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 datasets, 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	11,494	14,626	15,801	16,948	18,906	20,437	21,633	23,245	24,570	25,419	28,527
22-29	19,696	22,467	23,622	24,705	26,959	29,120	31,919	35,000	37,000	39,282	46,822
30-39	21,785	25,799	27,386	29,084	32,710	36,405	40,693	45,460	48,532	52,190	65,184
40-49	22,499	26,575	28,538	30,416	34,835	39,491	44,090	49,766	53,409	58,300	75,646
50-59	21,643	25,181	26,850	28,653	32,535	36,834	41,799	47,500	51,103	55,669	73,026
60+	20,319	23,270	24,661	26,091	29,049	32,530	36,910	42,474	45,555	49,879	65,000
All employees	21,000	24,496	26,085	27,673	31,069	34,963	39,516	44,738	48,000	52,007	66,669

Annual pay for full-time employees by region

Percentile	10	20	25	30	40	50 (Median)	60	70	75	80	90
North East	19,647	22,520	23,950	25,162	27,839	31,200	34,873	39,103	41,808	44,525	52,702
North West	20,501	23,611	25,012	26,465	29,579	33,036	36,980	41,934	45,008	48,673	60,061
Yorkshire and The Humber	20,272	23,339	24,613	25,955	28,654	31,920	35,879	40,545	42,985	46,950	57,847
East Midlands	19,850	23,004	24,298	25,792	28,464	31,634	35,163	40,051	42,818	46,348	56,839
West Midlands	20,520	23,696	25,172	26,598	29,587	33,003	37,349	41,762	44,518	48,000	58,589
East	20,841	24,725	26,440	28,007	31,237	34,833	39,220	44,653	47,547	51,146	64,747
London	24,314	29,239	31,492	33,997	38,883	44,370	50,500	58,803	64,177	71,970	98,962
South East	21,344	25,311	27,039	28,693	32,458	36,560	41,296	46,924	50,064	54,610	69,330
South West	20,767	23,984	25,379	26,856	29,958	33,450	37,390	42,086	44,940	48,173	60,284
Wales	20,480	23,535	24,885	26,357	29,217	32,371	36,199	40,822	42,809	45,496	54,110
Scotland	21,665	25,024	26,458	28,170	31,658	35,518	39,688	43,991	46,464	50,000	61,193
United Kingdom	21,000	24,496	26,085	27,673	31,069	34,963	39,516	44,738	48,000	52,007	66,669

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 🙂