Civometry

ONS · Labour market overview, UK (LMS time series)

Economically inactive because of long-term sickness

2026 Q2 Final

2,774,000people

Economically inactive because of long-term sickness was 2,774,000 people in 2026 Q2, down 0.2% (6,000) from 2,780,000 in 2025 Q2.

▼ 0.2% · −6,000 against 2025 Q2 (same quarter previous year)

  1. ONS estimate
  2. 2026 Q2
  3. published 17 August 2026
  4. LF69
  5. row “LFS: Econ. inactivity reasons: Long Term Sick: UK: 16-64:000s:SA”
  6. column “2026 Q2”
  7. cell value 2774

1993 Q2 to 2026 Q2

Economically inactive because of long-term sickness: 1993 Q2 to 2026 Q2ConservativeLabourLabourLabourLabourLabourLabourCoalitionCoalitionConservativeConservativeConservativeLabour01m2m2000201020201993 Q2: 1,834,000 people · published 17 August 20261993 Q3: 1,884,000 people · published 17 August 20261993 Q4: 1,930,000 people · published 17 August 20261994 Q1: 1,911,000 people · published 17 August 20261994 Q2: 1,952,000 people · published 17 August 20261994 Q3: 1,971,000 people · published 17 August 20261994 Q4: 2,031,000 people · published 17 August 20261995 Q1: 2,080,000 people · published 17 August 20261995 Q2: 2,120,000 people · published 17 August 20261995 Q3: 2,133,000 people · published 17 August 20261995 Q4: 2,152,000 people · published 17 August 20261996 Q1: 2,165,000 people · published 17 August 20261996 Q2: 2,193,000 people · published 17 August 20261996 Q3: 2,265,000 people · published 17 August 20261996 Q4: 2,301,000 people · published 17 August 20261997 Q1: 2,318,000 people · published 17 August 20261997 Q2: 2,280,000 people · published 17 August 20261997 Q3: 2,328,000 people · published 17 August 20261997 Q4: 2,346,000 people · published 17 August 20261998 Q1: 2,372,000 people · published 17 August 20261998 Q2: 2,367,000 people · published 17 August 20261998 Q3: 2,369,000 people · published 17 August 20261998 Q4: 2,343,000 people · published 17 August 20261999 Q1: 2,337,000 people · published 17 August 20261999 Q2: 2,349,000 people · published 17 August 20261999 Q3: 2,339,000 people · published 17 August 20261999 Q4: 2,286,000 people · published 17 August 20262000 Q1: 2,306,000 people · published 17 August 20262000 Q2: 2,290,000 people · published 17 August 20262000 Q3: 2,310,000 people · published 17 August 20262000 Q4: 2,341,000 people · published 17 August 20262001 Q1: 2,342,000 people · published 17 August 20262001 Q2: 2,341,000 people · published 17 August 20262001 Q3: 2,370,000 people · published 17 August 20262001 Q4: 2,384,000 people · published 17 August 20262002 Q1: 2,384,000 people · published 17 August 20262002 Q2: 2,362,000 people · published 17 August 20262002 Q3: 2,307,000 people · published 17 August 20262002 Q4: 2,283,000 people · published 17 August 20262003 Q1: 2,307,000 people · published 17 August 20262003 Q2: 2,261,000 people · published 17 August 20262003 Q3: 2,266,000 people · published 17 August 20262003 Q4: 2,301,000 people · published 17 August 20262004 Q1: 2,279,000 people · published 17 August 20262004 Q2: 2,315,000 people · published 17 August 20262004 Q3: 2,339,000 people · published 17 August 20262004 Q4: 2,307,000 people · published 17 August 20262005 Q1: 2,285,000 people · published 17 August 20262005 Q2: 2,296,000 people · published 17 August 20262005 Q3: 2,248,000 people · published 17 August 20262005 Q4: 2,255,000 people · published 17 August 20262006 Q1: 2,223,000 people · published 17 August 20262006 Q2: 2,242,000 people · published 17 August 20262006 Q3: 2,194,000 people · published 17 August 20262006 Q4: 2,228,000 people · published 17 August 20262007 Q1: 2,242,000 people · published 17 August 20262007 Q2: 2,209,000 people · published 17 August 20262007 Q3: 2,200,000 people · published 17 August 20262007 Q4: 2,220,000 people · published 17 August 20262008 Q1: 2,224,000 people · published 17 August 20262008 Q2: 2,174,000 people · published 17 August 20262008 Q3: 2,227,000 people · published 17 August 20262008 Q4: 2,149,000 people · published 17 August 20262009 Q1: 2,160,000 people · published 17 August 20262009 Q2: 2,144,000 people · published 17 August 20262009 Q3: 2,191,000 people · published 17 August 20262009 Q4: 2,178,000 people · published 17 August 20262010 Q1: 2,205,000 people · published 17 August 20262010 Q2: 2,246,000 people · published 17 August 20262010 Q3: 2,224,000 people · published 17 August 20262010 Q4: 2,230,000 people · published 17 August 20262011 Q1: 2,190,000 people · published 17 August 20262011 Q2: 2,189,000 people · published 17 August 20262011 Q3: 2,189,000 people · published 17 August 20262011 Q4: 2,139,000 people · published 17 August 20262012 Q1: 2,156,000 people · published 17 August 20262012 Q2: 2,140,000 people · published 17 August 20262012 Q3: 2,064,000 people · published 17 August 20262012 Q4: 2,052,000 people · published 17 August 20262013 Q1: 2,070,000 people · published 17 August 20262013 Q2: 2,064,000 people · published 17 August 20262013 Q3: 1,984,000 people · published 17 August 20262013 Q4: 2,043,000 people · published 17 August 20262014 Q1: 1,996,000 people · published 17 August 20262014 Q2: 1,991,000 people · published 17 August 20262014 Q3: 2,022,000 people · published 17 August 20262014 Q4: 2,036,000 people · published 17 August 20262015 Q1: 2,026,000 people · published 17 August 20262015 Q2: 2,085,000 people · published 17 August 20262015 Q3: 2,111,000 people · published 17 August 20262015 Q4: 2,074,000 people · published 17 August 20262016 Q1: 2,100,000 people · published 17 August 20262016 Q2: 2,042,000 people · published 17 August 20262016 Q3: 2,007,000 people · published 17 August 20262016 Q4: 1,959,000 people · published 17 August 20262017 Q1: 1,991,000 people · published 17 August 20262017 Q2: 1,982,000 people · published 17 August 20262017 Q3: 2,055,000 people · published 17 August 20262017 Q4: 1,997,000 people · published 17 August 20262018 Q1: 1,977,000 people · published 17 August 20262018 Q2: 2,043,000 people · published 17 August 20262018 Q3: 2,000,000 people · published 17 August 20262018 Q4: 2,007,000 people · published 17 August 20262019 Q1: 2,012,000 people · published 17 August 20262019 Q2: 2,030,000 people · published 17 August 20262019 Q3: 2,062,000 people · published 17 August 20262019 Q4: 2,080,000 people · published 17 August 20262020 Q1: 2,229,000 people · published 17 August 20262020 Q2: 2,233,000 people · published 17 August 20262020 Q3: 2,327,000 people · published 17 August 20262020 Q4: 2,328,000 people · published 17 August 20262021 Q1: 2,307,000 people · published 17 August 20262021 Q2: 2,297,000 people · published 17 August 20262021 Q3: 2,396,000 people · published 17 August 20262021 Q4: 2,436,000 people · published 17 August 20262022 Q1: 2,440,000 people · published 17 August 20262022 Q2: 2,506,000 people · published 17 August 20262022 Q3: 2,636,000 people · published 17 August 20262022 Q4: 2,586,000 people · published 17 August 20262023 Q1: 2,699,000 people · published 17 August 20262023 Q2: 2,706,000 people · published 17 August 20262023 Q3: 2,742,000 people · published 17 August 20262023 Q4: 2,849,000 people · published 17 August 20262024 Q1: 2,824,000 people · published 17 August 20262024 Q2: 2,824,000 people · published 17 August 20262024 Q3: 2,793,000 people · published 17 August 20262024 Q4: 2,776,000 people · published 17 August 20262025 Q1: 2,775,000 people · published 17 August 20262025 Q2: 2,780,000 people · published 17 August 20262025 Q3: 2,826,000 people · published 17 August 20262025 Q4: 2,786,000 people · published 17 August 20262026 Q1: 2,772,000 people · published 17 August 20262026 Q2: 2,774,000 people · published 17 August 2026
Published valueProvisional or revisedLatestShaded bands: governments (see labels)Hover or use arrow keys to read a value

What this measures

The estimated number of people aged 16 to 64 who were economically inactive and gave long-term sickness as their main reason, seasonally adjusted.

What this doesn’t measure

Whether those people claim a health-related benefit, and what conditions they have. The reason is the one the respondent gave.

Important caveat

Labour Force Survey estimates come from a sample of households, so every figure has a margin of error and small changes between quarters may not be real. Response rates fell sharply after 2020; ONS suspended the survey's accredited official statistics status in 2024 and reintroduced it with reweighted estimates, so figures across that period are not a clean series. Civometry stores the calendar-quarter estimates because the monthly figures ONS publishes for these series are three-month rolling averages named after their final month.

Revision history

No period of this series has been revised since it was first ingested here. Revisions are recorded automatically when a later release publishes a different figure for the same period.

Source

Publisher
ONS
Publication
Labour market overview, UK (LMS time series)
Release
Labour market overview, UK: August 2026, published 17 August 2026
Source file
ons_labour_market.json
File SHA-256
9995a0293e3629add1cf76516e37f3e60f0be365343415867ab5fa687950e0fc
Retrieved
3 September 2026
Sheet
LMS
Table
LF69
Row
LFS: Econ. inactivity reasons: Long Term Sick: UK: 16-64:000s:SA
Column
2026 Q2
Cell value
2774 (× 1,000 = 2,774,000 people)
Geography
United Kingdom
Unit
people
API
/api/metrics/inactivity_long_term_sick · /series · /vintages

Related metrics

Government periods

Change during each government, from the level inherited to the last complete period before it left office. Describes the period; does not attribute cause.

Labour 2024–2,824,0002024 Q22,774,0002026 Q2↓ 1.8%
Conservative 2019–20242,062,0002019 Q32,824,0002024 Q2↑ 37.0%
Conservative 2017–20191,991,0002017 Q12,062,0002019 Q3↑ 3.6%
Conservative 2015–20172,026,0002015 Q11,991,0002017 Q1↓ 1.7%
Coalition 2010–20152,205,0002010 Q12,026,0002015 Q1↓ 8.1%
Labour 2005–20102,285,0002005 Q12,205,0002010 Q1↓ 3.5%
Labour 2001–20052,342,0002001 Q12,285,0002005 Q1↓ 2.4%
Labour 1997–20012,318,0001997 Q12,342,0002001 Q1↑ 1.0%

Full comparison with chart

Release
Labour market overview, UK: August 2026 · publication page
Last updated
17 August 2026
Next release expected
Not yet announced (estimated from the usual cadence)