At the turn of the twentieth century, the wealthiest one percent of people in the United Kingdom controlled 71 percent of net personal wealth, while the top ten percent controlled 93 percent. The share of wealth controlled by the rich in the United Kingdom fell throughout the twentieth century, and by 1990 the richest one percent controlled 16 percent of wealth, and the richest ten percent just over half of it.

The overall wealth of households in the United Kingdom was **** trillion British pounds in the period between 2020 and 2022. Of this overall wealth, the top ten percent of households had over *** trillion pounds of wealth, compared with **** billion owned by the lowest wealth decile.

Individual-level estimates of total wealth (July 2010 to March 2020) and regression estimates for the latest survey period.

This statistic presents the wealth distribution among households in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2018. Approximately **** percent adults in the United Kingdom found themselves in the bracket of between 100 thousand and *********** U.S. dollars as their household private wealth.

Discover the real story behind Billionaire Wealth Distribution Statistics. Explore shocking trends, and what it means for the rest of us.

As of 2025, the GDP per capita or gross domestic product per person was almost ****** U.S. dollars per person. The GDP per capita is derived from the country's total GDP divided by the population. The average or mean wealth per person in the United Kingdom (UK) was higher than the median or middle value of wealth per person living in the UK.

In the 2023/24 financial year, various measures of inequality in the United Kingdom are higher than in the late 1970s. The S80/20 ratio increased from ****to ***, the P90/10 ratio from ****to ***, and the Palma ratio from *** to ***.

The value of any pension pots already accrued that are not state basic retirement or state earning related. This includes occupational pensions, personal pensions, retained rights in previous pensions and pensions in payment.

In the 3 years to March 2021, black households were most likely out of all ethnic groups to have a weekly income of under £600.

The Wealth and Assets Survey (WAS) is a longitudinal survey, which aims to address gaps identified in data about the economic well-being of households by gathering information on level of assets, savings and debt; saving for retirement; how wealth is distributed among households or individuals; and factors that affect financial planning. Private households in Great Britain were sampled for the survey (meaning that people in residential institutions, such as retirement homes, nursing homes, prisons, barracks or university halls of residence, and also homeless people were not included).

The WAS commenced in July 2006, with a first wave of interviews carried out over two years, to June 2008. Interviews were achieved with 30,595 households at Wave 1. Those households were approached again for a Wave 2 interview between July 2008 and June 2010, and 20,170 households took part. Wave 3 covered July 2010 - June 2012, Wave 4 covered July 2012 - June 2014 and Wave 5 covered July 2014 - June 2016. Revisions to previous waves' data mean that small differences may occur between originally published estimates and estimates from the datasets held by the UK Data Service. These revisions are due to improvements in the imputation methodology.

Note from the WAS team - November 2023:
"The Office for National Statistics has identified a very small number of outlier cases present in the seventh round of the Wealth and Assets Survey covering the period April 2018 to March 2020. Our current approach is to treat cases where we have reasonable evidence to suggest the values provided for specific variables are outliers. This approach did not occur for two individuals for several variables involved in the estimation of their pension wealth. While we estimate any impacts are very small overall and median pension wealth and median total wealth estimates are unaffected, this will affect the accuracy of the breakdowns of the pension wealth within the wealthiest decile, and data derived from them. We are urging caution in the interpretation of more detailed estimates."

Survey Periodicity - "Waves" to "Rounds"
Due to the survey periodicity moving from "Waves" (July, ending in June two years later) to “Rounds” (April, ending in March two years later), interviews using the ‘Wave 6’ questionnaire started in July 2016 and were conducted for 21 months, finishing in March 2018. Data for round 6 covers the period April 2016 to March 2018. This comprises of the last three months of Wave 5 (April to June 2016) and 21 months of Wave 6 (July 2016 to March 2018). Round 5 and Round 6 datasets are based on a mixture of original wave-based datasets. Each wave of the survey has a unique questionnaire and therefore each of these round-based datasets are based on two questionnaires. While there may be some changes in the questionnaires, the derived variables for the key wealth estimates have not changed over this period. The aim is to collect the same data, though in some cases the exact questions asked may differ slightly. Detailed information on Moving the Wealth and Assets Survey onto a financial years’ basis was published on the ONS website in July 2019.

Further information and documentation may be found on the ONS Wealth and Assets Survey webpage. Users are advised to the check the page for updates before commencing analysis.

Users should note that issues with linking have been reported and the WAS team are currently investigating.

Secure Access WAS data
The Secure Access version of the WAS includes additional, detailed geographical variables not included in the End User Licence (EUL) version (SN 7215). These include:

• Wards
• Parliamentary Constituency Areas for Wave 1 only
• Census Output Areas
• Lower Layer Super Output Areas
• Local Authorities
  
• Local Education Authorities

Prospective users of the Secure Access version of the WAS will need to fulfil additional requirements, including completion of face-to-face training, and agreement to the Secure Access User Agreement and Licence Compliance Policy, in order to obtain permission to use that version (see 'Access' section below). Users are therefore strongly encouraged to download the EUL version (SN 7215) to see if it contains sufficient detail for their needs, before considering making an application for the Secure Access version.

Latest Edition Information
For the tenth edition (September 2025), the Round 8 person and household data have been added to the study.

This statistic presents the outcome of prosperity index research conducted by Barclay for the regions of the United Kingdom (UK) as of August 2015. According to the research incorporating various factors into the prosperity score, the most prosperous region of the UK was the city of London, with a score of **** points. South East and Eastern England followed with **** and **** score, respectively. Least prosperous was North East, with **** index points on the scale.

This project has sought to recover and analyse new data relating to the distribution of wealth and the language of social description in England between c.1550 and c.1750. A database has been compiled of 13,686 responses of witnesses in the church courts to the commonly asked question of what they were worth with their debts paid. Witnesses responses to the question of their worth often included monetary estimates of material worth, alongside details about how they made a living, together with more qualitative forms of evaluation in ethical terms of honesty and industriousness. This data will underpin analysis of the distribution of wealth and poverty by socio/occupational status, age and gender amongst a broad social range of witnesses during a period of profound economic and social change. Particular attention will be given to the nature and pace of economic change; to the relationship between wealth, status and the life-cycle; to the impact of social polarisation deemed characteristic of the periods history; and to the degree to which an incipient labouring class can be discerned. In addition, the terms in which witnesses described their own (and sometimes each others) worth will be explored in order to chart popular concepts of wealth and poverty, perceptions of social difference, and forms of self-esteem that were often far removed from formal classificatory schemes of the early modern social order. Finally, the wider cultural significance of monetary markers of wealth will be probed in order to situate commonly cited values (such as forty shillings and 10) within qualitative as well as quantitative frames of reference. The data also contains extensive information about the literacy status and migration histories of witnesses, and incidental details of their religious observance.

FOCUSONLONDON2010:INCOMEANDSPENDINGATHOME Household income in London far exceeds that of any other region in the UK. At £900 per week, London’s gross weekly household income is 15 per cent higher than the next highest region. Despite this, the costs to each household are also higher in the capital. Londoners pay a greater amount of their income in tax and national insurance than the UK average as well as footing a higher bill for housing and everyday necessities. All of which leaves London households less well off than the headline figures suggest. This chapter, authored by Richard Walker in the GLA Intelligence Unit, begins with an analysis of income at both individual and household level, before discussing the distribution and sources of income. This is followed by a look at wealth and borrowing and finally, focuses on expenditure including an insight to the cost of housing in London, compared with other regions in the UK. See other reports from this Focus on London series. PRESENTATION: This interactive presentation finds the answer to the question, who really is better off, an average London or UK household? This analysis takes into account available data from all types of income and expenditure. Click on the link to access.

The purpose of this survey was to fill in gaps in economic statistics, and especially to provide estimates of the distribution of liquid assets amongst persons and of the volume of personal savings and its relation to personal income. The 1956 survey sought to sample only the upper end of income and wealth distributions, as it was felt that these had been persistently under-represented in the earlier surveys.

As of 2023, the countries in Europe with the greatest share of national wealth taken by the top one percent of wealthy people were Russia, Turkey, and Hungary, with over two-thirds of wealth in Russia being owned by the wealthiest decile. On the other hand, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Slovakia were the countries with the smallest share of national wealth going to the top one percent, with more than half of wealth in the Netherlands going to the bottom 90 percent.

The purpose of this survey was to fill in gaps in economic statistics, and especially to provide estimates of the distribution of liquid assets amongst persons and of the volume of personal savings and its relation to personal income. The 1956 survey sought to sample only the upper end of income and wealth distributions, as it was felt that these had been persistently under-represented in the earlier surveys.