Under-25 claims rose 21% in a year, against 10% across the UK, and drove half the district's increase. Leamington Brunswick has the highest rate at 3.6%.

There were 480 people aged 18 to 24 claiming unemployment-related benefits in Warwick district in July, 85 more than a year earlier. That is a rise of 21.5%, more than double the 9.7% recorded across the UK.

Young people account for almost half the district’s whole increase. The total claimant count rose by 175 over the year, from 2,220 to 2,395. Under-25s supplied 85 of those.

The figures are the ONS claimant count for July 2026, the latest month published, taken from nomis.

The district total is still low, and still rising faster than the country

Warwick district’s claimant count is 2,395, or 2.4% of residents aged 16 to 64. On its own that is an unremarkable number.

The direction is the story. The district’s count rose 7.9% in a year. The UK figure rose 1.3% and the West Midlands 0.8%.

Every Warwickshire district rose faster than the UK:

District July 2025 July 2026 Change
Stratford-on-Avon 1,635 1,840 +12.5%
North Warwickshire 1,065 1,165 +9.4%
Rugby 2,045 2,220 +8.6%
Warwick 2,220 2,395 +7.9%
Nuneaton and Bedworth 3,545 3,665 +3.4%
United Kingdom 1,668,595 1,690,970 +1.3%

Warwick is fourth of the county’s five districts on that measure. On the under-25 rise it is third. Stratford-on-Avon’s young claimant count jumped 41.3% in a year, North Warwickshire’s 23.3%, Warwick’s 21.5%, Rugby’s 18.9% and Nuneaton and Bedworth’s 16.3%.

Where the rise sits by age

Only one age band in the district rose by more than 20%.

Age July 2025 July 2026 Change
18 to 24 395 480 +21.5%
25 to 29 235 275 +17.0%
30 to 34 240 250 +4.2%
35 to 39 290 280 -3.4%
40 to 44 280 270 -3.6%
45 to 49 210 235 +11.9%
50 to 54 200 190 -5.0%
55 to 59 175 190 +8.6%
60 to 64 155 175 +12.9%

The pattern is a rise at both ends and a dip in the middle. Claims fell among people in their late thirties, early forties and early fifties. They rose among the under-30s and again from 55 upwards.

Two years of data make the young end clearer. In July 2024 there were 385 claimants aged 18 to 24 in the district. The figure is now 480, a rise of 24.7% over two years.

Which ward you live in matters more than the district average

The district average of 2.4% hides a spread from 3.6% down to 1.4%.

Claimant count rate by ward, Warwick district, July 2026 Horizontal bar chart of the claimant count as a percentage of residents aged 16 to 64 in each of the 17 Warwick district wards in July 2026. Leamington Brunswick 3.6 per cent; Warwick All Saints & Woodloes 3.5 per cent; Leamington Clarendon 3.2 per cent; Warwick Aylesford 3.2 per cent; Leamington Willes 2.7 per cent; Warwick Saltisford 2.7 per cent; Leamington Lillington 2.6 per cent; Warwick Myton & Heathcote 2.4 per cent; Bishop's Tachbrook 2.3 per cent; Kenilworth Park Hill 2.2 per cent; Whitnash 2.1 per cent; Leamington Milverton 1.9 per cent; Radford Semele 1.9 per cent; Budbrooke 1.7 per cent; Kenilworth St John's 1.5 per cent; Cubbington & Leek Wootton 1.4 per cent; Kenilworth Abbey & Arden 1.4 per cent. Leamington Brunswick has the district's highest claimant rate Claimants as a share of residents aged 16 to 64, Warwick district wards, July 2026 0% 1% 2% 3% 4% Leamington Brunswick 3.6% Warwick All Saints & Woodloes 3.5% Leamington Clarendon 3.2% Warwick Aylesford 3.2% Leamington Willes 2.7% Warwick Saltisford 2.7% Leamington Lillington 2.6% Warwick Myton & Heathcote 2.4% Bishop's Tachbrook 2.3% Kenilworth Park Hill 2.2% Whitnash 2.1% Leamington Milverton 1.9% Radford Semele 1.9% Budbrooke 1.7% Kenilworth St John's 1.5% Cubbington & Leek Wootton 1.4% Kenilworth Abbey & Arden 1.4% Darker bars are Leamington Spa wards. Source: ONS claimant count via nomis, July 2026. Counts are rounded to the nearest five. Graphic by The Leamington Post
Claimant rate by ward, Warwick district, July 2026. The 17 ward counts sum exactly to the district total of 2,395.

Leamington Brunswick, at 3.6%, has the highest rate of any ward in the district, with 280 claimants. Warwick All Saints and Woodloes is next at 3.5%, then Leamington Clarendon and Warwick Aylesford, both 3.2%.

At the other end, Kenilworth Abbey and Arden and Cubbington and Leek Wootton both sit at 1.4%, and Kenilworth St John’s at 1.5%. Three of the district’s four lowest-rate wards are in Kenilworth.

Four of the seven highest are in Leamington Spa. Leamington Brunswick’s rate is two and a half times Kenilworth Abbey and Arden’s, in a district you can drive across in half an hour.

What it means for you

The claimant count is not the unemployment rate. It counts people receiving Jobseeker’s Allowance, plus people on Universal Credit who are required to look for work to stay eligible. Some of them have a job and are working limited hours. Some unemployed people are not counted at all, because they do not qualify for or do not claim the benefit. The ONS is explicit that the measure does not attempt to measure unemployment.

So a 21.5% rise among under-25s does not mean 21.5% more young people out of work in Leamington, Warwick and Kenilworth. It does mean 85 more young people in a position where the benefit system requires them to be looking for work, in a district where the overall count moved much less.

Three practical points if you want to check this yourself:

  • Small ward numbers move for small reasons. Nomis rounds ward figures to the nearest five, so a ward that appears to shift by five claimants may not have shifted at all. The district and age figures are steadier than month-to-month ward wobbles.
  • Do not compare this UK total with the ONS bulletin headline. The nomis series used here gives a UK total of 1,690,970 for July 2026, on a different basis from the published bulletin. Compare like with like, which is what the table above does.
  • The figures are updated monthly and are free to look up by ward at nomisweb.co.uk.

For the other half of the household picture in this district, our Leamington house prices page tracks what homes actually sell for, and our planning news page covers the housing the councils propose to build.

Sources

  • ONS claimant count, via nomis, dataset “Claimant count by sex and age” (NM_162_1), for every figure quoted: the Warwick district totals and rates for July 2024, July 2025 and July 2026; the age breakdown; the five Warwickshire districts, the West Midlands and the UK; and the 17 ward counts and rates for July 2026. Counts are rounded to the nearest five.
  • Claimant count methodology, Office for National Statistics, for what the measure includes, the Universal Credit work-search condition and why it is not the unemployment rate.

Update, 17 September 2026: the ONS has since revised the July 2026 figures, as it routinely does for the latest month. Nomis now gives the Warwick district total as 2,340, not 2,395, and the 18 to 24 count as 475, not 480. The figures above are as first published. The August count, 2,425, is the highest since December 2021: read our August report.