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

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

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

Percentile	10	20	25	30	40	50 (Median)	60	70	75	80	90
18-21	13,790	16,522	17,596	18,732	20,434	22,001	23,334	24,904	25,904	27,186	31,195
22-29	21,417	24,144	25,239	26,430	28,753	31,200	33,990	37,425	39,483	42,031	50,000
30-39	23,784	27,634	29,500	31,215	35,000	38,961	43,266	48,500	51,984	56,031	70,383
40-49	24,343	28,552	30,585	32,737	37,287	42,154	47,408	53,375	57,409	62,633	81,790
50-59	23,360	27,108	28,908	30,719	35,028	39,699	44,994	51,192	55,323	60,682	79,795
60+	22,162	25,008	26,308	27,906	31,189	35,000	39,322	45,174	48,595	53,142	70,087
All employees	22,763	26,250	27,986	29,731	33,276	37,430	42,148	47,898	51,391	55,912	72,150

Annual pay for full-time employees by region

Percentile	10	20	25	30	40	50 (Median)	60	70	75	80	90
North East	21,635	24,500	25,609	26,906	29,777	32,960	37,040	42,148	44,724	47,752	59,640
North West	22,137	25,281	26,729	28,301	31,488	35,170	39,566	44,945	48,284	52,353	65,572
Yorkshire and The Humber	22,103	25,146	26,505	28,024	31,036	34,401	38,431	43,729	46,618	50,249	62,733
East Midlands	21,931	24,830	26,216	27,768	30,590	33,973	37,942	42,929	45,777	49,737	61,599
West Midlands	22,035	25,061	26,585	28,176	31,407	34,938	39,058	44,698	47,717	51,461	63,713
East	22,451	26,072	27,904	29,720	33,000	36,949	41,368	47,268	50,409	54,202	70,052
London	26,121	31,566	34,365	36,627	41,788	47,455	54,213	63,000	69,054	77,114	105,146
South East	23,310	27,128	29,047	30,752	34,654	39,038	43,858	49,973	53,597	58,183	74,189
South West	22,269	25,513	26,916	28,409	31,748	35,634	39,589	44,413	47,012	51,125	63,735
Wales	21,923	24,873	26,340	27,816	30,825	34,303	38,018	42,997	45,470	48,403	57,750
Scotland	23,680	27,105	28,682	30,468	34,280	38,315	42,684	47,803	50,275	54,035	66,995
United Kingdom	22,763	26,250	27,986	29,731	33,276	37,430	42,148	47,898	51,391	55,912	72,150

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

Average household incomes of non-retired individuals

Note these figures are per household, not per individual.

Percentile	5	15	25	35	45	55	65	75	85	95
Gross income (including wages, self employment income, investment income, Universal Credit, child benefit, PIP, etc)	16,094	28,489	36,610	44,116	51,379	59,637	70,124	80,043	99,762	212,363
Disposable income (after income tax, NI, council tax,and student loans)	13,562	24,599	31,230	36,422	41,778	47,549	54,887	61,832	74,886	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

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

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

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

Pension value by age

Age	25th percentile	50th percentile (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

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.

It’s important to note that the level of pension benefits employers are generally expected to provide varies hugely by sector and job role. The minimum employer contribution under auto-enrolment is 3%.

Employer contribution to DC scheme	Percentage of employees enrolled in DC schemes receiving this employer contribution
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

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 🙂