Economy and work

Claimant rate

People claiming out-of-work benefits as a share of residents aged 16 to 64, each month, down to each neighbourhood, from the Office for National Statistics.

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Published by
Office for National Statistics (Nomis)
Level of detail
Neighbourhood
Published for
United Kingdom, Nation, Region, Council, Ward, Middle area and Neighbourhood
Covers
All four nations
Updates
Monthly
Latest period
August 2026
Published
15 September 2026
Fetched by Open Index
15 October 2026
Licence
Open Government Licence 3.0

Where it covers

  • England
  • Wales
  • Scotland
  • Northern Ireland
  • England33,716 of 33,755 neighbourhoods have a figure
  • Wales1,916 of 1,917 neighbourhoods have a figure
  • Scotland6,882 of 7,392 neighbourhoods have a figure
  • Northern Ireland0 of 3,780 neighbourhoods have a figure

1,000 neighbourhoods have no figure for August 2026. The map hatches each one and gives the reason.

  • NISRA publishes no estimate of residents aged 16 to 64 for this kind of area in Northern Ireland, so Open Index cannot work out a rate. The claimant count is shown. Dunsilly A1, Dunsilly B1, Dunsilly A2, Dunsilly A3, Dunsilly B2, Dunsilly A4 and 955 more
  • Nomis withholds this rate because only one or two people are claiming. Kensington and Chelsea 012E, Kensington and Chelsea 018E, Liverpool 047E, Sefton 013D, Wirral 041A, Newcastle upon Tyne 013C and 33 more

How it is made

Open Index shows the figures as Office for National Statistics (Nomis) publishes them, for the areas they were published for: the UK, nations, regions, councils, wards, middle areas and neighbourhoods.

Rates for larger areas are worked out again from their own counts and populations, never averaged from neighbourhoods.

Zoom in past neighbourhood level and the map keeps the neighbourhood shapes and says so, rather than inventing detail.

  • United KingdomSeptember 2024 to August 2026 (24 months)
  • NationSeptember 2024 to August 2026 (24 months)
  • RegionSeptember 2024 to August 2026 (24 months)
  • CouncilSeptember 2024 to August 2026 (24 months)
  • WardJanuary 2026 to August 2026 (8 months)
  • Middle areaJanuary 2026 to August 2026 (8 months)
  • NeighbourhoodJanuary 2026 to August 2026 (8 months)

Before you use it

  • This is the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance, or Universal Credit with a requirement to look for work, divided by the number of residents aged 16 to 64. It is not the unemployment rate.
  • The count is taken on one day in the month, and the previous month is revised each time a new one is released.
  • Counts below the UK are rounded to the nearest 5. Open Index works its own rates out from the rounded counts, so they can differ by a few tenths of a point from a rate worked out from exact counts.
  • Rates for England and Wales neighbourhoods and middle areas, Scottish neighbourhoods, councils, regions, nations and the UK are the ones Nomis publishes. Open Index works out the rest from the claimant count and the latest small-area population estimates (mid-2024) for Scottish middle areas, Northern Ireland middle areas and every ward. These say so.
  • Wards do not follow neighbourhoods exactly, so a ward rate covers the neighbourhoods that best fit it, not the ward's exact edge.
  • Nomis withholds the rate for a neighbourhood when only one or two people are claiming.
  • Neighbourhoods, middle areas and wards have figures from January 2026 only, because Nomis publishes them on 2021 boundaries from that month. Councils, regions, nations and the UK go back further.
  • Northern Ireland neighbourhoods and wards have a count but no rate, because NISRA publishes the number of residents aged 16 to 64 only for middle areas and councils.
  • Rates divide by the latest small-area estimates of residents aged 16 to 64, which are for mid-2024, so a rate for an area that has grown quickly since can run high.
  • Barnsley and Sheffield figures are for their boundaries before April 2025.

Colours on the map

Fixed breaks, held for every period, so colours mean the same over time.

How Open Index describes it

Page text on Open Index comes from this layer’s sentence rules, filled in with published figures. For Hackney:

In Hackney, 6.9% of residents aged 16 to 64 were claiming out-of-work benefits in August 2026.

For the UK as a whole, the figure was 3.9%.

Source and licence

Claimant count (Nomis)
Office for National Statistics (Nomis)
Edition
Claimant count to August 2026
Published
15 September 2026
Fetched by Open Index
15 October 2026
Licence
Open Government Licence 3.0
Credit line

Source: Office for National Statistics, claimant count (Nomis). Population estimates: Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland and NISRA. Licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0.

Use this data

GET /v1/layers/claimant-rate