Economic activity

Economic activity relates to whether or not a person aged 16 and over was working or looking for work in the week before census. Rather than a simple indicator of whether or not someone was currently in employment, it provides a measure of whether or not a person was an active participant in the labour market.

A person's economic activity is derived from their 'activity last week'. This is an indicator of their status or availability for employment - whether employed, unemployed, or their status if not employed and not seeking employment. Additional information included in the economic activity classification is also derived from information about the number of hours a person works and their type of employment - whether employed or self-employed.

The census concept of economic activity is compatible with the standard for economic status defined by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). It is one of a number of definitions used internationally to produce accurate and comparable statistics on employment, unemployment and economic status.

Total number of categories 20

This variable is directly comparable with the equivalent variable created by ONS for the 2021 census in England & Wales (economic_activity).

This variable is directly comparable with the version created for Scotland's Census 2011.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) carried out the England & Wales and Northern Ireland Censuses respectively in 2021. At this time, the COVID-19 furlough scheme was still active. Extra guidance was provided to help furloughed individuals complete the census labour market questions. The guidance indicated that they should consider themselves ‘temporarily away from work’ which would ensure they were still included in the economically active population. 

More information about this issue is available in ONS’ quality information and NISRA’s quality information for their Census labour market topic. As ONS and NISRA have stated, users should consider this when using census labour market data because of the additional uncertainty for the public on how they should have completed the form. 

By the time Scotland’s Census took place in 2022, the furlough scheme had ended and did not impact on the way individuals completed the census. When comparing census economic activity data across the UK, users should be aware of this. 

Economic activity relates to whether or not a person aged 16 and over was working or looking for work in the week before census. Rather than a simple indicator of whether or not someone was currently in employment, it provides a measure of whether or not a person was an active participant in the labour market.

A person's economic activity is derived from their 'activity last week'. This is an indicator of their status or availability for employment - whether employed, unemployed, or their status if not employed and not seeking employment. Additional information included in the economic activity classification is also derived from information about the number of hours a person works and their type of employment - whether employed or self-employed.

The census concept of economic activity is compatible with the standard for economic status defined by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). It is one of a number of definitions used internationally to produce accurate and comparable statistics on employment, unemployment and economic status.

Total number of categories 20

ACTLW (Derived variable)

AGE (Derived variable)

AVAILWORK (Primary variable)

DOB (Primary variable)

EMPLYGRP (Primary variable)

EMPSTAT (Primary variable)

HRSWRKD_GROUP (Derived variable)

LOOKWORK (Primary variable)

OTHACT (Primary variable)

STUDENT (Primary variable)

TERMIND (Primary variable)

WAITWORK (Primary variable)

The wording of the questions asking respondents about their economic activity the previous week, reasons for not working (if applicable) and employment status were changed slightly since 2001 in order to improve their clarity. This may have caused slight differences in responses, meaning comparisons with 2001 should be treated with some caution. Furthermore, the classifications of economically inactive categories changed between 2001 and 2011, so only the total number of economically inactive people is comparable.

The number of ‘Inactive Students’ in QS603SC is different to the other Economic Activity tables. The ‘Inactive Student’ column in QS603SC includes only full-time students who are not working. The ‘Inactive Student’ column in the other Economic Activity tables includes full-time students who are not working and people who ticked that they were a student the previous week in question 28 but they did not tick that they were full-time students in question 5.

This derived variable is created using information from Questions 18 to 22 on the census form and the question on Hours Worked (HOUPUK) and Employment Type (EMTPUK). The classification is based on the International Labour Office (ILO) definition of economic activity, and is an ONS harmonised survey classification.

As well as inevitable differences between a census and surveys, minor differences include the definition of part-time and full-time, and the sub-categorisation of economically inactive. For the census, part-time is defined as working 30 hours or less, whereas for the harmonised output classification, part-time status is self-assessed. ‘In employment’ includes people on Government Sponsored Training Schemes.

The full classification given on this page provides detailed economic activity information for all economically active full-time students.

Total number of categories 22