People claiming out-of-work benefits
The number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance, or Universal Credit with a requirement to look for work, each month, down to each neighbourhood, from the Office for National Statistics.
- 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
- England33,755 of 33,755 neighbourhoods have a figure
- Wales1,917 of 1,917 neighbourhoods have a figure
- Scotland7,392 of 7,392 neighbourhoods have a figure
- Northern Ireland3,726 of 3,780 neighbourhoods have a figure
54 neighbourhoods have no figure for August 2026. The map hatches each one and gives the reason.
- Nomis does not publish a figure for this area in this month. Dunsilly B4, Macedon H2, Armagh B2, Craigavon N2, Craigavon L2, Lurgan C3 and 48 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.
Counts for larger areas are added up 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 counts people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance, and people claiming Universal Credit who are required to look for work. It is not a count of everyone who is unemployed. Under Universal Credit it also includes some people who are working but earn little and are asked to look for more work.
- Counts mostly follow how many people live in an area. To compare areas, use the claimant rate.
- The count is taken on one day in the month, and the previous month is revised each time a new one is released.
- Below the UK, the Office for National Statistics rounds every count to the nearest 5, so small areas show 0, 5, 10 and so on. Added-up figures can differ a little from published totals.
- Councils, middle areas in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and neighbourhoods are the figures Nomis publishes. Scottish middle areas are added up by Open Index from their neighbourhoods, and wards from the neighbourhoods that best fit them.
- Wards do not follow neighbourhoods exactly, so a ward figure covers the neighbourhoods that best fit it, not the ward's exact edge.
- Nomis publishes no count for a few Northern Ireland neighbourhoods each month, because the numbers are very small. A ward or middle area that holds one counts it as zero, and says so.
- 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.
- Barnsley and Sheffield figures are for their boundaries before April 2025.
Colours on the map
Seven groups with about the same number of areas each, worked out from the latest period and 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, 13,535 people were claiming out-of-work benefits in August 2026.
Source and licence
- Edition
- Claimant count to August 2026
- Published
- 15 September 2026
- Fetched by Open Index
- 15 October 2026
- Licence
- Open Government Licence 3.0