Material Deprivation
When people cannot afford the goods and services considered to indicate a minimum acceptable norm in society, this is described as material deprivation.
For 2023/24, an updated suite of questions on material deprivation was introduced on the Family Resources Survey. As 2023/24 is the first year where estimates based on the updated measure are available, estimates based on three-year average for region and ethnicity using the updated measure are not currently available.
Users are advised not to make a direct comparison of changes in material deprivation estimates between FYE 2023 and FYE 2024.
Across the UK, in 2023/24, around one in nine (11%) pensioners were experiencing material deprivation. A similar proportion of children (12%) across the UK were living in material deprivation and in families in low income before housing costs. When housing costs are taken into account, this proportion increases to 16%.
Working age adults have a lower rate compared with children and pensioners, with 7% living in material deprivation and in families in low income before housing costs. When housing costs are taken into account, this proportion increases to 9%.
The charts and commentary below refer to material deprivation from the three years to 2022/23 and the old suite of questions on material deprivation.
Around one in eight pensioners in London were in material deprivation, up to one in five living in Inner London. This compared with one in twelve of all UK pensioners.
Four per cent of all London’s children lived in material deprivation and in families in severe low income, that is less than half the typical UK family’s income, before taking housing costs into account. This was lower than in some other regions of the UK, though housing costs are much higher in London, which impacts on both higher income, for example, from housing benefits or allowances for some, as well as higher costs.
In 2020/21-2022/23, London had among the lowest proportions of its working age population living in both material deprivation and low income, before taking housing costs into account, when compared to other parts of the UK.