UK income and wealth statistics
While we discourage people from comparing their situation to others’, sometimes it is helpful to check your intuitions of other people’s financial situations against the real numbers. You may be surprised.
In the UK, the Office of National Statistics has a wealth (!) of information. We have compiled some of the most commonly requested stats on this page for easy reference.
Important notes about these numbers
Section titled “Important notes about these numbers”These statistics are population-level averages collected for the purpose of policymaking and research. Please don’t fixate on any specific numbers on this page, and do not stress about where you are in relation to them! Your time is much better spent working on your own goals.
There are also many nuances to these reports which require careful thought if you’re trying to work out where you fit into them, or even to understand what they mean more generally. For example, the top 10% of salaries for full time employees does not represent the top 10% of wealthy people in society, many of whom may be business owners or have generational wealth. The statistics on ‘wealth’ are not necessarily intuitive – they define ‘wealth’ as a lot more than what you have in the bank. More information is always available from the linked bulletins and data sources.
The data in the tables below are taken directly from the described sources, but we’ve picked out only the most relevant parts, and have reworded some labels and headings for clarity. Please let us know if you find any errors, or if more recent data sets become available.
You’ll see the term ‘percentile’ used a lot. This is a great explanation of how they work.
Individual income
Section titled “Individual income”The tables below are taken from the 2023 Annual Survey for Hours and Earnings (ASHE). The full data set contains many more tables, such as information on income and hours worked by industry, gender, ethnic group, parents’ employment and educational status, household composition, and more. For more information on definitions used and limitations of the data see this guide.
Annual pay for full-time employees by age
Section titled “Annual pay for full-time employees by age”| Age | 10th | 25th | 50th (Median) | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18-21 | 13,790 | 17,596 | 22,001 | 25,904 | 31,195 |
| 22-29 | 21,417 | 25,239 | 31,200 | 39,483 | 50,000 |
| 30-39 | 23,784 | 29,500 | 38,961 | 51,984 | 70,383 |
| 40-49 | 24,343 | 30,585 | 42,154 | 57,409 | 81,790 |
| 50-59 | 23,360 | 28,908 | 39,699 | 55,323 | 79,795 |
| 60+ | 22,162 | 26,308 | 35,000 | 48,595 | 70,087 |
| All employees | 22,763 | 27,986 | 37,430 | 51,391 | 72,150 |
Annual pay for full-time employees by region
Section titled “Annual pay for full-time employees by region”| Region | 10th | 25th | 50th (Median) | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| North East | 21,635 | 25,609 | 32,960 | 44,724 | 59,640 |
| North West | 22,137 | 26,729 | 35,170 | 48,284 | 65,572 |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | 22,103 | 26,505 | 34,401 | 46,618 | 62,733 |
| East Midlands | 21,931 | 26,216 | 33,973 | 45,777 | 61,599 |
| West Midlands | 22,035 | 26,585 | 34,938 | 47,717 | 63,713 |
| East | 22,451 | 27,904 | 36,949 | 50,409 | 70,052 |
| London | 26,121 | 34,365 | 47,455 | 69,054 | 105,146 |
| South East | 23,310 | 29,047 | 39,038 | 53,597 | 74,189 |
| South West | 22,269 | 26,916 | 35,634 | 47,012 | 63,735 |
| Wales | 21,923 | 26,340 | 34,303 | 45,470 | 57,750 |
| Scotland | 23,680 | 28,682 | 38,315 | 50,275 | 66,995 |
| United Kingdom | 22,763 | 27,986 | 37,430 | 51,391 | 72,150 |
Source: ONS ASHE Table 25.7a. For Northern Ireland please see NISRA’s report on their Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings. Unfortunately they have not published percentiles.
Household income before and after taxes
Section titled “Household income before and after taxes”Average household incomes of non-retired individuals
Section titled “Average household incomes of non-retired individuals”Note these figures are per household, not per individual.
| Percentile | 5th | 25th | 45th | 55th | 75th | 95th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gross income (wages, self employment, investment income, Universal Credit, child benefit, PIP, etc) | 16,094 | 36,610 | 51,379 | 59,637 | 80,043 | 212,363 |
| Disposable income (after income tax, NI, council tax, student loans) | 13,562 | 31,230 | 41,778 | 47,549 | 61,832 | 138,577 |
The full report contains much more information such as the types of direct income and state benefits which make up the total income, and the taxes breakdown. There is also an associated bulletin with some analysis and graphs, and definitions of terms used.
Wealth
Section titled “Wealth”The tables below come from the Wealth and Assets survey 2018-2020.
Important note: the numbers below include much more than what you have in the bank! The definition of ‘wealth’ used here is: the value of all financial assets held (including vehicles, household possessions, as well as savings, investments, pensions, property) minus all financial liabilities such as credit cards and loans.
Average total individual wealth by age
Section titled “Average total individual wealth by age”| Age band | Median estimate |
|---|---|
| 16 to 19 | £14,000 |
| 20 to 24 | £15,300 |
| 25 to 29 | £24,200 |
| 30 to 34 | £44,700 |
| 35 to 39 | £74,300 |
| 40 to 44 | £131,000 |
| 45 to 49 | £173,500 |
| 50 to 54 | £224,800 |
| 55 to 59 | £306,500 |
| 60 to 64 | £380,100 |
| 65 to 69 | £355,800 |
| 70 to 74 | £319,700 |
| 75 to 79 | £281,400 |
| 80 to 84 | £252,700 |
| 85 to 89 | £286,600 |
| 90 plus | £223,900 |
Source: ONS Table 2, Average total individual wealth, Great Britain, April 2018 to March 2020.
Average total individual wealth by region
Section titled “Average total individual wealth by region”| Area | Median estimate |
|---|---|
| East Midlands | £110,300 |
| East of England | £176,200 |
| London | £80,400 |
| North East | £78,800 |
| North West | £96,700 |
| Scotland | £101,200 |
| South East | £235,900 |
| South West | £166,100 |
| Wales | £119,800 |
| West Midlands | £108,500 |
| Yorkshire & the Humber | £92,800 |
| Great Britain | £124,700 |
Wondering why the London wealth number seems low? See Section 4, ‘Regional Inequalities’ in the (very readable!) associated bulletin. Unfortunately no data is available for Northern Ireland.
Pensions
Section titled “Pensions”Pension value by age
Section titled “Pension value by age”| Age | 25th percentile | 50th (median) | 75th percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16-24 | £1,000 | £2,700 | £9,200 |
| 25-34 | £2,500 | £9,300 | £28,000 |
| 35-44 | £6,500 | £30,000 | £96,300 |
| 45-54 | £18,100 | £75,500 | £226,300 |
| 55-64 | £28,000 | £107,300 | £291,300 |
| 65+ | £24,000 | £81,100 | £200,000 |
Saving for retirement in Great Britain: April 2018 to March 2020 bulletin. The full data sets include breakdowns by pension type, employer and employee contributions, ethnic group, household type and more.
Employer pension contributions
Section titled “Employer pension contributions”The table below shows what percentage of employees currently enrolled in Defined Contribution pension schemes receive each bracket of employer contribution. This excludes employees in Defined Benefit schemes (such as in much of the public sector) or no pension scheme. The minimum employer contribution under auto-enrolment is 3%.
| Employer contribution to DC scheme | % of employees receiving this |
|---|---|
| Zero | 1% |
| Under 4% | 49% |
| 4% to <8% | 29% |
| 8% to <10% | 7% |
| 10% to <12% | 5% |
| 12% to <15% | 4% |
| 15% to <20% | 2% |
| 20% and over | 3% |
Source: ONS ASHE Table P9.1, Employer Contributions, United Kingdom, 2021.
Find out more
Section titled “Find out more”We got all this data from the Office of National Statistics. We encourage you to search for any information you may be interested in yourself – you can open any of the sources we’ve linked to for much more detailed breakdowns, as well as searching the site for other data sets you may be interested in.
Disclaimer: we have found it takes a bit of work to find the right report and learn how to interpret it. Always read through the detail carefully to understand what the numbers mean.
If you find something cool and useful, tell us and we can add it to the page 🙂