House prices vary widely in the United Kingdom (UK), but housing in certain cities and counties is substantially pricier than in others. Surrey, for example, concentrated four of the most expensive towns to buy a home, including Virginia Water, Cobham, and Esher. With an average house price of over one million British pounds as of June 2024, housing in these towns cost roughly four times the national average. How did house prices change since the COVID-19 pandemic? Since the start of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, demand for housing has been especially high, causing house prices to soar. Among major UK cities, the house price increase was most prominent in Belfast, where it rose by 5.5 percent in 2024. According to the UK House Price Index, the average annual house price increase on a national level was even higher. How long does it take to sell a house? With the demand for housing going strong and inventory running low, aspiring homeowners need to act faster than ever when making an offer on a home. The average number of days on market has continued shortening since the start of 2021 and was a little over a month as of October 2021. Surprisingly, selling a property took the longest in the UK’s most competitive market - London.

The gross domestic product per capita of London was ****** British pounds in 2023, far larger than that of other major cities in England, such as Manchester which had a GDP per capita of ****** pounds.

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.

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.

NA Read More

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.

In 2023, London had a gross domestic product of over 569 billion British pounds, by far the most of any region of the United Kingdom. The region of South East England which surrounds London had the second-highest GDP in this year, at over 360 billion pounds. North West England, which includes the major cities of Manchester and Liverpool, had the third-largest GDP among UK regions, at almost 250 billion pounds. Levelling Up the UK London’s economic dominance of the UK can clearly be seen when compared to the other regions of the country. In terms of GDP per capita, the gap between London and the rest of the country is striking, standing at over 63,600 pounds per person in the UK capital, compared with just over 37,100 pounds in the rest of the country. To address the economic imbalance, successive UK governments have tried to implement "levelling-up policies", which aim to boost investment and productivity in neglected areas of the country. The success of these programs going forward may depend on their scale, as it will likely take high levels of investment to reverse economic neglect regions have faced in the recent past. Overall UK GDP The gross domestic product for the whole of the United Kingdom amounted to 2.56 trillion British pounds in 2024. During this year, GDP grew by 0.9 percent, following a growth rate of 0.4 percent in 2023. Due to the overall population of the UK growing faster than the economy, however, GDP per capita in the UK fell in both 2023 and 2024. Nevertheless, the UK remains one of the world’s biggest economies, with just five countries (the United States, China, Japan, Germany, and India) having larger economies. It is it likely that several other countries will overtake the UK economy in the coming years, with Indonesia, Brazil, Russia, and Mexico all expected to have larger economies than Britain by 2050.

United Kingdom UK: Bank Account Ownership at a Financial Institution or with a Mobile-Money-Service Provider, Richest 60%: % of Population Aged 15+ data was reported at 97.620 % in 2017. This records a decrease from the previous number of 99.490 % for 2014. United Kingdom UK: Bank Account Ownership at a Financial Institution or with a Mobile-Money-Service Provider, Richest 60%: % of Population Aged 15+ data is updated yearly, averaging 97.620 % from Dec 2011 (Median) to 2017, with 3 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 99.490 % in 2014 and a record low of 97.599 % in 2011. United Kingdom UK: Bank Account Ownership at a Financial Institution or with a Mobile-Money-Service Provider, Richest 60%: % of Population Aged 15+ data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United Kingdom – Table UK.World Bank.WDI: Bank Account Ownership. Account denotes the percentage of respondents who report having an account (by themselves or together with someone else) at a bank or another type of financial institution or report personally using a mobile money service in the past 12 months (richest 60%, share of population ages 15+).; ; Demirguc-Kunt et al., 2018, Global Financial Inclusion Database, World Bank.; Weighted average; Each economy is classified based on the classification of World Bank Group's fiscal year 2018 (July 1, 2017-June 30, 2018).

The leading source of inspiration for beauty and cosmetics among affluent consumers in the United Kingdom was reccomendations from friends and family members. Affluent UK consumers were also inspired by social media and in malls and shopping centers.

The city of Paris in France had an estimated gross domestic product of 757.6 billion Euros in 2021, the most of any European city. Paris was followed by the spanish capital, Madrid, which had a GDP of 237.5 billion Euros, and the Irish capital, Dublin at 230 billion Euros. Milan, in the prosperous north of Italy, had a GDP of 228.4 billion Euros, 65 billion euros larger than the Italian capital Rome, and was the largest non-capital city in terms of GDP in Europe. The engine of Europe Among European countries, Germany had by far the largest economy, with a gross domestic product of over 4.18 trillion Euros. The United Kingdom or France have been Europe's second largest economy since the 1980s, depending on the year, with forecasts suggesting France will overtake the UK going into the 2020s. Germany however, has been the biggest European economy for some time, with five cities (Munich, Berlin, Hamburg, Stuttgart and Frankfurt) among the 15 largest European cities by GDP. Europe's largest cities In 2023, Moscow was the largest european city, with a population of nearly 12.7 million. Paris was the largest city in western Europe, with a population of over 11 million, while London was Europe's third-largest city at 9.6 million inhabitants.

The ‘Overall’ column is adjusted for age and sex. Brackets contain 95% confidence intervals.Prevalence of statin use in England 2011–12 by age, sex and quintiles of index of multiple deprivation (QIMD) (1 = most affluent, 5 = most deprived).

In 2023, the gross domestic product per capita in London was 63,618 British pounds, compared with 37,135 pounds per capita for the United Kingdom as a whole. Apart from London, the only other region of the UK that had a greater GDP per capita than the UK average was South East England, at 38,004 pounds per capita. By contrast, North East England had the lowest GDP per capita among UK regions, at 26,347 pounds. Regional imbalance in the UK economy? London's overall GDP in 2022 was over 508 billion British pounds, which accounted for almost a quarter of the overall GDP of the United Kingdom. South East England had the second-largest regional economy in the country, with a GDP of almost 341.7 billion British pounds. Furthermore, these two regions were the only ones that had higher levels of productivity (as measured by output per hour worked) than the UK average. While recent governments have recognized regional inequality as a major challenge facing the country, it may take several years for any initiatives to bear fruit. The creation of regional metro mayors across England is one of the earliest attempts at giving regions and cities in particular more power over spending in their regions than they currently have. UK economy growth slow in late 2024 After ending 2023 with two quarters of negative growth, the UK economy grew at the reasonable rate of 0.8 percent and 0.4 percent in the first and second quarters of the year. This was, however, followed by zero growth in the third quarter, and by just 0.1 percent in the last quarter of the year. Other economic indicators, such as the inflation rate, fell within the expected range in 2024, but have started to rise again, with a rate of three percent recorded in January 2025. While unemployment has witnessed a slight uptick since 2022, it is still at quite low levels compared with previous years.

This statistic illustrates the number of millionaire (HNWI, UHNWI) and billionaire individuals in the United Kingdom (UK) in selected years from 2013 to 2018 and a forecast for 2023, by wealth bracket. The high, ultra-high and billionaire's population grew steadily throughout time, with projection to increase approximately ** percent, ** percent and ** percent respectively by 2023 in comparison to 2018.

A survey from 2024 showed that nearly ** percent of surveyed affluent women in the United Kingdom went to a beauty salon about once a month in the past year. Only **** percent stated that they never went to beauty salon in that period of time.

Harry Styles was the richest young musician in the United Kingdom in 2024. The English singer songwriter topped the list with a total worth of *** million British pounds. Dua Lipa followed in second position, with a total worth of *** million, while Lewis Capaldi, ranking third, stood at more than ** million. Golden oldies A young musician is defined here as being under 30 years of age. Ed Sheeran was the only young musician on this list who made it onto the overall list of richest musicians in the United Kingdom, topped by Andrew Lloyd-Webber who had a total worth of *** million British pounds in 2020.  Musicians’ worth heading in one direction The young musician with the second highest total worth in 2020 was Harry Styles. The singer had the leading celebrity Twitter account in the UK in 2019, with over ** million followers. Harry Styles was not the only One Direction singer to make the young musicians rich list, in fact, all five members of the boy band made the top ten. 

In March 2025, the top one percent of earners in the United Kingdom received an average pay of over 16,000 British pounds per month, compared with the bottom ten percent of earners who earned around 800 pounds a month.

In 2019/20, approximately ** percent of respondents earning less than ***** British pounds shopped at Aldi besides shopping at their main grocery retailer in the United Kingdom. The respondents with the highest income frequented Morrisons, Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and Sainsbury more often than less affluent respondents.

In 2024, the average annual full-time earnings for the top ten percent of earners in the United Kingdom was 72,150 British pounds, compared with 22,763 for the bottom ten percent of earners. As of this year, the average annual earnings for all full-time employees was 37,430 pounds, up from 34,963 pounds in the previous year. Strong wage growth continues in 2025 As of February 2025, wages in the UK were growing by approximately 5.9 percent compared with the previous year, with this falling to 5.6 percent if bonus pay is included. When adjusted for inflation, regular pay without bonuses grew by 2.1 percent, with overall pay including bonus pay rising by 1.9 percent. While UK wages have now outpaced inflation for almost two years, there was a long period between 2021 and 2023 when high inflation in the UK was rising faster than wages, one of the leading reasons behind a severe cost of living crisis at the time. UK's gender pay gap falls in 2024 For several years, the difference between average hourly earnings for men and women has been falling, with the UK's gender pay gap dropping to 13.1 percent in 2024, down from 27.5 percent in 1997. When examined by specific industry sectors, however, the discrepancy between male and female earnings can be much starker. In the financial services sector, for example, the gender pay gap was almost 30 percent, with professional, scientific and technical professions also having a relatively high gender pay gap rate of 20 percent.

The former Prime Minister Boris Johnson has reportedly earned around 6.4 million pounds since the beginning of the current parliamentary sitting, which began in December 2019. Another former Prime Minister, Theresa May, has earned approximately 3.5 million pounds, making her the MP with the second-highest external income since the 2019 election. Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labour Party, has earned approximately 899,600 pounds since December 2019, the highest among MPs outside the Conservative Party. Boris Johnson Eight of the top ten earnings spots are occupied by members of the Conservative Party, and includes the three former Prime Ministers, Boris Johnson, Theresa May, and Liz Truss. While it has been the precedent of many former Prime ministers to take-on speaking engagements since leaving office, the two top spots, Theresa May and Liz Truss were still serving as MP's until the calling of the 2024 General Election. Although he resigned as an MP in June 2023, Johnson had reportedly earned more than a million pounds from four speaking engagements at the end of 2022. These four speaking engagements occurred in the two months after he left office, despite a rule from the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments that members should wait three months after leaving office to take up paid employment. Members of Parliament and second jobs The discussion around external methods of MP income generation beyond that of their annual salary has come and gone from public discourse. It made a roaring comeback however after the “Owen Patterson scandal” in October 2021, in which a minister (Owen Patterson) had been found to have broken lobbying rules on paid advocacy. The Prime minister at the time, Boris Johnson, initially tried to save Patterson from a parliamentary suspension but had to U-turn after substantial backlash. The scandal has since been referred to as the “beginning of the end” of Johnson’s premiership, and raised questions surrounding the ethics around MP’s taking on secondary employment, particularly as parliamentary strategists, advisors, and consultants to major firms.