Economic activity by General health by Provision of unpaid care (Great Britain) 2011

Dataset population: Persons aged 16 and over

Economic activity

Economic activity relates to whether or not a person who was aged 16 and over was working or looking for work in the week before census. Rather than a simple indicator of whether or not someone was currently in employment, it provides a measure of whether or not a person was an active participant in the labour market.

A person's economic activity is derived from their 'activity last week'. This is an indicator of their status or availability for employment - whether employed, unemployed, or their status if not employed and not seeking employment. Additional information included in the economic activity classification is also derived from information about the number of hours a person works and their type of employment - whether employed or self-employed.

The census concept of economic activity is compatible with the standard for economic status defined by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). It is one of a number of definitions used internationally to produce accurate and comparable statistics on employment, unemployment and economic status.

General health

General health is a self-assessment of a person's general state of health. People were asked to assess whether their health was very good, good, fair, bad or very bad.

For England and Wales, this assessment is not based on a person's health over any specified period of time.

For Northern Ireland, 'General health' refers to a person's health over the 12 months prior to Census day (27 March 2011).

Provision of unpaid care

A person is a provider of unpaid care if they look after or give help or support to family members, friends, neighbours or others because of long-term physical or mental ill-health or disability, or problems related to old age.

This does not include any activities as part of paid employment. No distinction is made about whether any care that a person provides is within their own household or outside the household, so no explicit link can be made about whether the care provided is for a person within the household who has poor general health or a long-term health problem or disability.