Income in the United Kingdom


Median household disposable income in the UK was £29,400 in the financial year ending 2019, up 1.4% compared with FYE 2018, after accounting for inflation.
This continues a period of modest growth over recent years; median income grew by an average of 0.7% per year between FYE 2017 and FYE 2019, compared with 2.8% between FYE 2013 and FYE 2017.
The rise in median income has occurred during a period where the employment rate grew by 0.5 percentage points, while real total pay for employees increased by an average of 1.0% across the 12 months in FYE 2019 compared with FYE 2018.
Median income of people living in retired households increased by 1.1%, while the median income of people living in non-retired households grew by 1.3%.

Data sources

There are a number of different sources of data on income which results in different estimates of income due to different sample sizes, population types, definitions of income.
The Survey of Personal Incomes is a dataset from HM Revenue and Customs based on individuals who could be liable to tax. HMRC does not hold information on individuals whose income is below the personal allowance. Furthermore, SPI does not include income from non taxable benefits such as housing benefits or job seekers allowance.
The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings is a dataset from an annual survey of approximately 50,000 businesses by the Office for National Statistics and covers annual earnings, public and private sector pay differential and the gender pay gap. ASHE does not cover individuals who are self-employed.
The Households Below Average Income dataset is based on the Family Resources Survey from the Department for Work and Pensions. It includes information on equalised household disposable income and can be used to represent the distribution of household income and income inequality.
Other data sources include Average Weekly Earnings, Labour Force Survey, Index of Labour Cost per Hour, Unit Labour Costs, Effects of Taxes and Benefits on Household Income / Living Costs and Food Survey, European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions, Pensioners Income Series, Wealth and Assets Survey, National Accounts Estimates of Gross Disposable Household Income, and Small Area Income Estimates.

Taxable income

The most recent SPI report gave annual median income as £21,000 before tax and £18,700 after tax. The 2013/14 HBAI report gave median household income as £23,556. The provisional results from the April 2014 ASHE report gives median gross annual earnings of £22,044 for all employees and £27,195 for full-time employees.
According to the OECD the average household net-adjusted disposable income per capita is $27,029 a year, the average household net financial wealth per capita is estimated at $60,778, and the average net-adjusted disposable income of the top 20% of the population is an estimated $57,010 a year, whereas the bottom 20% live on an estimated $10,195 a year giving a ratio of 5.6.
The 2013/14 HBAI reported that 15% of people had a relative low income before housing costs.
Data from HMRC 2012-13; incomes are before tax for individuals. The personal allowance or income tax threshold was £8,105.

Income by location

Income can vary considerably by location. For example, the locations with the highest incomes were the City of London, Kensington and Chelsea, and Westminster with median annual incomes of £58,300, £37,800 and £35,200 respectively. The locations with the lowest incomes were Hyndburn, Torbay, and West Somerset with median annual incomes of £17,000, £16,900 and £16,000 respectively.
A 2017 report from Trust for London found that London has a poverty rate of 27%, compared to 21% in the rest of England.

Income by age and gender

Data from the Survey of Personal Incomes 2012/13.

Income by occupation

The tables below shows the ten highest and ten lowest paid occupations in the UK respectively, as at April 2014.
OccupationMedian full-time gross weekly pay
Aircraft pilots and flight engineers1,746.6
Air traffic controllers1,549.4
Chief executives and senior officials1,533.3
Marketing and sales directors1,298.7
Advertising and public relations directors1,289.5
Information technology and telecommunications directors1,226.7
Legal professionals 1,217.3
Medical practitioners1,167.1
Brokers1,149.9
Financial managers and directors1,143.0

OccupationMedian full-time gross weekly pay
Cleaners and domestics285.5
Nursery nurses and assistants285.2
Other elementary services occupations 279.9
Retail cashiers and check-out operators278.7
Leisure and theme park attendants272.7
Kitchen and catering assistants268.4
Hairdressers and barbers267.8
Launderers, dry cleaners and pressers259.3
Waiters and waitresses257.6
Bar staff253.6

Post-tax household income

Data from the Households Below Average Income report from the Department of Work and Pensions 2013/14:
Data from HMRC – Percentile points of the income distribution as estimated from the Survey of Personal Incomes, note this only includes individuals who pay some income tax:

Wealth

The net worth information is based on data from HMRC for 2004-2005 and includes marketable assets including house equity, cash, shares, bonds and investment trusts. These values do not include personal possessions.
Percentile pointWealth to qualifyPercentage of total wealth owned
by people at and above this level
Top 1%£688,22821% of total UK wealth
2%£460,17928% of total UK wealth
5%£270,16440% of total UK wealth
10%£176,22153% of total UK wealth
25%£76,09872% of total UK wealth
50%£35,80793% of total UK wealth

High income

The Institute for Fiscal Studies issued a on the UK's highest earners in January 2008. There are 42 million adults in the UK of whom 29 million are income tax payers. A summary of key findings is shown in the table below:
All taxpayersTop 10% to 1% Top 1% to 0.1% Top 0.1%
Number29.5 million4.21 million421,00042,000
Entry level for group£5,093£35,345£99,727£351,137
Mean value for group£24,769£49,960£155,832£780,043
Average income tax paid£4,415£10,550£49,477£274,482
Percentage of national personal income100%27.6%8.6%4.2%

The top 0.1% are 90% male and 50% of these people are in the 45 to 54 year age group. 31% of these people live in London and 21% in South East England. 33% of these people are company directors. 30% work in finance and 38% in general business. The very richest rely on earnings for 58% of income. Income from self-employment accounts for 23% of income and about 18% from investment income.