Within English regions, the gender pension gap is highest in the South-West and lowest in the East Midlands (2).
The gender pension gap ranged from 25.2% in Northern Ireland to 46.9% in the South-West of England.
The vast majority of nations and regions had a gender pension gap in the range of 36% to 42%.
Sue Ferns, Prospect’s senior deputy general secretary commented:
“These figures show that the gender pension gap is a problem in every part of the UK and further demonstrate the need for action to address it.”
The regional gender pension gap figures can all be broken down into a relatively low gender gap in state pension income and a much higher gender gap in private pension income.
Sue Ferns added: “It’s important to draw the right conclusions from this data. A low gender pension gap may simply be a result of relatively low levels of private sector pension income in that region. Clearly low levels of private pension income are nothing to celebrate. It’s important to tackle the gender pension gap the right way, by measures that actually boost pension entitlement for women. One of the best ways of doing this is through better recognition of caring responsibilities in the pension system.”
(1) Estimated gender pension gap by UK nation according to Prospect analysis of 2016-17 Family Resources Survey datasets
|
Gender pension gap by nation (2016-17) |
|
|
UK |
39.4% |
|
England |
40.6% |
|
Wales |
38.9% |
|
Scotland |
38.2% |
|
Northern Ireland |
25.2% |
(2) Estimated gender pension gap by English region according to Prospect analysis of 2016-17 Family Resources Survey datasets
|
Gender pension gap by English region (2016-17) |
|
|
North-East |
36.9% |
|
North-West |
41.5% |
|
Yorks & the Humber |
36.0% |
|
East Midlands |
34.3% |
|
West Midlands |
37.4% |
|
East of England |
37.9% |
|
London |
38.7% |
|
South-East |
41.9% |
|
South-West |
46.9% |