Depth and duration of poverty
Living in poverty for longer, and at greater depth, has a greater impact. Families in deep poverty, especially those experiencing destitution, struggle to afford even basic essentials.
Poverty in the UK has become increasingly severe. Almost half of everyone in poverty — 48%, or around 6.8 million people — are now in very deep poverty, meaning they live far below the poverty line. This is the highest level since records began and reflects a major shift in the depth of poverty over the past 3 decades.
| Group | Poverty persistence rate | Very deep poverty persistence rate |
|---|---|---|
| People | 12% | 3% |
| Children | 18% | 4% |
| Working-age adults | 11% | 3% |
| Pensioners | 11% | 2% |
| Single male pensioners | 16% | 3% |
| Single female pensioners | 18% | 2% |
| Couple pensioners | 7% | 1% |
| Single working-age males with no children | 15% | 5% |
| Single working-age females with no children | 15% | 4% |
| Working-age adults in a couple with no children | 5% | 1% |
| Working-age lone parents | 31% | 8% |
| Working-age parents in couple families | 10% | 2% |
| Children in couple families | 14% | 2% |
| Children in lone parent families | 33% | 9% |
| Children in one child families | 12% | 4% |
| Children in two child families | 14% | 3% |
| Children in three or more child families | 32% | 4% |
Source: Understanding Society, 2019–2020 to 2022–2023
People in lone-parent families and larger families are far more likely to experience persistent poverty. Persistent poverty rates are also higher for children, single pensioners and single working-age adults.
Over the last three decades, the poverty gap, deep poverty gap and very deep poverty gap all widened. The average annual poverty gap grew from 23% in 1994–97 to 29% in the latest data. The deep poverty gap increased from 22% to 30%. For very deep poverty, the gap rose from 32% to 38%, which equates to people being, on average, 59% below the poverty line. This means people now fall further below the poverty, deep poverty and very deep poverty lines than they did a quarter of a century ago.
Data source
The data on this page is part of the UK poverty statistics dashboard. The data is initially derived from our UK Poverty 2026 report, which includes an Excel download in the appendix.