Long-term sickness, studying, caring for family and retirement between them account for around six in seven of the UK's 9.1 million economically inactive 16- to 64-year-olds. Long-term sickness is now the largest single reason, though both the quarterly and annual change in the headline total sit inside the data's own margin of error.
Some 9.11 million people aged 16 to 64 in the UK were economically inactive in March to May 2026 — not in work and not looking for work — according to the Office for National Statistics's latest Labour Force Survey estimates.1 The inactivity rate was 20.9%.1
That is little changed on either the quarter or the year. The level rose by 25,000 since March to May 2025 and fell by 15,000 since the previous quarter — but both moves are smaller than the survey's own published sampling variability, of ±249,000 and ±156,000 respectively, so neither should be read as a genuine shift.1 The story in the data is less about a fresh spike than about who makes up the total.
The ONS also publishes a breakdown of why people are inactive, though the most recent edition covers January to March 2026 — a slightly earlier three-month window than the headline figure, when the total stood at 9.10 million.2 Four reasons dominate. Long-term sickness accounts for 2.78 million people, more than any other single cause. Being a student accounts for 2.46 million, looking after family or the home for 1.56 million, and retirement for 1.03 million. Together these four reasons cover 86% of that quarter's total; the remainder is split between temporary sickness, discouraged workers, and other or unstated reasons.3
Long-term sickness has driven most of the growth in inactivity since the pandemic. The number of people out of work because of long-term illness has risen by 546,000, or 24%, since January to March 2020 — even as the other three categories have each fallen back towards, or below, their pre-pandemic levels over the same period.3 More recently, though, the long-term-sick total has plateaued: it has moved in a narrow band around 2.78 million to 2.80 million for roughly two years, rather than continuing to climb.3
The reasons breakdown and the headline total come from different three-month windows, so the 86% share describes the current split rather than an exact reconciliation with the 9.11 million figure above. The ONS does not publish a reasons breakdown by age, sex or nation at this level of recency, so this piece cannot say which groups are driving the plateau in long-term sickness, or whether it reflects a genuine ceiling, NHS referral and diagnosis capacity, or a change in how people describe their own status. LFS estimates are labelled "official statistics in development" rather than accredited statistics, and the ONS itself advises focusing on longer-run movements rather than single-quarter changes.1