London Poverty

Poverty facts

07/01/2007

• 51 per cent of children in inner London live in income poverty, compared with 29 per cent in England (1)
  
  
• a quarter of all children in London live in workless households, the highest proportion of any of the English regions. In inner London, one in three children lives in a workless household, compared with one in six nationally (2)
  
  
• in London, seven out of 10 workless households with children are lone parent households (3)
  
  
• there are 244,000 unemployed people in London, more than in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland put together (130,000, 76,000 and 30,000 respectively) (4)
  
  
• one in four children in inner London nursery and primary schools is entitled to free school meals, compared with fewer than one in five nationally (5)
  
  
• more than one in three (35 per cent) children in inner London live in families with at least one adult claiming a key benefit, compared with an average of 18 per cent nationally (6)
  
  
• the proportion of children living in workless households in London has fallen by just one percentage point in the last 10 years, compared with a 4 per cent fall in the UK as a whole (7)
  
  
• 22 per cent of pensioners in London live in income poverty, compared with 17 per cent in the UK as a whole (8)