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<p>The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.</p><p>Please
see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the
UK Statistics Authority.</p><p> </p><p>The Rt Hon. the Lord Wigley</p><p>House of
Lords<br>London<br>SW1A 0PW</p><p> </p><p>Dear Lord Wigley,</p><p>As National Statistician
and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary
Question asking what are the most recent statistics on the Economic Activity Rate
of each of the UK’s four nations, and what were the equivalent rates (1) 10, and (2)
20, years earlier (HL4552).</p><p>The Office for National Statistics (ONS) collects
information on the labour market status of individuals through the Labour Force Survey
(LFS), which is a survey of people resident in households in the UK.</p><p>The responses
allow us to identify how many people are economically active; that is, those who are
engaged with the labour market, either through employment or who are unemployed and
actively seeking work. We are also able to calculate economic activity rates by region
using these data.</p><p>Due to the current smaller sample sizes being achieved by
the LFS, recent estimates are showing increased volatility and should be treated with
additional caution. We are currently undertaking a programme of work to improve our
estimates of the UK labour market. As part of this work, we have updated our labour
market estimates from July to September 2022 onwards to incorporate more up to date
estimates of the UK population. Labour market estimates prior to this remain based
on older population estimates. Therefore, the latest available estimates of the UK
labour market, for January to March 2024, are on a different population basis than
those ten and twenty years earlier. As a result of this we recommend caution when
considering long-term movements in these series.</p><p>The latest available estimates
(January to March 2024) of the economic activity rates, for people aged 16 to 64 years,
resident in each of the UK’s four nations are presented in Table 1, alongside estimates
for January to March 2014 and January to March 2004.</p><p>Yours sincerely,</p><p>Professor
Sir Ian Diamond</p><p> </p><p>Table 1: Economic Activity Rates, people aged 16 to
64 years, England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, seasonally adjusted.</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>
</p></td><td><p><strong>England </strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Scotland</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Wales</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Northern
Ireland</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>January to March 2004</strong></p></td><td><p><br>
77.1%</p></td><td><p><br> 77.0%</p></td><td><p><br> 74.3%</p></td><td><p><br> 69.2%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><br>
<strong>January to March 2014 </strong></p></td><td><p><br> 78.1%</p></td><td><p><br>
78.4%</p></td><td><p><br> 75.1%</p></td><td><p><br> 73.0%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>January
to March 2024 </strong>[1]</p></td><td><p><br> 78.4%</p></td><td><p><br> 76.6%</p></td><td><p><br>
72.0%</p></td><td><p><br> 73.4%</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p><em> Source: Labour
Force Survey</em></p><p>[1] Estimate based on more up to date population estimates
and subject to greater volatility due to smaller achieved sample sizes. We advise
caution when interpreting movements in these series.</p>
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