Number of people living in poverty lower than previously thought

The number of people living in poverty in Northern Ireland is lower than previously thought, new official figures suggest.

It comes after a change in how the figures are collected, making use of benefits data rather than relying on surveys.

Under the old survey measure in 2023 18% of people were estimated to be living in relative poverty after paying their housing costs.

That changed to 14% under the new measurement, with pensioner poverty measured at just 7% rather than 12%.

The anti-poverty charity, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said the figures should not be seen as "true fall" in poverty, rather "a more accurate measurement of incomes in the UK".

The change to the way the data is collected now makes it harder to compare long term trends.

However the figures do show that poverty increased sharply after the energy price shock in 2022/23 before falling back in the following years.

An individual is considered to be in relative poverty if they are living in a household with an income below 60% of the typical UK income.

The most recent figures, for 2024, suggest 12% of people in NI were living in poverty, equivalent to 232,000 people.

Around 67,000 children or 15% were living in poverty with around 26,000 pensioners or 8% living in poverty.

The Department for Communities, which produces the figures in NI, said: " In general, the inclusion of administrative benefit data leads to higher recorded incomes and therefore lower poverty rates than previously published estimates."

The measurement changes have been applied to poverty statistics across the UK.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies, a think tank, has cautioned that the new statistics are not necessarily "closer to 'true' poverty than the old statistics".

It said this is because other imperfections in the data remain, adding "some of these may also push poverty estimates upwards, while others are likely to push them downwards, and we do not yet know which effects are largest".