AQW 19880/22-27 Written question to the Minister for Communities

To ask the Minister for Communities to detail the number of (i) adults; (ii) and children living in (a) relative poverty; and (b) absolute poverty in the last five years, broken down by local council area.

Asked by Kate Nicholl MLA on 13 December 2024

Answered
Written
After due date

Tabled: 13 December 2024
Answer due by: 3 January 2025
Answered: 6 January 202524 days after tabling
Department: Department for Communities
Priority question: No

Answer

Official measures of absolute and relative poverty for NI are derived from the Family Resources Survey (FRS). Due to the uncertainty around estimates at lower levels, the Department only publishes poverty rates at local council area level for the whole NI population, and not specifically for adults.

Further information regarding the Family Resources Survey and NI poverty statistics can be found at the link below.

https://www.communities-ni.gov.uk/topics/family-resources-survey-and-poverty-analysis

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) annually release official statistics for “Children in low income families: local area statistics”. The number of children in each local authority in NI estimated to be living in poverty in the last five years are presented in the tables below.

Table 1: Estimated Number of Children (aged under 16) living in Relative
Poverty (Before Housing Costs), by Local Authority, 2018/19 to 2022/23

Local Authority	2018/19	2019/20	2020/21	2021/22	2022/23 (p)
Antrim and Newtownabbey	4,808	5,012	5,271	4,663	4,922
Ards and North Down	4,764	5,016	5,227	4,424	4,495
Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon	8,977	8,762	10,509	9,027	9,453
Belfast	16,733	16,417	15,458	14,586	15,327
Causeway Coast and Glens	5,847	5,752	6,367	5,519	5,827
Derry City and Strabane	8,491	7,792	7,625	6,840	6,944
Fermanagh and Omagh	4,721	4,920	5,543	4,819	4,935
Lisburn and Castlereagh	3,737	4,075	4,274	3,708	3,893
Mid and East Antrim	4,709	5,032	5,244	4,488	4,695
Mid Ulster	5,826	6,143	7,107	6,263	6,491
Newry, Mourne and Down	8,723	8,734	9,780	8,680	9,002

(p) provisional

Table 2: Estimated Number of Children (aged under 16) living in Absolute
Poverty (Before Housing Costs), by Local Authority, 2018/19 to 2022/23

Local Authority	2018/19	2019/20	2020/21	2021/22	2022/23 (p)
Antrim and Newtownabbey	3,933	4,041	3,963	3,618	3,868
Ards and North Down	3,864	3,981	3,863	3,357	3,438
Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon	7,453	7,109	8,011	7,044	7,516
Belfast	13,420	12,936	11,064	10,973	11,835
Causeway Coast and Glens	4,826	4,674	4,818	4,251	4,611
Derry City and Strabane	7,071	6,167	5,611	5,280	5,457
Fermanagh and Omagh	3,934	4,154	4,402	3,800	4,063
Lisburn and Castlereagh	3,050	3,296	3,214	2,828	3,006
Mid and East Antrim	3,903	3,992	3,994	3,503	3,791
Mid Ulster	4,932	5,002	5,501	4,997	5,294
Newry, Mourne and Down	7,338	7,142	7,597	6,973	7,330

(p) provisional

Further information regarding the Children in Low Income Families (CILIF) statistics can be found at the link below.

www.gov.uk/government/collections/children-in-low-income-families-local-area-statistics

To ask the Minister for Communities to detail the number of (i) adults; (ii) and children living in (a) relative poverty; and (b) absolute poverty in the last five years, broken down by local council area.

Answer

Official sources

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