How does my area compare?

Birmingham has the highest total number of people aged 16 to 64 on Universal Credit in May 2026.

People aged 16 to 64 on Universal Credit, in each month with published figures. Help with living costs for working-age people on a low income, in or out of work.

Total, low to high

Under 16,545
16,545 to 28,536
28,536 to 40,527
40,527 to 52,518
52,518 to 64,509
64,509 and over

People aged 16 to 64 on Universal Credit, total, May 2026, by local authority. Boundaries are simplified. London is also shown larger, in a separate box. Northern Ireland is not covered. Every value is in the table below.

More ways to look at itHow ranks change, why spending changed, and spending compared with the expected level

Total or per person

Does the order change when you count per person?

Each line is one of the 350 ranked local authorities. It joins the area's rank for each way of counting. The 10 highest total are drawn in dark lines.

What changed

More people, more claims or bigger payments?

Great Britain, Universal Credit: yearly spending at the rate in May 2023 and in May 2026. The chart splits the change into three parts: the number of people in the age group, the share of them claiming, and the average payment. 2026-27 prices.

What changed: Universal Credit
May 2023	£53.7bn
Population	+£675.6m
Share claiming	+£22.9bn
Payment size	+£10.2bn
May 2026	£87.5bn

The share claiming is the number of households claiming per person aged 16 to 64. Yearly spending here is the number claiming, times the average weekly payment, times 52. It is not the amount paid out over the year. Population after mid-2024 stays at the mid-2024 figure, so later growth shows in the share claiming.

Compared with similar areas

Is spending higher or lower than expected?

Spending on working-age benefits per person aged 16 to 64, 2024-25. We compare it with the level we would expect from each area's share of children and of people aged 66 and over, how deprived it is compared with the rest of its nation, and the typical pay of people who live there. 2026-27 prices.

Expected level = −£567 + £3,670 × share aged 0 to 15 − £115 × share aged 66 and over − £170 × deprivation decile + £257 × ln(median pay) + £432 × Wales + £94 × Scotland. Fitted by ordinary least squares across 348 local authorities. R² = 0.85. Gold dots are above the expected level and grey dots are below it.

Every local authority

People aged 16 to 64 on Universal Credit, May 2026. Rank is for total, and 1 is the highest. Areas with fewer than 1,000 people in the age group have no rank. The first 50 of 350 rows are shown.

People aged 16 to 64 on Universal Credit for every local authority, May 2026
Rank
1	Birmingham	241,990	204.6	312.7
2	Glasgow City	117,372	180.5	254.3
3	Manchester	109,596	186.2	261.2
4	Leeds	109,449	129.9	196.8
5	Bradford	101,539	181.4	291.7
6	Liverpool	92,408	181.8	268.3
7	Sheffield	81,231	140.0	213.2
8	County Durham	76,404	142.3	230.9
9	Newham	67,458	177.8	242.5
10	Cornwall	65,617	112.7	194.5
11	Leicester	63,695	164.7	243.1
12	Enfield	63,083	190.3	295.5
13	Tower Hamlets	62,886	187.1	240.6
14	Brent	62,813	176.7	253.3
15	Kirklees	62,562	140.3	225.5
16	Sandwell	61,658	174.5	274.6
17	Croydon	59,815	146.4	221.2
18	Ealing	59,371	153.1	221.3
19	Nottingham	59,162	179.0	255.0
20	Bristol, City of	58,737	118.8	167.3
21	Somerset	55,685	94.7	163.7
22	Coventry	53,236	144.4	217.0
23	Kingston upon Hull, City of	52,511	191.1	295.6
24	Barnet	52,457	129.1	198.8
25	Hackney	52,043	193.7	262.4
26	City of Edinburgh	51,033	95.9	137.4
27	Cardiff	51,000	133.5	196.1
28	Wakefield	50,484	137.6	221.1
29	North Yorkshire	50,373	79.5	136.9
30	Haringey	50,367	187.6	262.3
31	Lewisham	49,736	164.4	229.4
32	North Lanarkshire	49,642	144.5	225.4
33	Walsall	49,489	168.0	273.2
34	Bolton	49,262	159.5	258.9
35	Salford	48,785	166.2	243.2
36	Fife	48,255	128.8	209.2
37	Doncaster	47,857	149.4	242.5
38	Wolverhampton	47,491	169.3	269.8
39	Lambeth	47,401	148.7	194.1
40	Southwark	46,422	146.4	193.3
41	Sunderland	45,860	160.0	258.3
42	Oldham	45,136	180.0	291.0
43	Newcastle upon Tyne	44,961	141.0	206.5
44	Wirral	44,611	135.9	228.0
45	Stoke-on-Trent	44,457	164.6	262.6
46	Dudley	44,300	133.7	220.1
47	Wigan	44,175	128.3	206.0
48	Greenwich	44,070	146.3	208.3
49	Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole	43,976	107.8	173.3
50	West Northamptonshire	43,681	99.0	156.1

League table of every local authority for the latest period

Values are total unless a column says otherwise. Sources: Department for Work and Pensions, Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland.

Every measureThe full list, as plain links

Does the order change when you count per person?

More people, more claims or bigger payments?

Is spending higher or lower than expected?

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