Gwahaniaethu a rhagfarn oed yn y gweithle (Arolwg Cenedlaethol Cymru): Ebrill 2024 i Fawrth 2025

One of the topics on the National Survey for Wales from April 2024 to March 2025 was workplace discrimination and ageism. 

During that period the survey involved around 6,000 people aged 16 and over. It took place in 2 parts, the first was an interview in-person or over the phone. The second part was completed by the respondent, either online or on the interviewer’s tablet. The age discrimination questions were asked in the interviewer-led section, whilst the workplace discrimination and bullying questions were a part of the online section and were asked of all employed people, plus self-employed people who did most of their work for one company.

Some fieldwork issues were encountered: lower response rates than previous years, smaller sample sizes, and some differences in the sample composition. More information can be found in the quality and methodology information section. Due to the smaller sample sizes, the confidence intervals around estimates are wider than in previous years. This is particularly true for smaller geographies and population sub-groups.

However, it is still appropriate to use these statistics. At a national level the survey continues to provide reasonable estimates, particularly when used alongside alternative sources. The smaller sample size means that some detailed breakdowns of the data on workplace discrimination and ageism are not possible in this release.

• 10% of working people had experienced discrimination while at work.
• 14% of people aged 16 to 24, or 50+ had experienced age discrimination at work or when looking for work.
• 6% felt that younger workers were favoured in their organisation.
• 3% felt that older workers were favoured.
• 11% had been bullied or harassed at work.

People experiencing age discrimination were more likely to:

• have a high level of anxiety
• not feel a sense of community in their local area

People experiencing workplace discrimination were more likely to:

• have a limiting long-term illness or disability
• be gay, lesbian, bisexual or have another sexual orientation other than heterosexual
• have a low level of happiness

People being bullied at work were more likely to:

• have a limiting long-term illness or disability
• be gay, lesbian, bisexual or have another sexual orientation other than heterosexual
• be aged 45 to 64
• have a high level of anxiety

From April 2024 to March 2025, people aged under 25, or 50+ were asked if they felt they had experienced age discrimination either at work, or while looking for work. 14% of these groups reported experiencing ageism. This result is similar when compared with the last time this question was asked, from April 2019 to March 2020.

Regression analysis was carried out to investigate the characteristics of people who experienced age discrimination. This analysis highlights independent links between certain characteristics and experiencing ageism – links which are apparent even when a range of other factors is controlled for. However, the analysis cannot attribute cause and effect for these links or take account of factors not measured in the survey. See quality information for more details.

Out of a wide range of factors, only 4 were found to have a link with experiencing age discrimination.

1. Having medium or high levels of anxiety.
2. Not feeling there is a sense of community in the local area.
3. Working a fixed-term contract.
4. Living in an area with high incomes on average.

People reporting medium or high levels of anxiety were more likely to have experienced ageism.

Figure 1: people experiencing age discrimination by level of anxiety, April 2024 to March 2025

Image

Description of figure 1: bar chart showing whether people had experienced age discrimination, grouped by levels of anxiety they felt. People who felt high or medium levels of anxiety were more likely to have experienced age discrimination (20% and 21%, respectively) than people reporting low or very low levels of anxiety (both 9%). 

Source: National Survey for Wales, April 2024 to March 2025

Another factor linked with experiencing age discrimination was not feeling that there was a sense of community in the local area. 10% of people who agreed that there was a sense of community in their local area had experienced age discrimination, compared with 18% of people who did not feel that there was a sense of community having experienced age discrimination.

Additionally, working a fixed-term contract, as well as living in a higher income area, as defined by the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation, were also found to be linked with experiencing work-related ageism. However, proportions of people experiencing ageism were similar within these groups.

The following factors were tested but were not found to be independently linked with experiencing work-related ageism:

• being either aged under 25, or 50+
• sex
• marital status
• sexual orientation
• having a non-British national identity
• ethnicity
• religion
• tenure type
• sector of work (e.g. private, public, charity)
• whether work remotely
• living in material deprivation
• overall area deprivation, according to the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation
• feeling safe or unsafe at home, in their local area, and when travelling
• region of Wales
• having a limiting long-term illness
• general health
• practicing 2 or more healthy lifestyle behaviours
• having a mental illness
• overall happiness yesterday

Of these factors, people with a limiting long-term illness (19%) were more likely to have experienced work-related ageism compared with those without such an illness (10%). However, the reasons behind this difference are better explained by the previously-discussed factors (anxiety, sense of community, area income deprivation, and type of working contract).

It is worth noting that age itself was not identified as an independently linked factor. Older people (aged 50+) and younger people (aged under 25) were equally likely to report having experienced ageism. Questions on age discrimination were not asked of those aged 25 to 49, and so we cannot compare with this group.

People were asked if they felt that their workplaces gave more development opportunities to workers at the same level depending on their age.

3% of people felt that older workers got more development opportunities, and 6% felt that younger workers did. 91% felt there was no preference based on age. Fewer people felt there was favouritism towards younger workers than when the question was previously asked in April 2019 to March 2020, where 10% believed younger workers were favoured.

These small proportions, combined with this survey year’s reduced sample size, meant that it was not possible to carry out more detailed analysis for this question.

From April 2024 to March 2025, people were asked if they had personally experienced any kind of discrimination while at work in the last 12 months. 10% of people in Wales said they had experienced discrimination at work. This is similar to levels reported in April 2019 to March 2020.

Analysis was carried out to look at the characteristics of people who experienced workplace discrimination. This analysis highlights links between certain characteristics and experiencing discrimination but cannot attribute cause and effect for these links, or take account of factors not measured in the survey. See quality information for more details.

Out of a wide range of factors, 5 were found to have a link with experiencing workplace discrimination.

1. Having a limiting long-term illness.
2. Being gay, lesbian, bisexual or having another sexual orientation other than heterosexual.
3. Having lower overall happiness.
4. Not working remotely.
5. Living in an area with higher incomes on average.

People with limiting long-term illnesses were more likely to have experienced workplace discrimination (17%) compared with those without such illnesses (8%).

Sexual orientation was also found to be linked with experiencing workplace discrimination. 32% of gay, lesbian or bisexual people, or those with another sexual orientation other than heterosexual, had experienced workplace discrimination. This figure for heterosexual people was 9%.

Lower overall happiness was also linked with workplace discrimination. People who rated their happiness yesterday as 4 or lower on a 10-point scale were more likely to have been discriminated against at work (26%), compared with those rating their happiness as 7 or 8 (10%), and 9 or 10 (7%).

Not working remotely was also found to be linked with experiencing workplace discrimination, however similar proportions of people who worked remotely, and those who didn’t, experienced workplace discrimination. Similarly, a link was identified between living in a higher income area, as defined by the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation, and experiencing workplace discrimination, however similar proportions of people in all levels of deprivation experienced workplace discrimination.

Characteristics considered in the analysis but not found to be linked with experiencing workplace discrimination were:

• age
• sex
• marital status
• ethnicity
• religion
• sector of work (e.g. private, public, charity)
• work contract
• living in material deprivation
• overall deprivation, according to the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation
• tenure type
• region of Wales
• general health
• practicing 2 or more healthy lifestyle behaviours
• having a mental illness
• overall anxiety yesterday
• feeling safe at home, in their local area, and when travelling
• has a sense of community
• having a non-British national identity

People aged 65+ (6%) were less likely to have experienced workplace discrimination compared with people aged 45 to 64 (11%), however the analysis suggested that this difference is better explained by the previously discussed factors.

From April 2024 to March 2025, people were asked if they had personally experienced any kind of bullying while at work in the last 12 months. 11% of people said they had been bullied or harassed at work in the last 12 months, similar to results from April 2019 to March 2020.

Analysis was carried out to investigate the characteristics of people who experienced workplace bullying or harassment. This analysis highlights links between certain characteristics, and experiencing bullying or harassment, but cannot attribute cause and effect for these links, or to take account of factors not measured in the survey. See quality information for more details.

Out of a wide range of factors, 5 were found to have a link with experiencing workplace discrimination.

1. Having a limiting long-term illness.
2. Being gay, lesbian, bisexual or having another sexual orientation other than heterosexual.
3. Being aged 45 to 64.
4. Having higher overall anxiety.
5. Not working remotely.

Disability status and sexual orientation were linked with workplace bullying. People with a limiting long-term illness or disability were more likely say they were bullied at work. 17% of this group had experienced bullying or harassment compared with 9% of people without long-term limiting illnesses or disabilities. 26% of people who were gay, lesbian, bisexual or had another sexual orientation other than heterosexual had experienced workplace bullying compared with 10% of heterosexual people.

Age was also found to be linked. People aged 45 to 64 were more likely to report being bullied at work (13%) compared with those aged 16 to 44 (9%). People aged 65+ did not show any differences compared with the other age groups or with the national average.

High or medium levels of anxiety were also linked with workplace bullying and harassment. 17% of people who reported high anxiety and 13% of people who reported medium anxiety had been bullied or harassed in the workplace. In comparison, 7% of those with very low anxiety reported being bullied or harassed.

Although a similar proportion of people who worked remotely (working from home, or another non-workplace location) reported workplace bullying (12%) as those who did not work remotely (8%), not working remotely was found to have a link with experiencing workplace bullying when taking other factors into account. 

Additional characteristics were also considered in the analysis but were not found to be linked with experiencing workplace bullying, these were:

• sex
• marital status
• ethnicity
• religion
• sector of work (e.g. private, public, charity)
• work contract
• living in material deprivation
• overall deprivation, according to the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation
• income deprivation, according to the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation
• tenure type
• region of Wales
• general health
• practicing 2 or more healthy lifestyle behaviours
• having a mental illness
• overall happiness yesterday
• feeling safe at home, in their local area, and when travelling
• has a sense of community
• having a non-British national identity

Anti-racist Wales Action Plan

The Anti-racist Wales Action Plan sets out a long-term approach to addressing racial inequality in the workplace, across the public sector and funded organisations, focusing on:

• improving representation
• tackling disparities in recruitment
• progression and pay
• embedding anti-racist practice

While priorities may evolve under a new government, there remains a commitment to advancing Fair Work and reducing inequalities in employment outcomes.

Fair work policy

The Welsh Government’s Fair Work policy is designed to ensure work is carried out within a safe and healthy environment, where bullying, harassment and all forms of discrimination are tackled. The survey results provide useful context for this policy. The Welsh Government is seeking to make progress towards a fully integrated well-being economy which encompasses many ideas and actions aimed at advancing well-being.

There is a lack of statistics on workplace discrimination, for Wales or the UK. The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (Office for National Statistics) collects and explores data relating to workplace inequality in the form of pay gaps. This is not directly comparable to National Survey for Wales results, however, because we do not collect data relating to employee wages.

The April 2024 to March 2025 National Survey for Wales was a large-scale, random-sample survey covering adults aged 16+ across Wales. The survey has run most years since 2012.

Methodology

Addresses were selected at random, and invitations sent by post requesting that a phone number be provided for the address. A phone number could be provided via an online portal or a telephone enquiry line. Where no phone number was provided, telematching was undertaken with available databases of phone numbers to see if one can be found for the address.

The interviewer then called the phone number for the address, established how many adults live there, and selected one at random (the person with the next birthday) to take part in the survey. The selected person was interviewed by phone. Once they had completed the phone section, they were asked to complete an online section and details were sent to them. 

If no number was obtained for the address then for a randomly-chosen 46% of such cases the interviewer made a visit to the address to select a respondent and either carried out an in-home, face-to-face interview with them or (if a phone interview was preferred) collected a phone number for them. 

The survey lasted around 40 to 45 minutes on average and covers a range of topics. Respondents were offered a £15 voucher to say thank you for taking part. The achieved sample size each month was around 500 people on average, and the response rate was 18.7% of those eligible to take part.

Survey weighting

Survey weights are used to bring a sample of a population closer to the full population in terms of age, sex, and local authority size, as well as to compensate for variation from target in the numbers of interviews in each health board within each quarter. The weights reduce but will not eliminate the effects of differences in the achieved sample compared with previous years and with the general population. For the April 2024 to March 2025 sample, there is a less even spread of interviews across the year (for example, proportionately fewer in February and March) compared with previous years. As such, care should therefore be taken when comparing results with previous years, and any differences should be explored in the context of other sources.

Statistical analysis

This release uses regression analysis to explore relationships between different characteristics, such as sex or age, and a given outcome of interest, such as experiencing work-related ageism. The method keeps other factors constant (sometimes called “controlling for other factors”). The results show potential links between factors, but they do not show that any one factor causes change in the outcome.

Where the text of this release notes a difference between two survey results, we have checked to ensure that the confidence intervals (sometimes called the “margin of error”) for the two results do not overlap. This suggests that the difference is statistically significant, i.e. that there is less than a 5% or 1 in 20 chance that the results are due to a quirk of the survey sample rather than reflecting a real difference in the wider population.  Where no difference is noted, the confidence intervals do overlap.

The survey questionnaire is available on our web pages.

Detailed charts and tables of results are available in our interactive results viewer. For information on data collection and methodology please see our quality report and technical report.

Statement of compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics

Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

All of our statistics are produced and published in accordance with a number of statements and protocols to enhance trustworthiness, quality and value. These are set out in the Welsh Government’s Statement of Compliance.

These official statistics in development (UK Statistics Authority) demonstrate the standards expected around trustworthiness, quality and public value in the following ways.

Trustworthiness

All personal data underlying these statistics is processed in accordance with the requirements of the Data Protection Act 2018.

National Survey for Wales statistics are published in an accessible, orderly, pre-announced manner on the Welsh Government website at 9:30am on the day of publication. All releases are available to download for free.

All outputs adhere to the Code of Practice by pre-announcing the date of publication through the upcoming calendar web pages. Access to the data during processing is restricted to those involved in the production of the statistics, quality assurance and for operational purposes. Pre-release access is restricted to eligible recipients in line with the Code of Practice (UK Statistics Authority).

The published figures are compiled by professional analysts using the latest available data.

Quality

As noted above, the achieved sample size for the National Survey April 2024 to March 2025 (6,000 respondents) is smaller than originally planned. The smaller sample size is due to the contractor encountering fieldwork issues including response rates being lower than in previous years. There are also changes in the composition of the achieved unweighted sample compared with previous years.

In July 2025 we therefore requested and received from the OSR a temporary suspension of accredited official statistics status for this first release and for other outputs based on the April 2024 to March 2025 data. The temporary suspension reflects the fact that the April 2024 to March 2025 outputs generally do not provide sufficiently precise results for small geographic areas and other small subgroups, and that care should be taken in comparing some April 2024 to March 2025 results with those from previous years. All outputs based on April 2024 to March 2025 data are badged as official statistics in development. 

It is still appropriate to use these statistics. At a national level, estimates continue to provide a reasonable indication of estimates for Wales, particularly if used alongside alternative sources. However, users should note the wider confidence intervals particularly for smaller geographies and population sub-groups.

All stages in the collection, validation and production of these statistics are led by professional statisticians and researchers and the statistics are produced free from any political interference. All statistics are quality-assured prior to publication.

Statistics published by Welsh Government adhere to the Statistical Quality Management Strategy which supplements the Quality pillar of the Code of Practice for Statistics and the European Statistical System principles of quality for statistical outputs.

Set-up work for a new online-first survey design is progressing well and mainstage fieldwork has begun for April 2026 to March 2027 survey year, with first results due in summer 2027. One main advantage of the new approach is that it will be possible to deliver much larger achieved sample sizes, and therefore much more precise estimates for small subgroups. Following the start of mainstage fieldwork under the new design in April 2026 to March 2027, we will request that accredited official statistics badging be reinstated by OSR for survey outputs from April 2026 to March 2027 onwards.

Value

These statistics are used in a variety of ways. Some examples of these are:

• providing advice to ministers
• to inform a wide range of policy decisions

The commentary and notes in this release have been developed to try to make the information as accessible as possible to users.

You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.

Well-being of Future Generations Act (WFG)

The Well-being of Future Generations Act 2015 is about improving the social, economic, environmental and cultural wellbeing of Wales. The Act puts in place seven wellbeing goals for Wales. These are for a more equal, prosperous, resilient, healthier and globally responsible Wales, with cohesive communities and a vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language. Under section (10)(1) of the Act, the Welsh Ministers must (a) publish indicators (“national indicators”) that must be applied for the purpose of measuring progress towards the achievement of the wellbeing goals, and (b) lay a copy of the national indicators before the Senedd Cymru. These national indicators were laid before the Senedd in 2021. The indicators laid on 14 December 2021 replace the set laid on 16 March 2016.

Information on the indicators, along with narratives for each of the wellbeing goals and associated technical information is available in the Wellbeing of Wales report.

Further information on the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.

The statistics included in this release could also provide supporting narrative to the national well-being indicators (such as indicator 17: ‘pay difference for gender, disability and ethnicity’) and be used by public services boards in relation to their assessments and plans surrounding workplace inequality.

Surveys Team
Email: surveys@gov.wales

Media: 0300 025 8099

SB 20/2026