Poverty

Participants in the BrainWaves Cohort study were asked “Are you currently entitled to free school meals?”

The graphs show the distribution of responses to this question about their entitlement to free school meals, and split by sex, on the first occasion that they completed the BrainWaves Cohort Study questionnaire.

The percentage of respondents to the BrainWaves survey who are entitled to free school meals was 11.7%, and this percentage was slightly higher for male respondents (11.8%) than for female respondents (11.6%).

The BrainWaves Cohort Study has collected responses from over 24,000 people aged 16-18 in schools across the UK, over three time points in 2024 and 2025.