Blackpool Has Highest NEET Rate for Young People in England, ONS Census Data Shows

Age-standardised figures from the 2021 Census put more than one in five young men in Blackpool outside education, employment and training — nearly four times the rate recorded in the best-performing areas.

More than one in five young men in Blackpool were not in education, employment or training on Census Day, the Office for National Statistics has confirmed. The figures show that after accounting for differences in age structure between areas, 22.2 per cent of young males and 20.4 per cent of young females in Blackpool were classed as NEET on 21 March 2021 — the highest age-standardised rates for both sexes across local authorities in England.

The gap between the best and worst-performing areas is stark. Bath and North East Somerset recorded the lowest age-standardised NEET rate for young males at 6.1 per cent, compared with Blackpool’s 22.2 per cent — a difference of more than 16 percentage points. York recorded the lowest rate for young females at 4.6 per cent, compared with Blackpool’s 20.4 per cent.

The ONS analysis uses 2021 Census data linked with other sources and covers 16- to 24-year-olds not in formal education or training and not in paid employment. Age-standardisation adjusts for the fact that different local authority areas have different proportions of younger and older people within that age band, making comparisons between places more reliable. The ONS does not routinely publish subnational NEET figures in its quarterly bulletins; this Census-based work is a specific piece of analysis providing local authority-level detail that isn’t otherwise available.

Nationally, the picture in early 2026 looks somewhat different. ONS quarterly labour market statistics for January to March 2026 put the UK-wide NEET rate for 16- to 24-year-olds at 13.5 per cent — 14.4 per cent for young men and 12.5 per cent for young women. But those figures come from the Labour Force Survey and cannot be directly compared with the Census-based local authority estimates, which use a different methodology and a different reference point in time.

For Kent, there is no verified Census-based NEET percentage in the available ONS material. What is known is that Kent County Council, which has a statutory duty to track and support the participation of 16- and 17-year-olds, reported that its NEET figures for 2021/22 were the lowest for three years and that the proportion of young people whose activity was “not known” was the lowest for four years. Kent’s local monitoring draws on Department for Education participation data and the council’s own management information rather than the ONS Census analysis.

Young people in Kent classed as NEET or at risk of becoming so may be eligible for support through study programmes, traineeships, apprenticeships, and targeted employment schemes backed by the DfE or the Department for Work and Pensions. Kent County Council’s Education and Skills services and local Jobcentre Plus offices are among the bodies providing that support.