UK cities

Trends in economic inactivity rates across selected UK cities
Out of the selected UK cities, Glasgow has had one of the highest levels of economic inactivity, along with Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham and Birmingham, over the last two decades. The economic inactivity rates in these cities are higher than the UK average. Nevertheless the economic inactivity rate in Glasgow has dropped from a peak in 2012 and was above but much closer to the Scottish average in 2022.

Reasons for economic inactivity in UK cities

The reasons for economic inactivity differ across the UK cities, although being either a student or suffering long-term sickness accounts for the majority of reasons in all cities. Glasgow has a higher rate of adults economically inactive due to being long-term sick than in the UK as a whole, as do Sheffield and Liverpool.

Notes

Being economically inactive is an economical concept used by governments to describe those neither in employment nor unemployed. The official definition (from ONS) of being economically inactive is given below:

Economically inactive people are not in employment, but do not satisfy all the criteria for unemployment. This group is comprised of those who want a job but who have not been seeking work in the last 4 weeks, those who want a job and are seeking work but not available to start and those who do not want a job. For example, students not working or seeking work and those in retirement are classed as economically inactive.

This page was updated in July 2023