Sickness absence rate, UK
Official statistics in development
The share of working hours lost to sickness absence in the UK each year since 1995, with the days lost and the days lost per worker, for people in employment aged 16 and over, from the ONS's sickness absence tables.
Working hours lost to sickness absence
2.0%
2025 · 148.8 million days lost, 4.4 days a worker
Verified against source, 9 November 2026, 15:21 UTCSource: Office for National Statistics. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Data table
31 periods, newest first
| Period | Sickness absence rate |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 2.0% |
| 2024 | 2.0% |
| 2023 | 2.3% |
| 2022 | 2.6% |
| 2021 | 2.2% |
| 2020 | 1.9% |
| 2019 | 1.9% |
| 2018 | 2.0% |
| 2017 | 1.9% |
| 2016 | 2.0% |
| 2015 | 2.0% |
| 2014 | 2.0% |
| 2013 | 2.0% |
| 2012 | 2.1% |
| 2011 | 2.1% |
| 2010 | 2.2% |
| 2009 | 2.3% |
| 2008 | 2.4% |
| 2007 | 2.5% |
| 2006 | 2.5% |
| 2005 | 2.5% |
| 2004 | 2.7% |
| 2003 | 2.8% |
| 2002 | 2.8% |
| 2001 | 2.8% |
| 2000 | 2.9% |
| 1999 | 3.0% |
| 1998 | 2.9% |
| 1997 | 3.0% |
| 1996 | 2.9% |
| 1995 | 3.1% |
Source and licence
- Publisher
- Office for National Statistics
- Check it yourself
- https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/sicknessabsenceinthelabourmarket
- Licence
- Open Government Licence v3.0 – Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Retrieved
- 9 November 2026, 15:00 UTC
- Raw files fetched
- https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/sicknessabsenceinthelabourmarket/dataSHA-256 9beafffe6d38a3c7de95b0ddec29f0db937a140d9bc9d72109dedcc2a3525fd8 · 2,343 bytes
- https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/sicknessabsenceinthelabourmarket/2025/dataSHA-256 44d32b9ba21598925eb19b2484472dfc85d005f73c95331214398c244d9fb761 · 355 bytes
- https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/sicknessabsenceinthelabourmarket/2025/sicknessabsence2025.xlsxSHA-256 db48feb756ce093952906fc432eb5a1983556adab25013966950e0bf7e90afc4 · 308,444 bytes
Verification
Verified against source, 9 November 2026, 15:21 UTC Run at 9 November 2026, 15:21 UTC; 31 of 31 figures matched the live source.
| Result | Check | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Pass | Provenance recorded | Office for National Statistics; Open Government Licence v3.0; retrieved 2026-11-09T15:00:09Z; 3 raw file(s) |
| Pass | Raw files match recorded SHA-256 | 3 of 3 files intact |
| Pass | Re-parsing raw files reproduces figures | 31 of 31 figures and the headline reproduced; the meta's days_lost and per_worker match |
| Pass | Figures are finite numbers | 31 figures, 0 invalid |
| Pass | Live source matches every figure | 31 of 31 figures match exactly after downloading 3 source file(s) again (3 byte-identical); the headline matches; the meta's days_lost and per_worker match |
| Pass | ONS edition is current | the 2025 edition counts at 2025-12-31, 313 days before retrieval (limit 600) |
| Pass | Table 4's total of every reason agrees | 17 of 17 cases of the years' days lost are Table 2's |
| Pass | Table 9a's United Kingdom agrees | 31 of 31 cases of the years' days lost are Table 2's |
| Pass | Source page answers | https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/sicknessabsenceinthelabourmarket – HTTP 200 |
Notes
- The sickness absence rate is the share of working hours lost because of sickness absence, for people in employment aged 16 and over, an annual average of the four quarters of the Labour Force Survey. The ONS says the rate is the most appropriate measure for comparing years.
- The days lost (meta, in millions) are the hours lost, divided by 7.5 and multiplied by 52, and the days per worker those days over everyone in employment; the ONS cautions against comparing 2020 and 2021's days lost with other years, since furloughed workers were away from work.
- From 2019 the Labour Force Survey is weighted to the 2022 mid-year population estimates, so 2018 and 2019 are not strictly comparable.