Metric permalink
Inactivity due to long-term sickness
Part of the Work and Productivity domain. Number of people aged 16–64 inactive from the labour market specifically because of long-term illness, a post-pandemic structural concern.
Latest data
Latest reading
2025
A higher reading is treated as worse for this indicator.
Score composition
Stress score
Blended from three components: (60% weight), trend (30% weight) and volatility (10% weight). Full formula on the methodology page.
Level · 60% weight
Percentile: this metric is scored against its own history, where today sits between its best and worst recorded years.
Trend · 30% weight
Measured from the direction and size of the change between the two most recent readings.
Volatility · 10% weight
33Measured from how much this indicator has swung period on period across its recorded history.
Data confidence and provenance
Confidence and source
How much weight to put on the reading, the mean data-confidence across the component metrics (source quality, recency and completeness).
Source
Labour market overview
- Update frequency
- Monthly
- Reliability
- medium
Provenance
- Provider
- ONS
- Series ID
- LF69/LMS
- Frequency
- annual
- Accessed
- 13 August 2026
Known weakness
Self-reported health-related inactivity from LFS is subject to the same declining-response-rate caveat and may conflate temporary and chronic conditions.
Notes
Verified official value from ONS (LF69/LMS), accessed 2026-08-13.
Historical values
History
| Period | Value | Relative |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | 2.22 | |
| 2007 | 2.22 | |
| 2008 | 2.19 | |
| 2009 | 2.17 | |
| 2010 | 2.23 | |
| 2011 | 2.18 | |
| 2012 | 2.1 | |
| 2013 | 2.04 | |
| 2014 | 2.01 | |
| 2015 | 2.07 | |
| 2016 | 2.03 | |
| 2017 | 2.01 | |
| 2018 | 2.01 | |
| 2019 | 2.05 | |
| 2020 | 2.28 | |
| 2021 | 2.36 | |
| 2022 | 2.54 | |
| 2023 | 2.75 | |
| 2024 | 2.8 | |
| 2025 | 2.79 |