Disability employment rate, UK
Official statistics
The share of disabled and of non-disabled people aged 16 to 64 in the UK who are in work, each quarter since April to June 1998, and the gap between them, from DWP's Labour Force Survey tables.
Disability employment rate
53.01%
Q2 2026 · a gap of 29.4 percentage points to non-disabled people
Verified against source, 8 November 2026, 13:28 UTC- Disabled people
- Non-disabled people
Source: Department for Work and Pensions. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Data table
113 periods, newest first
| Period | Disabled people | Non-disabled people |
|---|---|---|
| Q2 2026 | 53.01% | 82.41% |
| Q1 2026 | 53.11% | 82.18% |
| Q4 2025 | 52.78% | 82.26% |
| Q3 2025 | 52.32% | 82.46% |
| Q2 2025 | 52.85% | 82.54% |
| Q1 2025 | 53.97% | 81.94% |
| Q4 2024 | 54.02% | 82.20% |
| Q3 2024 | 54.50% | 81.95% |
| Q2 2024 | 53.08% | 81.62% |
| Q1 2024 | 52.97% | 81.73% |
| Q4 2023 | 53.96% | 81.97% |
| Q3 2023 | 53.61% | 81.86% |
| Q2 2023 | 52.93% | 82.11% |
| Q1 2023 | 52.99% | 82.35% |
| Q4 2022 | 52.68% | 82.44% |
| Q3 2022 | 52.09% | 82.08% |
| Q2 2022 | 52.38% | 81.63% |
| Q1 2022 | 53.01% | 81.68% |
| Q4 2021 | 52.63% | 81.77% |
| Q3 2021 | 53.07% | 81.46% |
| Q2 2021 | 52.00% | 80.91% |
| Q1 2021 | 51.82% | 80.75% |
| Q4 2020 | 51.60% | 80.73% |
| Q3 2020 | 51.08% | 80.98% |
| Q2 2020 | 51.67% | 81.30% |
| Q1 2020 | 52.72% | 82.05% |
| Q4 2019 | 54.21% | 82.11% |
| Q3 2019 | 53.27% | 81.72% |
| Q2 2019 | 52.64% | 81.44% |
| Q1 2019 | 51.79% | 81.59% |
| Q4 2018 | 51.55% | 81.73% |
| Q3 2018 | 51.25% | 81.42% |
| Q2 2018 | 50.66% | 81.13% |
| Q1 2018 | 50.72% | 81.05% |
| Q4 2017 | 50.54% | 81.12% |
| Q3 2017 | 49.76% | 81.07% |
| Q2 2017 | 49.17% | 80.55% |
| Q1 2017 | 48.96% | 80.24% |
| Q4 2016 | 49.51% | 80.33% |
| Q3 2016 | 48.23% | 80.50% |
| Q2 2016 | 47.86% | 80.06% |
| Q1 2016 | 46.85% | 79.93% |
| Q4 2015 | 46.63% | 80.27% |
| Q3 2015 | 45.61% | 80.15% |
| Q2 2015 | 45.90% | 79.18% |
| Q1 2015 | 46.30% | 78.99% |
| Q4 2014 | 45.55% | 79.17% |
| Q3 2014 | 45.76% | 79.05% |
| Q2 2014 | 44.92% | 78.38% |
| Q1 2014 | 44.25% | 78.02% |
| Q4 2013 | 44.18% | 77.92% |
| Q3 2013 | 43.41% | 77.64% |
| Q2 2013 | 43.63% | 76.78% |
| Q1 2013 | 46.36% | 76.25% |
| Q4 2012 | 46.73% | 76.99% |
| Q3 2012 | 46.36% | 76.84% |
| Q2 2012 | 45.76% | 76.20% |
| Q1 2012 | 45.86% | 75.64% |
| Q4 2011 | 45.54% | 75.73% |
| Q3 2011 | 45.52% | 75.72% |
| Q2 2011 | 45.53% | 75.58% |
| Q1 2011 | 46.72% | 75.60% |
| Q4 2010 | 46.42% | 75.97% |
| Q3 2010 | 45.71% | 76.52% |
| Q2 2010 | 45.22% | 75.63% |
| Q1 2010 | 45.58% | 75.09% |
| Q4 2009 | 46.75% | 77.41% |
| Q3 2009 | 47.13% | 77.53% |
| Q2 2009 | 46.81% | 77.18% |
| Q1 2009 | 47.05% | 78.17% |
| Q4 2008 | 47.67% | 79.17% |
| Q3 2008 | 47.69% | 79.73% |
| Q2 2008 | 47.85% | 79.55% |
| Q1 2008 | 47.50% | 79.74% |
| Q4 2007 | 47.77% | 80.13% |
| Q3 2007 | 47.87% | 79.99% |
| Q2 2007 | 46.63% | 79.51% |
| Q1 2007 | 46.71% | 79.28% |
| Q4 2006 | 46.38% | 79.97% |
| Q3 2006 | 47.48% | 80.13% |
| Q2 2006 | 46.97% | 79.65% |
| Q1 2006 | 46.70% | 79.68% |
| Q4 2005 | 46.70% | 79.90% |
| Q3 2005 | 46.38% | 80.54% |
| Q2 2005 | 46.43% | 79.83% |
| Q1 2005 | 46.05% | 79.95% |
| Q4 2004 | 46.39% | 80.46% |
| Q3 2004 | 46.41% | 80.56% |
| Q2 2004 | 46.16% | 79.90% |
| Q1 2004 | 44.80% | 80.10% |
| Q4 2003 | 45.17% | 80.28% |
| Q3 2003 | 45.27% | 80.46% |
| Q2 2003 | 44.97% | 80.08% |
| Q1 2003 | 44.59% | 79.83% |
| Q4 2002 | 45.23% | 80.48% |
| Q3 2002 | 44.76% | 80.33% |
| Q2 2002 | 44.01% | 79.93% |
| Q1 2002 | 43.39% | 79.76% |
| Q4 2001 | 43.37% | 80.45% |
| Q3 2001 | 42.42% | 80.72% |
| Q2 2001 | 42.40% | 80.11% |
| Q1 2001 | 42.56% | 79.82% |
| Q4 2000 | 42.46% | 80.30% |
| Q3 2000 | 42.50% | 80.74% |
| Q2 2000 | 41.89% | 79.92% |
| Q1 2000 | 41.41% | 79.46% |
| Q4 1999 | 41.96% | 80.06% |
| Q3 1999 | 41.93% | 80.20% |
| Q2 1999 | 41.46% | 79.19% |
| Q1 1999 | 40.66% | 78.96% |
| Q4 1998 | 40.35% | 79.45% |
| Q3 1998 | 39.24% | 79.73% |
| Q2 1998 | 38.23% | 78.67% |
Source and licence
- Publisher
- Department for Work and Pensions
- Check it yourself
- https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/the-employment-of-disabled-people
- Licence
- Open Government Licence v3.0 – Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Retrieved
- 8 November 2026, 13:09 UTC
- Raw files fetched
- https://www.gov.uk/api/content/government/statistics/the-employment-of-disabled-people-2026SHA-256 f10e3a26c8c4f25b95dbdd8050b1c9003df7c81c7116ad10e67f8ce92335fdf3 · 9,854 bytes
- https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6aea16350641e871642b80b8/employment-of-disabled-people-2026.odsSHA-256 6913d09f83a98208b61e12c68e59086ad303307ddb64934d0ad09058d91f1aab · 4,892,093 bytes
Verification
Verified against source, 8 November 2026, 13:28 UTC Run at 8 November 2026, 13:28 UTC; 226 of 226 figures matched the live source.
| Result | Check | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Pass | Provenance recorded | Department for Work and Pensions; Open Government Licence v3.0; retrieved 2026-11-08T13:09:49Z; 2 raw file(s) |
| Pass | Raw files match recorded SHA-256 | 2 of 2 files intact |
| Pass | Re-parsing raw files reproduces figures | 226 of 226 figures and the headline reproduced; the meta's gap match |
| Pass | Figures are finite numbers | 226 figures, 0 invalid |
| Pass | Live source matches every figure | 226 of 226 figures match exactly after downloading 2 source file(s) again (2 byte-identical); the headline matches; the meta's gap match |
| Pass | GOV.UK table is current | the newest edition in https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/the-employment-of-disabled-people is /government/statistics/the-employment-of-disabled-people-2026; the record read /government/statistics/the-employment-of-disabled-people-2026 |
| Not run | Second official route | No second route publishes these quarters: DWP's other tables pool the Annual Population Survey over three years, and the ONS's headline employment rate is seasonally adjusted and counts people whose disability status is not known; the live re-fetch and the table's own arithmetic are the checks. |
| Pass | Each rate is its people in work over its people | 226 of 226 cases of the quarters give in employment ÷ people × 100 as DWP's rate, unrounded within 1e-09 (226 exactly) |
| Pass | The gap is the non-disabled rate less the disabled | 113 of 113 cases of the quarters give DWP's gap as the non-disabled employment rate less the disabled one, unrounded within 1e-09 (113 exactly) |
| Pass | Source page answers | https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/the-employment-of-disabled-people – HTTP 200 |
Notes
- From the Labour Force Survey, not seasonally adjusted: people aged 16 to 64 in the UK, whether they are disabled and whether they are in work (one hour or more of paid work a week, or temporarily away from work). DWP's rates leave out people whose disability status is not known, so they differ a little from the ONS's headline employment rate, which is seasonally adjusted.
- DWP marks breaks in the series ([b]): from April 2013 disability follows the GSS harmonised standard, in line with the Equality Act 2010's core definition, and before it the Disability Discrimination Act 1995's; before 2010 the population was men aged 16 to 64 and women aged 16 to 59. DWP also notes a discontinuity from July to September 2020, when a new main health condition question came in, and that figures before and from July to September 2022 are not directly comparable, as the ONS reweighted the survey only from then.
- The disability employment gap is DWP's own: the non-disabled employment rate less the disabled one, in percentage points.
- DWP marks a break in the series at 2010 Q1, 2013 Q2, 2019 Q1.