In the 2022/23 financial year, various measures of inequality in the United Kingdom decreased when compared with 2021/22. The S80/20 ratio fell from *** to ***, the P90/10 ratio from *** to ***, and the Palma ratio between *** and ***.

In 2023, the United Kingdom's Gini coefficient score was 33.1, a slight decrease when compared with the previous year. The Gini coefficient is a measurement of inequality within economies, a lower score indicates more equality while a higher score implies more inequality.

75% of households from the Bangladeshi ethnic group were in the 2 lowest income quintiles (after housing costs were deducted) between April 2021 and March 2024.

Historical dataset showing U.K. income inequality - gini coefficient by year from N/A to N/A.

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.

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.

Average UK household incomes taxes and benefits by household type, tenure status, household characteristics and long-term trends in income inequality.

Proportions and numbers of children, working age adults and pensioners in Scotland in absolute and relative poverty. Also contains figures on the distribution of household income.

Source agency: Scottish Government

Designation: National Statistics

Language: English

Alternative title: Poverty and Income Inequality in Scotland

Ratio of household equivalised income of the top 10 per cent of households to the income of the bottom 10 per cent of households.

Ratio calculated using weekly household income adjusted to take account of differences in numbers and ages of residents.

This dataset is one of the Greater London Authority's measures of Economic Fairness. Click here to find out more.

This dataset is one of the Greater London Authority's measures of Economic Development strategy. Click here to find out more.

This analysis, produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), examines how taxes and benefits redistribute income between various groups of households in the United Kingdom. It shows where different types of households and individuals are in the income distribution and looks at the changing levels of income inequality over time. The main sources of data for this study are:

• Family Expenditure Survey (FES) from 1977-2001
• Expenditure and Food Survey (EFS) from 2001-2007
• Living Costs and Food Survey (LCF) from 2008 to 2017
• Household Finances Survey (HFS) from 2018 onwards
  

Some variables have been created by combining data from the LCF (previously FES or EFS) with control totals from a variety of different government sources, including:

• United Kingdom National Accounts (ONS Blue Book)
• HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC)
• Department for Transport (DfT)
• Department of Health (DH)
• Department for Education and Employment (DfEE)
• Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG)

For further information, see the ONS Effects of taxes and benefits on household income webpage.

Users should note that this combined ETB household (1977-2021) and person (2018-2021) datasets replace all previous individual year files, which have been withdrawn from use at the depositor's request.

Latest edition information

For the second edition (September 2022), revised data for 2019/20 and new cases for 2020/21 were added to the household and person files.

Method of Data Collection
The ETB has been produced each year since 1961 and is an annual analysis looking at how taxes and benefits affect the income of households in the UK.

Since 2018, the estimates in this analysis are based on data derived from the HFS Survey (the HCF is not currently held by the UK Data Service). The HFS is an annual survey of the expenditure and income of private households. People living in hotels, lodging houses, and in institutions such as old people's homes are excluded. Each person aged 16 and over keeps a full record of payments made during 14 consecutive days and answers questions about hire purchase and other payments; children aged 7 to 15 keep a simplified diary. The respondents also give detailed information, where appropriate, about income (including cash benefits received from the state) and payments of Income Tax. Information on age, occupation, education received, family composition and housing tenure is also obtained. The survey is continuous, interviews being spread evenly over the year to ensure that seasonal effects are covered. The Family Spending publication also includes an outline of the survey design.

The HFS data used in this analysis are grossed so that totals reflect the total population of private households in the UK. The weights are produced in two stages. First, the data are weighted to compensate for non-response (sample-based weighting). The non-response weights are then calibrated so that weighted totals match population totals for males and females in different age groups and for different regions and countries (population-based weighting). The results in the analysis are weighted so that statistics represent the total population in private households in the UK based on 2011 Census data. In 2013/14, an additional calibration to the Labour Force Survey (LFS) employment totals was also applied.

There are a number of different measures of income used, the most common of which is probably household disposable income. This is the total income households receive from employment (including self-employment), income from private pensions, investments and other sources, plus cash benefits (including the state pension), minus direct taxes (including income tax, NI and council tax). Income is normally analysed at the household level as this provides a better measure of people's economic well-being; while income is usually received by individuals, it is normally shared with other household members (e.g. spouse/partner and children).

In 2018/19 a further adjustment was applied to the data to adjust for the under coverage and under-reporting of income of the richest individuals. This method is often referred to as the 'SPI adjustment' owing to its use of HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC's) Survey of Personal Incomes (SPI). For further details please see the ETB Quality and Methodology Information webpage and the Effects of Taxes and Benefits on Household Income Technical Report.

Data Sources

The Household Finances Survey (HFS) is the source of the microdata on households from 2018 onwards. Previously, the Living Costs and Food Survey (LCF) was the data source. Derived variables are created using information from HFS and control totals from a variety of different government sources including the United Kingdom National Accounts (ONS Blue Book), HM Revenue and Customs, Department for Transport, Department of Health, Department for Education and Employment, and Department for Communities and Local Government.

Secure Access version

A Secure Access version of the ETB is available from the UK Data Archive under SN 8253, subject to stringent access conditions. The Secure Access version includes variables that are not included in the standard End User Licence (EUL) version, including case number, age and economic position of chief economic supporter, and government office region. Users are strongly advised to check whether the EUL version is sufficient for their needs before considering an application for the Secure Access version.

In 2022/23, the top quintile of earners in the United Kingdom had an average household disposable income of approximately ****** British pounds, compared with ****** for the bottom quintile.

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.

Between 2018 and 2022, people in households in the ‘other’, Asian and black ethnic groups were the most likely to be in persistent low income, both before and after housing costs, out of all ethnic groups.

Supplementary files for article Long-term relatedness and income distribution: understanding the deep roots of inequalityThis article explores the role of long-term relatedness between countries, captured by an index of genetic distance, in driving worldwide differences in income inequality. The main hypothesis is that genetic distance gives rise to barriers to the international diffusion of redistributive policies and measures, and institutions, leading to greater income disparities. Using cross-country data, I consistently find that countries that are genetically distant to Denmark—the world frontier of egalitarian income distribution—tend to suffer from higher inequality, ceteris paribus. I also demonstrate that genetic distance is associated with greater bilateral differences in income inequality between countries. Employing data from the European Social Survey, I document that second-generation Europeans descending from countries with greater genetic distance to Denmark are less likely to exhibit positive attitudes towards equality. Further evidence suggests that effective fiscal redistribution is a key mechanism through which genetic distance to Denmark transmits to greater income inequality.

Examines how taxes and benefits redistribute income between various groups of households in the UK. The study shows where different types of households and individuals are in the income distribution and looks at the changing levels of income inequality over time.

Source agency: Office for National Statistics

Designation: National Statistics

Language: English

Alternative title: household income

Provides early or provisional estimates of median equivalised disposable income and measures of income inequality ahead of revised estimates from the effects of taxes and benefits on household income.

Three datasets, all carried out by YouGov and the WEALTHPOL team, are included. The first was conducted in Summer 2021, the second in Summer 2022, and the third in October 2022. CSVs, codebooks, and data construction files are included (note the latter include references to other files but show the coding).