Poverty in UK and Wales
Many people living in Wales are caught in poverty. They need to spend most of their time to worry about paying rent and bills as well as buying meals and essentials. The report ‘UK Poverty: Causes, Costs and Solutions’ published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation defined poverty as a situation where someone’s income, financial assets are well below those required to meet their minimum needs including food, clothing, shelter, and a basic level of participation in society.
- Absolute poverty – A condition where household income is below a necessary level to maintain basic living standards (food, shelter, housing). This condition makes it possible to compare between different countries and also over time.
- Relative Poverty – A condition where household income is a certain percentage below median incomes. For example, the threshold for relative poverty could be set at 50% of median incomes (or 60%).
In this section, you will find some facts and figures and our analysis on poverty in the UK and Wales.
How to explore the data
Use the filters below to explore the data on our page.
If you want to know more about the data and how to read it, click here.
You can find additional sources and analysis on our GitHub repository.
The causes of poverty are numerous, but unemployment, low wages, lack of skills, housing costs, and family breakdowns are considered to be leading causes.
In Wales, in particular, many people are struggling to escape from poverty because of the long-term local economic recession and the impact of austerity and welfare reform.
Both absolute and relative poverty tend to be higher in Wales compared with the UK average. The data adjusted for housing costs shows a similar trend. Wales’ relative poverty rate after housing costs in 2015-2018 was 24% which is 2% higher than that of the UK.
Child poverty
Childhood poverty is a fundamental issue in the community. The absolute child poverty rate in Wales was 16% recently, 1 point lower than that of UK, but the relative child poverty rate was 20%, equal to the UK average.
Child poverty is strongly affected by their relationship with parents, so if parents’ poverty is not resolved, this problem will be transferred to the children. For last 20 years, the child poverty rate has not decreased significantly, both in Wales and across the UK.
One in five children is still at risk of poverty in Wales
(% of total households)
The graph below shows that 75% of children in workless households are in relative poverty. This number is 34% higher than that of children living in a household where at least one adult is in work.
Child poverty in Wales, by group
Use the dropdown menu to explore each group in detail
The problem is that the poverty rate of children living in workless households has not improved for a decade. It was as high as 80% in 2007-2010. It then dropped by almost 20% in 2009-2012, but has been increasing again ever since.
In-work poverty affecting Welsh children
Two thirds of children in relative poverty live in a household where at least one adult is in work
Though children in workless households are an especially vulnerable group, the majority of children in relative poverty actually live in households where at least one adult is working.
This is a significant change compared to twenty years ago, when a majority of children experiencing poverty lived in workless households.
It goes to show that more jobs are not necessarily the solution to the problem. With unemployment rates at record lows, families and children are still exposed to the risk of poverty.
A vulnerable group
Family breakdowns caused by parents’ poverty could have a devastating effect on the children’s lives. Experts argue that numbers of young homeless are increasing recently because of the breakdown in their relationship with parents.
Rebecca Jackson, Policy research officer of Shelter Cymru, said, “We’re seeing increasing numbers of young people. There is a range of factors: breakdown in relationship with parents is one. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to house these young people once they become homeless because they don’t want to be in shared accommodation.”
She added that, “When they become homeless again after being evicted from supported accommodation, they are housed in places like Tresillian [the larger adult hostels], which are not really appropriate for them. There they could develop drug addiction and other issues and end up on the streets again.”
How to read the data on this page
Official statistics on poverty were last published by the ONS in June 2017 (which did not include child poverty, according to this this Freedom of Information Request ). The Households Below Average Income (HBAI) dataset, published by the Department of work and Pensions and derived from the Family Resources Survey (FRS), is currently the most reliable proxy to measure poverty in the country.
First of all, the HBAI only represents part of the population. Notably, it excludes people who are sleeping rough or do not have stable accommodation and people living in institutions, such as prisons and nursing homes.
Secondly, its reliability depends on the sample. While figures are considered statistically reliable at the country level, that may not always be the case with regional and sub-regional data.
In a Statement on his visit to the UK, Lord Philip Alston (Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights) urged the British government to adopt an official measure of poverty. Several charities and organisations are also pushing in this direction and publishing their own measures; the Social Metrics Commission's New Poverty Measure cited in the UN report as one of the most comprehensive and reliable.
Income Before Housing Costs (BHC) includes net earnings from employment, pension and investment income, educational grants and scholarships, some forms of income in kind (e.g. school meals) and state support, including state pensions.
Income After Housing Costs (AHC) also includes rent (gross of housing benefits) and mortgage interest payments, but also water rates, community water charges and council water charges, as well as structural insurance premiums.
Finally, figures provided by the Welsh Government's Statistical Services (StatsWales) are often three-year moving averages. Because the sample is smaller, annual figures would not be as statistically reliable. The upshot is that the figures are not as precise as the national ones. Moving averages are often used to analyse long-term trends. Unlike a typical average, the average for each period is calculated multiple times across overlapping sets of data.