Political Grades UK · Beta › The Four Nations
The Four Nations
England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland on the ONS headline labour-market measures, Apr 2025-Mar 2026. Reported, not scored — and the reason is printed below, not buried.
| Nation | Employment rate, 16–64 | Unemployment rate, 16+ |
|---|---|---|
| England | 75.8% ±0.3 | 4.6% ±0.2 |
| Northern Ireland | 74.1% ±1.3 | 2.1% ±0.5 |
| Scotland | 74.6% ±0.9 | 4.0% ±0.4 |
| Wales | 72.1% ±0.9 | 4.3% ±0.5 |
Why these are not grades
Context, not grades: UK labour-market outcomes are heavily shaped by reserved UK-wide policy (macroeconomics, most taxation, employment law), so attributing them to a devolved government is a far weaker claim than attributing a US state's outcomes to its governor. This table reports; it does not score.
Employment rate covers ages 16-64; unemployment rate covers 16+ as a share of the economically active — two different bases by ONS convention, never one denominator. The period is a 12-month rolling survey year, not a calendar year. APS is a survey: each figure carries its published ± confidence value, and small-nation estimates (Northern Ireland especially) carry the widest.
Source: ONS Annual Population Survey via the official Nomis API. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Refreshed nightly.