The UK’s late-night economy is much larger than bars, restaurants and clubs alone. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) counted about 8.7 million night-time workers in April–June 2022, equal to 27% of the UK workforce. The definition covers work between 6pm and 6am, including people who also work during the day. This makes the figures useful for understanding the wider labour market behind late-night hospitality, transport, healthcare, retail and entertainment.
Contents
- Scale and trend
- Gender and working patterns
- Industries and occupations
- Age and place of birth
- Regional and London employment
- Pay, homeworking and spending
Scale and trend
The ONS estimate for April–June 2022 was 8.7 million night-time workers, or 26.7% of the UK workforce. That total includes people who usually work in the evening or at night, whether or not they also work during the day. It is therefore a measure of workers connected to night-time schedules, not a count of people working exclusively overnight.
The longer trend shows a smaller night-time workforce than earlier in the decade. The number of UK night-time workers was 700,000 lower in 2022 than in 2016. The night-time share of the workforce reached a high of 30.8% in 2014 before falling to 26.7% in April–June 2022.
The ONS working-pattern breakdown helps explain what sits inside the headline. In April–June 2022, 4% of the UK workforce usually worked in the evening or at night but not during the day. A further 23% usually worked during the day as well as in the evening or at night. The remaining 73% usually worked only during the day.
For bar and venue managers, the distinction matters. A late shift may be the defining schedule for one employee, while another employee may combine daytime and evening work. Workforce planning based only on “night workers” as an exclusive category would miss much of the labour supply supporting evening service.
The ONS source, “The night-time economy, UK: 2022” reports the UK estimates and the 6pm-to-6am definition.
Gender and working patterns
Almost 4.9 million UK night-time workers were male in April–June 2022, representing 56% of the total. Almost 3.9 million were female, representing 44%. The balance was somewhat more male than the overall workforce profile, but the night-time economy still included millions of women.
The ONS recorded a similar but slightly more male distribution in 2012: men represented 58% of UK night-time workers and women 42%. Across that period, the reported shares moved closer together, with the female share reaching 44% in 2022.
London’s 2023 figures show a comparable pattern at city level. London had 796,000 male night workers, or 60% of its night workforce, and 525,000 female night workers, or 40%. These London estimates are based primarily on Labour Force Survey measures by place of work, so they should be read separately from the UK April–June 2022 estimates.
Working-time arrangements were also mixed in London. About 20% of London evening-and-night workers worked part-time in 2022. Among London evening-and-night workers who worked nights, 53% were in jobs involving shift work. These figures point to two practical features of late-night staffing: part-time availability is material, and shift patterns are not confined to hospitality.
Industries and occupations
Night-time employment is distributed across essential services and consumer-facing businesses. In 2022, human health and social work night-time workers equalled 4.3% of the entire UK workforce and accounted for 18.7% of all UK night-time workers. Accommodation and food service night-time workers equalled 2.7% of all UK workers, as did night-time workers in wholesale and retail.
The ONS industry groupings show how strongly schedules vary by sector. Night-time cultural and leisure activities had the highest within-group share of night-time workers, at 58.3% in April–June 2022. Predominantly daytime industries had the lowest within-group share, at 17.1%. Four designated night-time industry groupings together contained 60% of all UK night-time workers.
The following figures describe different denominators, so they should not be added together. The first column measures the group’s night-time workers against all UK workers; the second identifies the share of all night-time workers where the ONS supplied it.
| Industry measure | Statistic | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Human health and social work night-time workers as a share of all UK workers | 4.3% | April–June 2022 |
| Human health and social work share of all night-time workers | 18.7% | April–June 2022 |
| Accommodation and food service night-time workers as a share of all UK workers | 2.7% | April–June 2022 |
| Wholesale and retail night-time workers as a share of all UK workers | 2.7% | April–June 2022 |
| Night-time cultural and leisure activities within-group night-time share | 58.3% | April–June 2022 |
| Four designated night-time industry groupings’ share of all night-time workers | 60% | April–June 2022 |
Occupational data also show that late-night work is not synonymous with one type of job. Professional occupations made up 23% of all UK night-time workers in 2022. Elementary occupations made up 15%, while caring, leisure and other service occupations made up 13%. For bar operations, the last category is especially relevant, but the wider figures show that night work also includes professional, technical and essential-service roles.
Age and place of birth
Age composition is particularly important for hospitality recruitment. Workers aged 16 to 19 represented 18.6% of night-time cultural and leisure workers in April–June 2022, compared with 3.0% of the UK workforce overall. More than 40% of night-time cultural and leisure workers were under 24.
The London evidence shows an older component alongside that younger cultural and leisure workforce. Workers aged 25 to 44 made up 50% of London’s evening-and-night workforce in 2022. The share represented by workers aged 55 to 64 increased from 12% in 2017 to 16% in 2022.
Place of birth also differentiates night-time employment. People born outside the UK made up 23.1% of UK night-time workers in 2022, compared with 17.8% of purely daytime workers. The number of night-time workers born outside the UK rose 32.6%, from 1.5 million in 2012 to 2.0 million in 2022.
The change was especially marked in 24-hour health and personal social services, where the number of workers born outside the UK rose 69.1% to 0.5 million between 2012 and 2022. Over the same period, the number of UK-born night-time workers fell from 7.4 million to 6.8 million. In 24-hour health and personal social services, UK-born workers fell 4.0% to 1.3 million.
London’s Night-time work in London report also reported that 34% of workers aged 16 to 20 were night workers in 2023.
Regional and London employment
Night-time employment is geographically concentrated, but it is not exclusively metropolitan. More than 30% of workers in Wales were night-time workers in 2022. In England, 68% of night-time workers worked in predominantly urban local authorities, 19% worked in predominantly rural local authorities and 13% worked in mixed rural–urban local authorities.
London’s scale has changed over time. London had 1.60 million night workers, representing 30% of its workforce, in 2017. By 2023, the city had 1.32 million night workers, equal to 25% of its workforce. A separate London series reported that workers working any late nights fell from 615,000 in 2015 to 507,000 in 2023. These measures use different descriptions of night work and should not be treated as interchangeable totals.
| London measure | Earlier figure | Later figure |
|---|---|---|
| Night workers | 1.60 million, 2017 | 1.32 million, 2023 |
| Night-worker share of workforce | 30%, 2017 | 25%, 2023 |
| Workers working any late nights | 615,000, 2015 | 507,000, 2023 |
Of London’s 1.32 million night workers in 2023, 581,000 lived in Outer London, 544,000 lived in Inner London and 222,000 lived outside London. Westminster contained 6.8% of London’s night workers. Relative to daytime workers, Redbridge had the highest reported night-worker share at 35%, while Havering and Harrow each had a 34% share.
The London figures are useful for venue planning because they separate where night workers live from the wider geography of the city’s labour market. They also show that a city-centre venue can rely on workers who commute from outside the central area or from outside London.
Pay, homeworking and spending
Pay data show a stronger concentration of low-paid work in night-time industries. In 2022, low-paid employees represented 10.5% of all UK employees, compared with 15.1% of employees in UK night-time industries. In night-time cultural and leisure industries, the share was 38.5%.
High-paid employees represented 23.7% of all UK employees but 16.1% of employees in night-time industries in 2022. The ONS notes that industry pay measures cover all employees in industries classified as night-time industries, rather than only people directly observed working at night. The 2022 ASHE pay estimates were provisional.
London’s pay series records a reduction in the number of night-time-industry employees earning below the London Living Wage: from 378,000 in 2015 to 257,000 in 2022. The series is an employee count, not a percentage of all London night-time workers.
Homeworking was less common among night-time workers than among purely daytime workers in 2022. Fifteen percent of UK night-time workers worked from home, equivalent to 1.3 million people. Among purely daytime workers, 25.1% worked from home, equivalent to 6.0 million people.
The longer pre-2022 series shows that homeworking had already been rising before the later estimate. The share of UK night-time workers working from home rose from 4.7% in 2012 to 5.8% in 2019. For purely daytime workers, it rose from 3.0% to 4.4% over the same period.
Finally, a spending snapshot illustrates the importance of food-led trade during late hours. Restaurants accounted for 42% of UK in-person spending between 6pm and 6am during 7–14 November 2022. This was a Revolut spending-data snapshot and was not representative of all UK consumers, so it is best used as a dated indicator of activity rather than a general market share.