Poverty over time

Last updated: May 2024
Next estimated update: May 2025

What does this indicator show?

This indicator shows the poverty rate in London (after housing costs) over the years. We can also see how this compares to the poverty rate in the rest of England.

What does it tell us?

A quarter (24%) of Londoners live in households that are in poverty (after housing costs - AHC), meaning that 2.2 million Londoners lived in poverty in 2022/23. The poverty rate (AHC) in London is 3 percentage points higher than in the rest of England. This is the lowest the poverty rate (AHC) for London has been since the current measure began in 1996/97.

The proportion of households in poverty after housing costs (AHC) was relatively stable between 1996/97 and 2019/20:

• In London, poverty rates varied between 27% and 30%; and
• in the rest of England, poverty rates varied between 20% and 24%.

Poverty rates (AHC) in London have been higher than in the rest of England for at least the last two decades.

In contrast, poverty rates before housing costs (BHC) over the last 20 years have been more similar between London and the rest of England - never more than a 2 percentage point gap between them from 1996/97 to 2019/20. However, the current rates of BHC poverty are noticeably higher in the rest of England (18%) than in London (14%). This shows the large impact of the cost of housing as a driver of poverty in the capital.

Please note that data for 2020/21 have been excluded from analysis due to concerns with bias in the sample.

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.