childhood and the social floor · the national record
Child poverty across the UK
How many children grow up in a low income family, in every part of the UK, from the official DWP and HMRC local area statistics. After housing costs, 26.0 per cent of children, about 3,269,339, were in relative low income in the year to March 2025. This page shows where the rate is highest and lowest, how the four nations compare, how much housing costs add, and where West Lothian sits.
How to read this
These are the Children in Low Income Families local area statistics, produced by the Department for Work and Pensions with HMRC from tax credit, Universal Credit and benefit records. A child is in relative low income if their family has less than 60 per cent of the median household income for that year. Before housing costs counts income as received; after housing costs deducts rent and mortgage interest, which matters most where housing is dear. Figures are a count of children aged under 16 in each area as a share of all children there.
Read next: Homelessness and temporary accommodation in England, Universal Credit across Britain and How much the state pension costs and pays, and what goes unclaimed
Computed from the DWP and HMRC Children in Low Income Families local area statistics, financial years ending 2022 to 2025, published 26 March 2026. After housing costs figures are available for the years to March 2024 and 2025; before housing costs runs from 2022.
The national picture
More than one in four children, after housing costs
After housing costs are paid, about 26.0 per cent of children in the UK were in a relative low income family in the year to March 2025, roughly 3,269,339 children. Before housing costs the figure is lower, about 19.3 per cent, because rent and mortgage interest push many families below the line once they are paid. The gap between the two, about 6.7 percentage points, is itself a measure of how much housing costs weigh on family budgets.
Place matters most
From one in thirteen to one in two
Where a child lives shapes the odds more than almost anything. After housing costs, the rate runs from 7.8 per cent in East Dunbartonshire to 50.3 per cent in Tower Hamlets, a gap of more than 42 percentage points. The highest rates cluster in inner London, the West Midlands and parts of the North; the lowest are mostly in Scotland and the prosperous commuter belts.
Highest rates
Lowest rates
Children in relative low income after housing costs, by local authority, year to March 2025. Source: DWP and HMRC.
Across the nations and regions
A clear north and south, and a low Scotland
By region and nation, after housing costs, the rate is highest in West Midlands at 32.2 per cent and lowest in Scotland at 14.8 per cent. Scotland stands out as the lowest of the four nations at 14.8 per cent, well below the UK average of 26.0 per cent.
UK average: 26%. Year to March 2025. Source: DWP and HMRC.
What rent does
How housing costs deepen the count
Counting income before housing costs, about 19.3 per cent of UK children are in relative low income. After rent and mortgage interest are paid, that rises to 26.0 per cent, roughly 842,484 more children below the line. The effect is largest where housing is most expensive. In Hackney the rate jumps from 21.2 per cent before housing costs to 50.1 per cent after.
Largest housing cost effect
21.2% before housing costs, 50.1% after+28.9 pp
15.2% before housing costs, 40.1% after+24.9 pp
18.5% before housing costs, 42.3% after+23.8 pp
26.7% before housing costs, 50.3% after+23.6 pp
23% before housing costs, 44.9% after+21.9 pp
16.5% before housing costs, 38.2% after+21.7 pp
UK: 19.3% before housing costs to 26% after. Year to March 2025. Source: DWP and HMRC.
Recent years
Before housing costs, broadly flat
The before housing costs series runs from the year to March 2022. The UK rate has stayed close to 19.3 per cent across the period. After housing costs figures begin only in the year to March 2024, so the longer view here is the before housing costs measure.
UK child poverty rate before housing costs, years to March 2022 to 2025. Source: DWP and HMRC.
Close to home
West Lothian
West Lothian has relatively low child poverty by national standards. After housing costs about 13.8 per cent of its children, 4,736, were in a relative low income family in the year to March 2025. That is below the Scottish average of 14.8 per cent and well below the UK figure of 26.0 per cent, in keeping with the area's position in the Edinburgh commuter belt. Before housing costs the rate is about 12.0 per cent.
Questions this raises
For child poverty policy
- After housing costs, more than one in four UK children is in a low income family. What would actually move a figure that has barely shifted in recent years?
- The data cannot say what would move it; it records what the rate is, not what drives it. After housing costs 26.0 per cent of UK children, about 3,269,339, were in relative low income in the year to March 2025. The longer series is only available before housing costs, and that has stayed close to 19.3 per cent since the year to March 2022, running between 18.4 per cent and 19.6 per cent. The statistics measure the spread of incomes against a line set at 60 per cent of the median, not material hardship directly, so the rate can stay flat while family circumstances change.
- The rate runs from under 8 per cent in some areas to over 50 per cent in others. How much of a child’s prospects is set simply by where they are born?
- The statistics count where children in low income families live, not how their lives turn out, so they cannot put a number on prospects. What they do show is a very wide spread: after housing costs, 7.8 per cent of children in East Dunbartonshire against 50.3 per cent in Tower Hamlets in the year to March 2025, a gap of more than 42 percentage points. The highest rates cluster in inner London, the West Midlands and parts of the North; the lowest are mostly in Scotland and the prosperous commuter belts. Small areas also carry more uncertainty, because the figures are modelled from tax and benefit records and then calibrated to survey totals.
- Housing costs alone push more than 800,000 further children below the line. Is child poverty as much a housing problem as an income one?
- The two measures on this page put the housing effect in numbers without settling the question. Before housing costs about 19.3 per cent of UK children were in relative low income in the year to March 2025; after rent and mortgage interest are deducted the rate is 26.0 per cent, roughly 842,484 more children below the line. The effect is largest where housing is most expensive: in Hackney the rate jumps from 21.2 per cent before housing costs to 50.1 per cent after, a gap of 28.9 percentage points, and Enfield, Brent, Tower Hamlets, Newham and Haringey follow. Relative low income is defined against 60 per cent of median income, so the measure captures rent and mortgage interest but not other costs of living.
- Scotland records the lowest rate of the four nations. What is working there that the rest of the UK could learn from?
- These statistics show the outcome, not the cause, so they cannot identify what is working. After housing costs 14.8 per cent of children in Scotland were in relative low income in the year to March 2025, down from 15.2 per cent the year before, against 26.1 per cent in Wales, 20.5 per cent in Northern Ireland and a UK average of 26.0 per cent. Every English region sits above Scotland, from 20.8 per cent in the South East to 32.2 per cent in the West Midlands. Within Scotland, West Lothian records 13.8 per cent and East Dunbartonshire 7.8 per cent, the lowest rate of any local authority on this page.
Sources & method
Data provenance
- Children in Low Income Families: local area statistics, FYE 2022 to 2025 (DWP and HMRC) ↗· Open Government Licence v3.0
Caveats & data notes
- Relative low income means a family with less than 60 per cent of median household income in that year. It measures the spread of incomes, not material hardship directly.
- Before housing costs counts income as received; after housing costs deducts rent and mortgage interest. The two give different pictures, especially in high rent areas.
- Figures count children aged under 16 and are modelled from tax and benefit records, then calibrated to survey totals. Small areas carry more uncertainty.
- After housing costs figures are only available from the year to March 2024, so the longer trend shown here uses the before housing costs measure.
- West Lothian is identified by its official area code (S12000040).
- Source: DWP and HMRC Children in Low Income Families local area statistics, financial years ending 2022 to 2025.
Every figure on this page traces to its official source. Share it as it stands.
Keep going
Related deep dives
134,210 households, including 176,130 children, were living in temporary accommodation on 31 December 2025, down slightly from the record set the previous quarter, the first quarterly fall since 2022, but still up 5.0 per cent on a year earlier.
8.3 million people on Universal Credit in Great Britain, how the caseload has more than tripled since 2019, who is in paid work, and where local claimant rates are highest and lowest.
The state pension costs about 146.1 billion pounds in 2025-26 for 13.2 million recipients, rising to 180.7 billion by 2030-31, while DWP estimates about 2.1 billion pounds of means tested Pension Credit went unclaimed in the year to March 2024.
The monthly reading
Get the next one by email
One email a month: the national resilience score, what moved, and the newest analyses like this one, plus The Quarterly Record four times a year. Every figure traced to its official source.