Wales Working-age adults in low income |
Key points
- At around 22%, the proportion of working-age adults who are in low-income households remained largely unchanged throughout the last decade up to 2006/07. In 2007/08, however, there was a substantial increase to 25%. It remains to be seen whether this is the start of an adverse trend or a quirk arising from relatively small sample sizes.
- The proportion of working-age adults in low-income households in Wales is somewhat higher than the UK average (22% compared to 20%).
- See the indicator on low income by work status.
Graph 1: Over time
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Graph 2: Compared to the United Kingdom
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Definitions and data sources
The first graph shows the risk of a working-age adult being in a low-income household.
The second graph shows how the risk of working-age adults in low-income households in Wales compares with the rest of the United Kingdom.
The data source for both graphs is Households Below Average Income, based on the Family Resources Survey (FRS). Income is disposable household income after deducting housing costs and the low-income threshold is the same as that used elsewhere, namely 60% of British contemporary median household income. All the 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: high. The FRS is a well-established annual government survey, designed to be representative of the population as a whole.