Important Notice
Important Notice: Changes to Poverty and Income Inequality Statistics
This publication includes substantial methodological updates that affect how poverty and income statistics are produced for Northern Ireland.
What has changed?
Poverty and Income Inequality statistics in Northern Ireland and across the United Kingdom (UK) are based on data from the Family Resources Survey (FRS). This publication is now using an updated methodology which replaces survey responses relating to major state benefits and tax credits, with administrative data. The new methodology applies to the most recent year 2024/25, and revised estimates have also been produced for 2021/22 to 2023/24.
Why are these changes happening?
For many years the FRS has underreported benefit receipt, due to, respondents not reporting that they receive a benefit, respondents understating the amount of benefit received, and survey sampling not fully capturing all benefit recipients. This undercount means household income has been consistently understated, especially for lower income households.
The integration of administrative data will reduce income underreporting leading to an improvement in the quality, coherence and completeness of income-based poverty statistics.
What does this mean for NI Poverty and Income Inequality Statistics?
The introduction of administrative data creates a break in the time series from 2021/22 onwards. This means:
Key measures, including the estimated number and proportion of people in poverty, have changed for all affected years.
Figures before and after the break in the time series should not be directly compared.
In general, the inclusion of administrative benefit data leads to higher recorded incomes and therefore lower poverty rates than previously published estimates.
The changes between previously published figures and administrative linked data reflect better measurement, not a change in peoples’ circumstances. For further information please use the following link: Impact of integrating benefit administrative data on NI poverty statistics.
Updating the absolute poverty measure
Given the structural break, it has been necessary to review the reference year for the absolute poverty measure. The absolute reference year has changed to be 2024/25 for the years where administrative data linking has been applied, ensuring the measure can be calculated on a consistent methodological basis. This change will impact the number of people identified as living in absolute poverty.
Future changes
Further changes are due to be implemented on FRS data in future years, including replacing survey reported earnings with administrative data, and updating the way the statistics are scaled to population totals (known as grossing). While these developments represent essential modernisation, the scale and ongoing nature of the changes introduce uncertainty, and this transition will last for a number of years.
Reclassification to Official Statistics in Development
In order to reflect the evolving nature of the modernised FRS methodology, we have chosen to temporarily suspend the accredited official statistics designation for our poverty and income publications. Instead, we will release these publications as Official Statistics in Development and include higher level analysis only. This is a transparent signal to our users that while these figures remain valuable, the ongoing updates to data linkage, grossing and the absolute poverty measure mean they should be interpreted with extra caution, particularly for long term comparisons.
This report presents annual estimates of the proportion of people, children, working-age adults and pensioners in Northern Ireland living in poverty, and other statistics on household income and income inequality. Unless otherwise stated, these statistics are based on net income and adjusted for household size (equivalised). Poverty is defined at the household level. If the household income is below the poverty threshold, all people within the household are in poverty. The main source of data used in this report is the Family Resources Survey Northern Ireland (FRS NI). Unless specifically stated, annual changes in the numbers and percentages presented in the body of this report are not statistically significant.
Corresponding statistics relating to poverty and income inequality in the UK are available from the Department for Work and Pensions’ Households Below Average Income (HBAI) publication.
Headline Figures
Figure 1: Percentage of Individuals, Children, Working-Age Adults and Pensioners in Poverty Before Housing Costs (BHC), 2024/25
The legend follows the order of the bars within the chart.
Figure 1 shows that across all the population subgroups, relative poverty (BHC) and absolute poverty (BHC) are the same due to the absolute poverty reference year changing to 2024/25. In 2024/25 12% of individuals were in both relative and absolute poverty (BHC), this equates to 232,000 people. In 2024/25 15% of children were in both relative and absolute, this equates to 67,000 children. Children have the highest poverty rate of all population subgroups.
Figure 2: Percentage of Individuals in Relative and Absolute Poverty (BHC), 2021/22 to 2024/25
The percentage of individuals in relative poverty (BHC) decreased from 14% in 2023/24 to 12% in 2024/25. The percentage of individuals in absolute poverty (BHC) decreased from 16% in 2023/24 to 12% in 2024/25, this is a statistically significant change.
What You Need to Know
The Northern Ireland Poverty and Income Inequality Report is the primary source for data and information about poverty and income inequality in Northern Ireland. Users include central government, local authorities, academics, journalists and the voluntary sector.
Official Statistics in Development
These statistics have been released as Official Statistics in Development due to significant ongoing methodological updates, including the introduction of linked administrative benefit data and planned changes to earnings data and population grossing methods. Users should interpret the figures with caution during this transition period.
Income Measures
This report incorporates widely used international standard measures of poverty and inequality. The primary measure used is equivalised disposable household income, estimated on both a before and after housing costs basis (BHC and AHC). The main income measure includes contributions from earnings, state support, pensions, and investment income among others, and is net of tax.
In line with international best practice, the income measures used are subject to several statistical adjustments and, as such, are not always directly relatable to income amounts as they might be understood by people on a day-to-day basis such as take home pay. These adjustments, however, allow us to compare measures over time and across households of different sizes and compositions on a consistent basis.
Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation has been used when estimating how incomes are changing in real terms over time. For further information on how income is measured see the corresponding Quality and Methodology Information Report.
Survey Data
Estimates are based on responses from approximately 1,700 Northern Ireland households provided during face-to-face and telephone interviews in 2024/25 (Annex 5 in the UK HBAI Quality and Methodology Information Report published by DWP provides more detail on the use of a mixed mode in the FRS in 2022/23, how this affected the overall FRS sample, and the degree of impact this had on the HBAI statistics). Use of survey data means that estimates in this report are subject to uncertainty which can affect how changes should be interpreted in this report especially in the short term. Therefore latest estimates should be considered alongside long term patterns. However, the survey sample is proportionally representative of the Northern Ireland population and is statistically valid.
Statistical significance is a technical concept that determines whether a reported change is real or has only arisen by chance due to variations in the sampling. Ninety five percent confidence intervals are calculated around estimates which sets a standard that, where any change is reported as statistically significant, there is less than a 1 in 20 chance that the reported difference is due to sampling variation and there is no real underlying change.
None of the changes in this release are statistically significant unless specifically stated.
Poverty Measures
Relative Poverty
• An individual is
considered to be in relative poverty if they are living in a household
with an equivalised income below 60% of UK median income in the
year in question.
• This is a measure of whether those in the
lowest income households are keeping pace with the growth of incomes in
the population as a whole.
• In 2024/25 the relative
poverty threshold for a couple with no children was an income of £432
per week (BHC) from all sources. For a couple with children the
threshold would be higher and for a single person (without children) the
threshold would be lower (£289).
See Table 1.8 for full
data.
Absolute Poverty
• An individual is
considered to be in absolute poverty if they are living in a household
with an equivalised income below 60% of the (inflation adjusted) UK
median income in 2024/25.
• This is a measure of whether those in
the lowest income households are seeing their incomes rise in real
terms.
• In 2024/25 the absolute poverty threshold for a
couple with no children was an income of £432 per week (BHC). For
a couple with children the threshold would be higher and for a single
person (without children) the threshold would be lower (£289).
• The
relative and absolute poverty thresholds are the same for 2024/25 due to
the change in the absolute poverty reference year.
See Table
1.8 for full data.
Whole Population in Poverty
Figure 3: Percentage of Individuals in Relative and Absolute Poverty (BHC), 2021/22 to 2024/25
Figure 4: Percentage of Individuals in Relative and Absolute Poverty (AHC), 2021/22 to 2024/25
In 2024/25 12% of individuals in NI (approximately 232,000), were considered to be in relative poverty (BHC), a decrease from 14% in 2023/24.
In 2024/25 12% of individuals in NI (approximately 232,000), were considered to be in absolute poverty (BHC), a decrease from 16% in 2023/24. This is a statistically significant change.
Over the last four years, the percentage of individuals in both relative and absolute poverty (BHC and AHC) increased between 2021/22 and 2022/23 before decreasing to the lowest point in 2024/25.
Children in Poverty
Three poverty measures for children are referenced in the 2016 Welfare Reform and Work Act; a 60% relative poverty measure, a 60% absolute poverty measure, and a combined 70% low income and material deprivation measure. All use a before housing costs (BHC) measure of income. Further details are available in the Quality and Methodology Information Report.
Figure 5: Percentage of Children in Relative Poverty (BHC), 2021/22 to 2024/25
Figure 6: Percentage of Children in Absolute Poverty (BHC), 2021/22 to 2024/25
The percentage of children in relative poverty (BHC) is estimated to be 15% (approximately 67,000) in 2024/25, which is lower than the estimate of 18% in 2023/24.
In 2024/25 the percentage of children in absolute poverty (BHC) decreased to 15% (approximately 67,000), from 21% in 2023/24. This is a statistically significant change.
Over the last four years, the percentage of children in both relative and absolute poverty (BHC) increased between 2021/22 and 2022/23 before decreasing to the lowest point in 2024/25.
The long term trend shows that children are at a higher risk of living in poverty than the overall Northern Ireland population in both relative and absolute measures.
See Tables 1.1 and 1.4 for full data.
Children in Low Income and Material Deprivation
A new suite of questions and a new methodology on material deprivation were introduced in 2023/24. We advise users not to make a direct comparison of material deprivation estimates calculated using the new questions (2023/24 onwards) with the old questions (years prior to 2023/24). Users should refer to the Material Deprivation Technical Report published by DWP for more information. From 2023/24 a child is considered to be in low income and material deprivation if they live in a family that lacks 4 or more of the material deprivation goods or services, and has an equivalised household income (BHC) below 70% of the UK median.
Figure 7: Percentage of Children in Low Income and Material Deprivation (BHC), 2024/25
- The estimated percentage of children in combined low income and material deprivation was 9% in 2024/25. This is equivalent to 40,000 children.
See Table 2.3 for full data.
Working-Age Adults in Poverty
Working-age adults make up approximately 60% of the Northern Ireland population, therefore changes in income within this group can have a large impact on the overall poverty measures. The majority of income for working-age adults is sourced from earnings and therefore results are sensitive to changes in the labour market.
Figure 8: Percentage of Working-Age Adults in Relative Poverty (BHC), 2021/22 to 2024/25
Figure 9: Percentage of Working-Age Adults in Absolute Poverty (BHC), 2021/22 to 2024/25
The percentage of working-age adults in relative poverty (BHC) decreased from 12% in 2023/24 to 11% in 2024/25 (approximately 123,000).
The percentage of this group in absolute poverty (BHC) decreased from 14% in 2023/24 to 11% in 2024/25 (approximately 123,000).
Over the last four years, the proportion of working-age adults in relative poverty (BHC) has generally decreased slowly from a high of 14% in 2022/23 to 11% in 2024/25, while absolute poverty (BHC) has shown a similar trend slowly decreasing from a high of 15% in 2022/23 to a low of 11% in 2024/25.
The percentage of working-age adults in both relative and absolute poverty has consistently been lower than that of the whole population but has followed a similar trend.
Pensioners in Poverty
When looking at pensioner poverty the After Housing Costs analysis is the Government’s preferred measure. This is because over four fifths (81%) of pensioners live in homes that are owned outright. The charts in this section provide pensioner analysis on an AHC basis.
Figure 10: Percentage of Pensioners in Relative Poverty (AHC), 2021/22 to 2024/25
Figure 11: Percentage of Pensioners in Absolute Poverty (AHC), 2021/22 to 2024/25
The estimated percentage of pensioners in relative poverty (AHC) was 8% (approximately 26,000) in 2024/25, an increase from the last estimate of 7% in 2023/24.
The estimated percentage of pensioners in absolute poverty (AHC) was 8% (approximately 26,000) in 2024/25, a decrease from 9% in 2023/24.
Over the last four years, the percentage of pensioners in relative and absolute poverty (AHC) has shown a general downward trend.
As shown in the charts above, over the last four years pensioners have generally been at a lower risk of being in poverty (AHC) than the population as a whole.
BHC and AHC measures are available in Tables 1.1 and 1.4.
Income Inequality
Figure 12: Percentage Change in Equivalised Weekly Net Household Income Between 2023/24 - 2024/25
The legend follows the order of the bars within the chart.
Quintiles divide the population, when ranked by a particular variable (in this case weekly net household income) into five equal groups where the first and fifth quintiles represents the lowest and highest 20% of the income distribution respectively.
By dividing the population into quintiles ranked by household income it enables analysis of how the most well off and least well off compare against each other.
All quintiles saw an increase in household income estimates between 2023/24 and 2024/25. Although quintile 5 saw the largest increases, quintiles 1 and 2 experienced larger increases than quintiles 3 and 4.
See Table 3.2 for full data on the median equivalised weekly income for each quintile.
Measuring Income Inequality
Figure 13: Income Inequality as Measured by the GINI Index, 2021/22 to 2024/25
Figure 14: Income Inequality as Measured by the 90/10 Ratio, 2021/22 to 2024/25
Income inequality measured by the Gini index and the 90/10 ratio shows the disparity between high-income and low-income households.
The Gini index is a widely-used, international standard measure of inequality. It can take values from zero to one hundred, where a value of zero would indicate total equality, with each household having an equal share of income, while higher values indicate greater inequality.
The Gini index showed no change between 2023/24 and 2024/25 at 27% AHC, however there was a small decrease using the BHC measure (from 26% to 25%).
The 90/10 ratio is the average income of the top 20 per cent of the income distribution divided by the average income of the bottom 20 per cent. The higher the number, the greater the gap between those with the highest incomes and those with the lowest incomes.
The 90/10 ratio BHC shows that in 2024/25 those households in the top 20% of the income distribution had a weekly income 3 times higher than those in the bottom; while the AHC equivalent ratio was 3.3 in NI.
See Table 3.1 for full data.
Household Food Security
Households with high or marginal food security are “food secure”. Food secure households are considered to have sufficient, varied food to facilitate an active and healthy lifestyle. Households with low or very low food security are “food insecure”. Food insecure households have a risk of, or lack of access to, sufficient, varied food.
Figure 15: Percentage of Individuals in Food Insecure Households, 2021/22 to 2024/25
Most individuals lived in households that were food secure (93%) with 7% (approximately 124,000) in households said to be food insecure in 2024/25. This has decreased from 9% in 2023/24.
The food security status of children and working-age adults follow a similar pattern to that of all individuals with 10% (44,000) of all children and 7% (74,000) of all working-age adults living in households that were food insecure, a decrease from the previous year.
Further information is available in Table 3.4.
Statistics on the food security status of pensioners are not available due to small sample sizes.
Food Bank Usage
In 2024/25, 2% (47,000) of all individuals in Northern Ireland had used a food bank within the last 12 months.
See Table 3.5 for further information on food bank usage.
Statistics relating to food bank usage for Children and Pensioners are not available for 2024/25 due to small sample sizes.
Figure 16: Food Bank Usage, 2024/25
Key Definitions
FRS Survey Data The FRS covers a statistically valid sample of approximately 1,700 private households in Northern Ireland. Therefore, certain individuals, for example students in halls of residence and individuals in nursing or retirement homes will not be included.
Sampling Error Survey results are always estimates, not precise figures and so are subject to a level of uncertainty. Two different random samples from one population, for example NI, are unlikely to give exactly the same survey results. This level of uncertainty can be calculated and is commonly referred to as sampling error.
Non-Sampling Error These results are based on data from respondents to the survey. If people give inaccurate responses or certain groups of people are less likely to respond this can introduce biases and errors. This non-sampling error can be minimised through effective and accurate sample and questionnaire design and extensive quality assurance of the data. However, it is not possible to eliminate it completely, nor can it be quantified.
Household One person living alone or a group of people (not necessarily related) living at the same address who share cooking facilities and share a living room, sitting room or dining area. A household will consist of one or more benefit units or families.
Family or Benefit Unit A single adult or a couple living as married and any dependent children.
Income This is measured as total weekly household income from all sources (including child income) after tax, national insurance and other deductions.
The NI Poverty and Income Inequality Report presents analysis of disposable income on two bases: Before Housing Costs (BHC) and After Housing Costs (AHC).
Income Before Housing Costs
(BHC)
Includes:
• Net earnings from employment
•
Profit or loss from self-employment;
• All Social Security benefits
and Tax Credits;
• Income from occupational and private
pensions;
• Investment income;
• Maintenance payments;
• Income
from educational grants and scholarships;
• The cash value of certain
forms of income in kind, including free school meals.
Income
is net of:
• Income tax payments;
• National Insurance
contributions;
• Domestic rates / council tax;
• Contributions to
occupational pension schemes;
• Student loan repayments;
• All
maintenance payments;
• Parental contributions to students living
away from home.
Income After Housing Costs
(AHC)
Income after Housing Costs (AHC) is derived by
deducting a measure of housing costs from the income measure shown
opposite.
Housing costs include:
• Rent (including
housing benefit);
• Mortgage interest payments;
• Structural
insurance premiums (for owner occupiers); and
• Ground rent and
service charges.
Please note, while the AHC measure is directly
comparable between NI and UK, BHC analysis is not. This is due to the
difference in the way water charges are collected.
Equivalisation An adjustment is made to income to make it comparable across households of different size and composition. For example, this process of equivalisation would adjust the income of a single person upwards, so their income can be compared directly to the standard of living for a couple.
How Income Data Undergoes Equivalisation
Inflation is the speed at which the prices of goods and services rise or fall. The use of different inflation measures has an effect on trends in average household income and absolute low income measures in the NI Poverty and Income Inequality Report.
The NI Poverty and Income Inequality Report uses variants of CPI to adjust for inflation to look at how incomes are changing over time in real terms i.e. if, for example, average incomes rise by 3% in cash terms but inflation is higher at 5%, then we will record a fall in average incomes as the real average purchasing power of incomes has fallen.
Data Collection in 2021/22 was impacted by COVID-19 restrictions resulting in a move to telephone interviewing and a reduced sample size. This led to additional uncertainty around the estimates, particularly for smaller groups. From 2022/23 on, a mix of face to face and telephone interviews were employed. Changes in estimates over recent years should be interpreted being mindful of the differences in data collection approaches across the period and the effect this had on sample composition, with longer term trends often giving a clearer picture.
About these Statistics
Official Statistics in Development
Official statistics in development are official statistics that are undergoing a development; they may be new or existing statistics, and will be tested with users, in line with the standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics. The Code has a strong emphasis on innovation and improvement in ensuring the enduring public value of official statistics. The data that underpin this output are derived from the UK wide Family Resources Survey (FRS). The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) process the Northern Ireland (NI) data on behalf of Department for Communities NI (DfC), as part of the UK-wide dataset. Over recent years, DWP has been undertaking a major FRS transformation programme to improve the quality, coherence and completeness of income-based poverty statistics, with a central focus on integrating administrative data with survey responses. Three substantial transformation components are being implemented:
Benefit linkage - replacing survey reported benefit receipt with administrative records to reduce historical underreporting.
Earnings linkage - replacing survey reported earnings with administrative earnings data to address underreporting.
A new grossing regime - updating the way the statistics are scaled to population totals (known as grossing). This will incorporate population data from the 2021 Census and new control totals for the main benefits to ensure the statistics better account for benefit receipt across the population.
Benefit linkage has been incorporated into this output replacing survey data, with earnings linkage and the updated grossing regime planned to follow in later years.
While these developments represent essential modernisation, the scale and ongoing nature of the changes introduce uncertainty, and this transition will last for a number of years. In light of this we have chosen to temporarily suspend the accredited official statistics designation of this output. Instead, we have released this publication as Official Statistics in Development. This is a transparent signal to our users that while these figures remain valuable, the ongoing updates to data linkage, grossing and the absolute poverty measure mean they should be interpreted with extra care, particularly for long term comparisons.
This temporary de-designation will allow us to further investigate the NI specific impacts and aim to produce a revised, consistent back series once all transformation components are implemented.
Where to Find Out More
Supporting data tables and our Quality and Methodology Information Report, giving further detail on how we estimate the measures reported here are available here
For other queries or to provide feedback please contact analyticsdivision@communities-ni.gov.uk or telephone:
Neill McKeown on 028 90823580
Oran McKeown on 028 90823433