when almost 1 in 4 jobs (23.4%) held by Londoners were low-paid.

Although the number of jobs held by London residents in low-p…

Poverty rates vary significantly across different demographic groups in London. The highest poverty rates are experienced by workless families (52%) and households comprised of single people with children (47%). Black and minority ethnic groups are far more likely to be in poverty (33%) than white people (18%), and single pensioners also see a higher than average poverty rate at 30%.

Generally speaking all the groups included here have seen declining poverty rates since 2018/19 (the peak of the overall time series) apart from single pensioners, couples without children and workless families.

Every major ethnic group in London has seen a fall in the proportion of people who are not in paid work in the decade up to 2022.

People of Pakistani/Bangladeshi background have the highest rates of not being in paid work, with 37.1% of the working-age population not working. This is, however, down from 48.5% a decade ago.

White people have the lowest rate of being out of work (19.9%) closely followed by people of Indian background at 21.1%. White people have also seen the smallest fall (of 6.4 percentage points) in the last decade.

The definition of worklessness used here includes unemployment as well as many types of economic inactivity including looking after the family/home, students, long term and temporary sickness etc. (see Reasons for not working for a full list of these groups). Therefore because of the large size of this group of …

Just under two-thirds (63%) of working-age women in London who were born in Bangladesh did not work in the year to March 2021/22, the highest rate of any nationality. Pakistani women are not far behind with 61% not working. Of men in London who were born overseas, those from China have the highest rate of worklessness (28%).

Women originally from Portugal had the lowest rates of worklessness (2%), while those from Sri Lanka had the lowest rate for men (9%). For most countries, the worklessness rate is higher for women than men, although this trend does not hold true for countries such as Lithuania, Portugal, France, Romania, Poland and Italy.