How many people work night shifts UK: Shift Work Prevalence
The median published figure in the Shift Work Prevalence is 22.50 percent across 2 sources' own pages (range 19 to 26 percent), read 12 October 2026.
2 of the 7 named sources read in full publish a figure; 5 publish none, read 12 October 2026.
The median is unchanged since 26 September 2026 (was 22.50 percent across 2).
Every figure, with its source
One row per published figure: the figure as the source's own page publishes it, the page, and the day it was read. A figure that is not on a page we read is not on this one.
| Source | Figure | Read |
|---|---|---|
| Greater London Authority - evening and night workers in London | 26% | 2026-10-12 |
| TUC - the health and safety impacts of night working | 19% | 2026-10-12 |
The sentence each figure was read from (2)
- Greater London Authority - evening and night workers in London, read 2026-10-12:
Around 1 in 4 (26%) people working in London were E&N workers in 2022.
- TUC - the health and safety impacts of night working, read 2026-10-12:
In 2017 19% of those in employment were engaged in shift work, 20% of males and 17% of females (ONS, 2018).
Read in full, publishes no figure
5 named sources were read in full on the dates shown and print no usable figure. They are counted, never filled in.
- ONS - Labour market overview, UK, read 2026-09-12: every candidate on the page was refused
- ONS - HOUR01 SA: actual weekly hours worked (dataset), read 2026-10-12: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- HSE - shift work and fatigue: common risks, read 2026-10-12: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- HSE - health and safety statistics, read 2026-09-12: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- TUC - 260,000 more people working at night in past five years, read 2026-09-12: every candidate on the page was refused
Methodology
Every row is a verbatim sentence read from the named source's own page through our fetch service on the date shown, hash-pinned to the stored read (the sha of the page's visible text; the raw page is mirrored to R2).
2 of the 7 named sources that could be read published a usable figure; 5 published none and are recorded as not published, never filled in; 1 could not be read (blocked, dead or unreachable) and count nowhere.
The headline figures (median, minimum, maximum, quartiles) are over ONE figure per source in % (a source's median where its page yielded several accepted sentences), so N counts sources, never sentences; 53 candidate sentence(s) were refused by a reviewer with the reason recorded.
The fuller derivation this dataset is chartered to grow into (not yet what the figures above are; they are each source's own published figure as read): the shift-work and night-work counts and shares from the official series, carried release by release with their definitions attached, so a pattern page can open on a measured figure ('5 million shift workers', HSE) rather than an assertion; the derivation is the comparison the publishers do not make - the official count beside the union's own Labour Force Survey analysis and the sub-national reading, each labelled with whose number it is, and the change over time computed on one consistent definition.
53 candidate sentences on these pages were refused by a reviewer; each refusal and its reason is recorded in the review ledger.
Sources (8)
- ONS - Labour market overview, UK(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- ONS - HOUR01 SA: actual weekly hours worked (dataset)(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- HSE - shift work and fatigue: common risks(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- HSE - health and safety statistics(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- Greater London Authority - evening and night workers in London(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- TUC - the health and safety impacts of night working(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- TUC - 260,000 more people working at night in past five years(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- ons.gov.uk(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
Cite or embed this figure
The median published figure in the Shift Work Prevalence is 22.50 percent across 2 sources' own pages (range 19 to 26 percent), read 12 October 2026.
2 of the 7 named sources read in full publish a figure; 5 publish none, read 12 October 2026.
The median is unchanged since 26 September 2026 (was 22.50 percent across 2).
Cite as: "shiftpatterngenerator.co.uk Shift Work Prevalence", updated 2026-10-22, https://shiftpatterngenerator.co.uk/datasets/shift-work-prevalence/.
Download the CSV (2 rows, computed 2026-10-22)
Questions this data answers
How many people in the UK work shifts and nights, in which industries and regions, and how has that moved?
The median published figure in the Shift Work Prevalence is 22.50 percent across 2 sources' own pages (range 19 to 26 percent), read 12 October 2026.
Where do the figures in the Shift Work Prevalence come from?
Every figure is quoted from its source's own page and dated (last read 12 Oct 2026). 7 named sources were read and 2 publish a figure; the 5 that publish none are recorded as not published, never estimated.