The project investigated how COVID-19-related health- and socio-economic vulnerabilities co-occur at the household level, and how they are distributed across household types and geographical areas in the United Kingdom. Using a nationally representative cross-sectional study of UK households and individuals and applying principal components analysis, the researchers derived summary measures representing different dimensions of household vulnerabilities critical during the COVID-19 epidemic: health, employment, housing, financial and digital. The analysis highlights four key findings.

1. Although COVID-19-related health risks are concentrated in retirement-age households, a substantial proportion of working-age households also face these risks.
2. Different types of households exhibit different vulnerabilities, with working-age households more likely to face financial and housing precarities, and retirement-age households health and digital vulnerabilities.
3. There are area-level differences in the distribution of household-level vulnerabilities across England and the constituent countries of the United Kingdom.
4. In many households, different dimensions of vulnerabilities intersect; this is especially prevalent among working-age households.

The findings imply that the short- and long-term consequences of the COVID-19 crisis are likely to significantly vary by household type. Policy measures that aim to mitigate the health and socio-economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic should consider how vulnerabilities cluster and interact with one another both within individuals and different household types, and how these may exacerbate already existing inequalities. A pdf of the article is accessible on the left.