Use the interactive tool below to navigate indicators that show how poverty and inequality affects young adults in London.
19-year-olds without Level 2 or Level 3 qualifications (2004/05-2022/23)
This indicator was last updated in June 2024. It is now archived and will no longer be updated. Explore London’s Poverty Profile to view our up to date indicators. If you have any questions, get in touch.
What does this indicator show?
This indicator looks at the proportion of 19 year olds without qualifications in Inner and Outer London, as well as the rest of England. We can see this for both Level 2 (equivalent to GCSEs) and Level 3 (equivalent of A Levels) qualifications.
What does it tell us?
Qualification levels of 19-year-olds have significantly improved over time. This is particularly evident in Inner London where the proportion of 19-year-olds without Level 3 qualifications (A Levels and equivalents) has fallen from 61.1% in 2004/05 to 30.7% in 2022/23. However, the COVID-19 pandemic could have had an impact on the last two years, w…
Level 3 attainment gap between Free School Meals and non-Free School Meals students at 19 years-of-age (2004/05-2022/23)
Last updated: June 2024
Next estimated update: June 2025
What does this indicator show?
This indicator shows the attainment gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students in Inner and Outer London, as well as the rest of England.
The attainment gap shows how many more students who weren’t disadvantaged gained Level 3 qualifications (equivalent to A Levels) than those who were disadvantaged. For this indicator, someone is counted as disadvantaged if they were eligible for Free School Meals at the end of Key Stage 4.
At the bottom of the page we can see how the attainment gap differs across London boroughs.
What does it tell us?
The attainment gap is lower in Inner London than in Outer London and lower in Outer London than it is in the rest of England.
In Inner London in 2022/23, disadvantaged students were less likely to have gained Level 3 …
Destinations of KS5 school leavers in London, after two terms (2021/22)
This indicator was last updated in March 2024. It is now archived and will no longer be updated. Explore London’s Poverty Profile to view our up to date indicators. If you have any questions, get in touch.
30% of young people completing KS5 (post-GCSE qualifications) in London in 2021/22 were classed as disadvantaged, compared to 19% in the rest of England.
In London, the most common destination was higher education, with similar numbers of disadvantaged (54%) and non-disadvantaged (57%) students going to university. This is very different from the rest of England, where a lower proportion of people attend higher education overall, and the gap between disadvantaged (30%) and non-disadvantaged (44%) students is much greater.
In London, disadvantaged young people are less likely to enter work (15%, compared to 25% in the rest of England) or b…
Fuel poverty rates in London and the rest of England (2021)
Last updated: October 2024
Next estimated update: October 2025
What does this indicator show?
This indicator shows the proportions of households in fuel poverty by age. Households are split by the age of the oldest person in the household.
A household in England is defined as being in fuel poverty if it is in a property rated D or worse for energy efficiency, and its disposable income (that is, its remaining income after housing and energy costs are paid) is below the poverty line (60% of the national median income).
What does it tell us?
Just over one in ten London households (10.8%) are considered to be living in fuel poverty. This is slightly lower than 13.5% in the rest of England. This is likely to be due to a combination of factors. For example, houses in London tend to have smaller floor areas. This is likely to contribute to lower fue…
Qualification levels of disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged KS5 leavers in London (2021/22)
This indicator was last updated in March 2024. It is now archived and will no longer be updated. Explore London’s Poverty Profile to view our up to date indicators. If you have any questions, get in touch.
In 2021/22, the majority of London’s KS5 school leavers of both disadvantaged (80%) and non-disadvantaged (86%) backgrounds had Level 3 qualifications (e.g. A-levels).
This is in contrast to the rest of England. A slightly lower proportion (84%) of non-disadvantaged KS5 school leavers had Level 3 qualifications, while only 67% of disadvantaged KS5 school leavers had a Level 3 qualification.
According to the Department for Education, students are considered disadvantaged in Year 11 and attract pupil premium funding if they are eligible for free school meals at any point in the last six years, have been looked after by the local authority, …
Net migration between Inner and Outer London by age group (2020)
This indicator was last updated in 2021. It is now archived and will no longer be updated. Explore London’s Poverty Profile to view our up to date indicators. If you have any questions, get in touch.
This indicator shows the difference between the number of people arriving and leaving either Inner and Outer London, by different age groups. A negative number shows that there are more people leaving than arriving.
The latest mid-year figures (the year up to June 2020) show that Inner London experienced the largest net inflows of those aged between 20 and 24 – with a net inflow of 15,950 people. However, when compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019, this is almost 10,000 fewer people. Additionally, the next highest inflow levels were for those aged between 25 and 29 in Inner London – with a net of 5,578 people in 2020. However, this is les…
People sleeping rough in London (2008/09 - 2023/24)
What does this indicator show?
This indicator shows the total number of people seen sleeping rough in London, by year. This information comes from CHAIN, a database about people sleeping rough in London maintained by charity outreach workers. It contains a record for everyone known to staff and volunteers throughout the specified year.
Further down the page you’ll find the number of people sleeping rough in London by ethnicity and gender.
What does it tell us?
The number of people sleeping rough in London more than tripled between 2008/09 and 2020/21 from around 3,472 to 11,018. 2021/22 saw the number fall back somewhat to 8,329 but it has increased again reaching 11,993 in 2023/24.
The number of people seen sleeping rough in London increased in both 2019/20 and 2020/21, despite initiatives like “Everybody In” which aimed to ensure that peopl…
Proportion of adults in poverty by highest obtained qualification level (2022-23)
This indicator was last updated in May 2024. It is now archived and will no longer be updated. Explore London’s Poverty Profile to view our up to date indicators. You can explore all of our data on poverty rates by demographics here. If you have any questions, get in touch.
What does this indicator show?
This indicator looks at London’s poverty rate among adults, split by their qualification levels.
What does it tell us?
People with higher qualification levels are less likely to live in poverty. In London, 34% of people with less than 5 GCSEs and equivalent as their highest qualifications were in poverty in 2022/23. This compares to 20% of people with 5 GCSEs or higher as their highest qualifications.
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…
Proportion of Londoners in poverty after housing costs by age band (2022/23)
Last updated: May 2024
Next estimated update: May 2025
What does this indicator show?
This indicator shows the poverty rate in London by age group. A person is classed as being in poverty if they earn below 60% of the median income. You can find out more about how poverty is measured here.
What does it tell us?
Poverty rates after housing costs were highest among children and young people in 2022/23, in both London and the rest of England.
- In London 140,000 children aged four and under live in households in poverty
- A third (33%) of children aged 5-9 are in households in poverty
- Over a third of 10-19 year olds live in households that are in poverty (35% of those aged 10-14 and 37% of those aged 15-19).
In contrast, 15% of Londoners aged 30-34 live in households that are in poverty - the lowest rate for any age group.
Poverty rates in London are h…
Highest qualification levels obtained for working-age population by London borough (2021)
There is a large variation between London boroughs in terms of the proportion of the working-age population that have degree-level or above qualifications. Lambeth has the highest proportion (71%) of its working-age population with degree-level or above qualifications, whilst Barking and Dagenham has the lowest (26%). In addition, this borough also has the highest proportion of people without any formal qualifications - just over 1 in 10 of the working population in Barking and Dagenham (12%).
Not all boroughs are represented within this chart due to small sample size suppressions in the source data. Further details can be found in the downloadable CSV file.
Average income deprivation percentile of the neighbourhoods schools are located in by Ofsted rating (2023)
Ofsted ratings are given to schools by inspectors and range from “Inadequate” to “Outstanding”. Ratings are based on a range of observations about a school's performance.
This indicator shows that, on average, the better a school’s Ofsted rating is, the less deprived a neighbourhood it tends to be located in.
While this is true across the country, the relationship is less pronounced in London than in the rest of England. This means that children in London who live in deprived neighbourhoods are more likely to have a school with a good Ofsted rating in their neighbourhood than those living in deprived neighbourhoods in the rest of the country.
This is particularly true for London secondary schools, where there is not a clear relationship between schools’ Ofsted rating and the deprivation of the neighbourhood in which they are located, i…
Population by age-groups (2021)
More than one in five people living in Inner London (23.1%) are aged between 25 and 34. This compares to just 12.7% of those in the rest of England. More broadly, in Inner London, almost half the population is made up out of those who are in their early twenties to early forties (47.2%), compared to the rest of England where three in 10 (31.1%) are in this age group, and Inner London is home to a higher proportion of young people than Outer London.
This is caused by people moving to Inner London for work early in their careers and then leaving as they start families. The largest five-year age band is 25 to 29 year olds in Inner London, 35 to 39 year olds in Outer London and 50 to 54 year olds in the rest of England. A relatively small proportion of London’s population is over 65; 9.4% in Inner London and 13.6% in Outer London compared to …
Unemployment rates by age group (2004 Q4 - 2023 Q4)
This indicator was last updated in June 2024. It is now archived and will no longer be updated. Explore London’s Poverty Profile to view our up to date indicators. If you have any questions, get in touch.
View all of our work related indicators here.
What does this indicator show?
This indicator shows the unemployment rate* in London and the rest of England split by age groups. We can use it to see how the unemployment rate among young people (16-24) compares to those aged 25-64 and those aged 65+.
What does it tell us?
Unemployment is much higher among young Londoners than other age groups. It’s also significantly higher than among young people in the rest of England.
The unemployment rate is 14.6% for young Londoners. Although this is lower than its peak during the COVID years (18.5%), it’s significantly higher than among those aged 25-64 (…