What is Stat-Xplore and how do I use it?

Stat-Xplore is DWP's free online tool for building your own tables of benefit statistics. Choose a dataset (for example Universal Credit people on UC), drag variables such as month, local authority or age onto the rows and columns, then download as CSV or Excel.

You can use it without an account, but registering lets you save tables and get an API key for the Open Data API. Our Stat-Xplore guide walks through a table step by step.

Official sources: Stat-Xplore · Stat-Xplore help

The latest figure

The newest value is at Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). More on it: People on Universal Credit (Great Britain).

When is the next figure out?

Quarterly bulletins on GOV.UK at 9:30am; the release to 14 May 2026 was published on 18 August 2026, the next (to 13 August 2026) is confirmed for 17 November 2026 and the following for 16 February 2027. Detailed monthly data are in Stat-Xplore, whose API needs a free key

Every official release due in the next two weeks is on the release calendar.

Terms used in this answer

• Claimant count
  The number of people claiming benefits principally because they are unemployed: Jobseeker's Allowance and Universal Credit claimants required to look for work.
• Administrative data
  Information collected by organisations while running a service, such as tax records, benefit claims or hospital activity, and then used to produce statistics.
• Great Britain and the United Kingdom
  Great Britain is England, Scotland and Wales. The United Kingdom is Great Britain plus Northern Ireland. Some statistics cover only one or the other.
• Headcount
  A count of individual people, each counted once regardless of how many hours they work or how many posts they hold.

Where the figures come from

• UK tax rates, allowances and taxpayer statistics (GOV.UK, HMRC, OBR, Revenue Scotland and Welsh Revenue Authority)
  Where to check official UK income tax bands, National Insurance, VAT, stamp duty, inheritance tax and taxpayer numbers, and how to test tax claims.
• UK labour market statistics (ONS, Nomis and the gender pay gap reporting service)
  How to find official UK figures on jobs, vacancies, zero-hours contracts, strikes, public sector jobs, sickness, inactivity and pay gaps, and check claims.
• Social care, childcare and children's social care statistics (DHSC, NHS England, Skills for Care, DfE, ONS and devolved bodies)
  Where to find official figures on care homes, social care staff, delayed discharge, unpaid carers, free childcare, childcare costs and children in care.

Related questions

• How many people claim Universal Credit?
• How many people claim benefits in the UK?
• How many people claim PIP?

This answer says where the official figures are published and how they are defined. It gives no verdict on any claim. To report an error, send a correction request. More questions about benefits and pensions: all Benefits and pensions questions.