Northern Ireland
Low income by age group
Key points
- As in Great Britain, children in Northern Ireland are more likely to live in low income households than adults.
- Of the 350,000 people in low income households, half are working-age adults, divided almost equally between those with, and those without, dependent children. A further third are children while the remaining sixth are pensioners.
Graph 1: Risks
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Graph 2: Shares
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Definitions and data sources
The first graph shows the risk of a person being in a low income household, with the data shown separately for children, pensioners and working-age adults.
The second graph shows a breakdown of those on low income, with the data broken down by children, pensioners and working-age adults with and without dependent children.
The data source for both graphs is Households Below Average Income, based on the Family Resources Survey (FRS). A child is defined as an individual who is either under 16 or is an unmarried 16- to 18-year-old on a course up to and including A level standard (or Highers in Scotland). Income is disposable household income after deducting housing costs and the low income threshold is the same as that used elsewhere, namely 60% of contemporary median household income. All data is equivalised (adjusted) to account for differences in household size and composition. The self-employed are included in the statistics. Note that in 2007 DWP made some technical changes to how it adjusted household income for household composition (including retrospective changes) and, as a result, the data is slightly different than previously published figures. The averaging over three-year periods has been done to improve statistical reliability.
Overall adequacy of the indicator: medium. The FRS is a well-established annual government survey designed to be representative of the population as a whole and the Northern Ireland sample has been boosted to improve sample sizes. However, the Northern Irish sample is a recent addition to the survey and is yet to be fully quality assured by the Department of Work and Pensions.