ScotlandCounted

Children

More than one in three Glasgow children is growing up poor

Ten years ago the figure was 27.1%. It is now 36.1% — the biggest rise of any Scottish council area.
Getting worse
36.1%

of Glasgow's children in poverty in 2023/24, after housing costs

What this means

More than 1 in 3 children in Glasgow are growing up poor. That is 39,319 children.

Ten years ago it was about 1 in 4. Things are getting worse, not better.

Children living in poverty, after the rent is paid

Share of children aged 0–15 · 2014/15 – 2023/24 · End Child Poverty / Loughborough University

GlasgowScotland
See the numbers behind this chart
Financial yearGlasgowScotland
2014/1527.1%21.6%
2015/1629.5%22.8%
2016/1729.6%23.3%
2017/1830.9%24.2%
2018/1931.0%23.1%
2019/2032.2%24.2%
2020/2129.4%20.9%
2021/2232.0%23.9%
2022/2332.9%24.5%
2023/2436.1%23.3%
The dip in 2020/21 is the pandemic. Benefits went up — the extra £20 a week on Universal Credit, plus furlough — and child poverty fell. The support was withdrawn, and it went straight back up.
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The technical detail

These are relative poverty figures after housing costs: children in households with less than 60% of median UK income once rent or mortgage is paid.

The Scotland figure is not published directly in this dataset. It is recomputed here by summing the 32 council-area counts and dividing by the implied child populations. That method reproduces the published Scottish rate of 24.5% for 2022/23, which is how I know it is sound.

Where Glasgow sits

Glasgow's 9.0 percentage point rise is the largest of Scotland's 32 council areas — more than double the next steepest. It also has the highest rate. See every council area ranked.

Where this comes from

  • Local child poverty estimates after housing costs, 2015–2024End Child Poverty / Loughborough University
    Child poverty rates and counts for Glasgow and all 32 Scottish council areas. The Scotland-wide rate is not published in this dataset. I recompute it by summing the 32 council counts and dividing by the implied child populations. The method reproduces the published Scottish rate of 24.5% for 2022/23.

Every number here is checkable

Open the data table above, or download the whole dataset. If you find an error, I will correct it and say so publicly.