In 2022 the top one percent of earners in the United Kingdom accounted for around 10.2 percent of the overall national income of the UK. The share of national income earned by the top one percent increased from 6.8 percent in 1980 to a peak of 14.8 percent in 2007.

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.

In 2022/23 approximately *****million taxpayers in the United Kingdom earned between 20,000 and 29,999 British pounds in this tax year, the most of any income level, while approximately *******taxpayers in the UK earned over one million pounds.

Households in the bottom decile in the United Kingdom earned, on average, ****** British pounds per year in 2023/24, compared with the top decile which earned around ******* pounds per year.

Annual estimates of UK regional gross disposable household income (GDHI) for local authorities by International Territorial Level (ITL) region.

Annual estimates of paid hours worked and earnings for UK employees by sex, and full-time and part-time.

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.

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. Data are revised on a wave by wave basis, as a result of backwards imputation from the current wave's data. 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.

A Secure Access version of the WAS, subject to more stringent access conditions, is available under SN 6709; it contains more detailed geographic variables than the EUL version. Users are advised to download the EUL version first (SN 7215) to see if it is suitable for their needs, before considering making an application for the Secure Access version.

Further information and documentation may be found on the ONS "https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/uksectoraccounts/methodologies/wealthandassetssurveywas" title="Wealth and Assets Survey"> Wealth and Assets Survey webpage. Users are advised to the check the page for updates before commencing analysis.

Occupation data for 2021 and 2022 data files

The ONS have identified an issue with the collection of some occupational data in 2021 and 2022 data files in a number of their surveys. While they estimate any impacts will be small overall, this will affect the accuracy of the breakdowns of some detailed (four-digit Standard Occupational Classification (SOC)) occupations, and data derived from them. None of ONS' headline statistics, other than those directly sourced from occupational data, are affected and you can continue to rely on their accuracy. For further information on this issue, please see: https://www.ons.gov.uk/news/statementsandletters/occupationaldatainonssurveys.

The data dictionary for round 8 person file is not available.

Latest edition information

For the 20th edition (May 2025), the Round 8 data files were updated to include variables personr7, nounitsr8 and porage1tar8, and derived binary versions of multi-choice questions, their collected equivalents and imputed binary versions of these variables. Also, variables that were only collected for part of the round have been removed. Additional documentation for Round 8 was also added to the study, including an updated variable list and derived variable specifications.

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.

About this dataset

Context

The dataset tabulates the England household income by gender. The dataset can be utilized to understand the gender-based income distribution of England income.

Content

The dataset will have the following datasets when applicable

Please note: The 2020 1-Year ACS estimates data was not reported by the Census Bureau due to the impact on survey collection and analysis caused by COVID-19. Consequently, median household income data for 2020 is unavailable for large cities (population 65,000 and above).

• England, AR annual median income by work experience and sex dataset : Aged 15+, 2010-2022 (in 2022 inflation-adjusted dollars)
• England, AR annual income distribution by work experience and gender dataset (Number of individuals ages 15+ with income, 2021)

Good to know

Margin of Error

Data in the dataset are based on the estimates and are subject to sampling variability and thus a margin of error. Neilsberg Research recommends using caution when presening these estimates in your research.

Custom data

If you do need custom data for any of your research project, report or presentation, you can contact our research staff at research@neilsberg.com for a feasibility of a custom tabulation on a fee-for-service basis.

Inspiration

Neilsberg Research Team curates, analyze and publishes demographics and economic data from a variety of public and proprietary sources, each of which often includes multiple surveys and programs. The large majority of Neilsberg Research aggregated datasets and insights is made available for free download at https://www.neilsberg.com/research/.

Interested in deeper insights and visual analysis?

Explore our comprehensive data analysis and visual representations for a deeper understanding of England income distribution by gender. You can refer the same here

Households in the Indian and White Other ethnic groups received the highest percentage of their income from employment out of all ethnic groups.

In the three months to July 2025, average weekly earnings in the United Kingdom grew by 4.8 percent, while pay including bonuses grew by 4.7 percent, when compared with the same period leading to June 2024. In the same month, the inflation rate for the Consumer Price Index was 3.6 percent, indicating that wages were rising faster than prices that month. Average salaries in the UK In 2024, the average salary for full-time workers in the UK was 37,430 British pounds a year, up from 34,963 in the previous year. In London, the average annual salary was far higher than the rest of the country, at 47,455 pounds per year, compared with just 32,960 in North East England. There also still exists a noticeable gender pay gap in the UK, which was seven percent for full-time workers in 2024, down from 7.5 percent in 2023. Lastly, the monthly earnings of the top one percent in the UK was 15,887 pounds as of November 2024, far higher than even that of the average for the top five percent, who earned 7,641 pounds per month, while pay for the lowest 10 percent of earners was just 805 pounds per month. Waves of industrial action in the UK One of the main consequences of high inflation and low wage growth throughout 2022 and 2023 was an increase in industrial action in the UK. In December 2022, for example, there were approximately 830,000 working days lost due to labor disputes. Throughout this month, workers across various industry sectors were involved in industrial disputes, such as nurses, train drivers, and driving instructors. Many of the workers who took part in strikes were part of the UK's public sector, which saw far weaker wage growth than that of the private sector throughout 2022. Widespread industrial action continued into 2023, with approximately 303,000 workers involved in industrial disputes in March 2023. There was far less industrial action by 2024, however, due to settlements in many of the disputes, although some are ongoing as of 2025.

The number of high net worth individuals (HNWIs) in Europe has grown steadily over the past decade. This trend reflects broader wealth accumulation patterns across the continent, with the richest segments of society gaining an increasingly larger share of total wealth. Despite this concentration at the top, recent years have seen some positive signs in terms of overall income inequality reduction in Europe. Wealth concentration at the top From 1995 to 2021, the wealthiest one percent in Europe increased their share of wealth from 22 percent to over 26 percent. During this same period, the bottom 90 percent saw their collective share shrink. This concentration of wealth at the top aligns with the growth in HNWIs observed in countries in Europe. The top 10 percent of wealthy Europeans now own more than the remaining 90 percent combined, highlighting the significant wealth disparity that persists despite the overall increase in HNWIs.

Signs of improving income equality While wealth concentration has increased, there are indications that income inequality in the European Union has been improving in recent years. The Gini coefficient, a measure of income inequality, has been declining in both the EU and Eurozone since 2014, reaching new lows of 29.6 and 29.8 respectively in 2023. Additionally, the income ratio between the top 20 percent and bottom 20 percent of earners in the EU has fallen from 5.22 in 2015 to 4.74 in 2022. These trends suggest that despite the growth in HNWIs, efforts to address income disparities may be having some positive effects across the broader population.

Information on farm household income and farm household composition. Source agency: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Designation: National Statistics Language: English Alternative title: Farm Household Income and Household Composition, England

If you require the datasets in a more accessible format, please contact fbs.queries@defra.gsi.gov.uk

Background and guidance on the statistics

Information on farm household income and farm household composition was collected in the Farm Business Survey (FBS) for England for the first time in 2004/05. Collection of household income data is restricted to the household of the principal farmer from each farm business. For practical reasons, data is not collected for the households of any other farmers and partners. Two-thirds of farm businesses have an input only from the principal farmer’s household (see table 5). However, details of household composition are collected for the households of all farmers and partners in the business, but not employed farm workers.

Data on the income of farm households is used in conjunction with other economic information for the agricultural sector (e.g. farm business income) to help inform policy decisions and to help monitor and evaluate current policies relating to agriculture in the United Kingdom by Government. It also informs wider research into the economic performance of the agricultural industry.

This release gives the main results from the income and composition of farm households and the off-farm activities of the farmer and their spouse (Including common law partners) sections of the FBS. These sections include information on the household income of the principal farmer’s household, off-farm income sources for the farmer and spouse and incomes of other members of their household and the number of working age and pensionable adults and children in each of the households on the farm (the information on household composition can be found in Appendix B).

This release provides the main results from the 2013/14 FBS. The results are presented together with confidence intervals.

Survey content and methodology

The Farm Business Survey (FBS) is an annual survey providing information on the financial position and physical and economic performance of farm businesses in England. The sample of around 1,900 farm businesses covers all regions of England and all types of farming with the data being collected by face to face interview with the farmer. Results are weighted to represent the whole population of farm businesses that have at least 25 thousand Euros of standard output as recorded in the annual June Survey of Agriculture and Horticulture. In 2013 there were just over 58 thousand farm businesses meeting this criteria.

Since 2009/10 a sub-sample of around 1,000 farms in the FBS has taken part in both the additional surveys on the income and composition of farm households and the off-farm activities of the farmer and their spouse. In previous years, the sub-sample had included over 1,600 farms. As such, caution should be taken when comparing to earlier years.

The farms that responded to the additional survey on household incomes and off-farm activities of the farmer and spouse had similar characteristics to those farms in the main FBS in terms of farm type and geographical location. However, there is a smaller proportion of very large farms in the additional survey than in the main FBS. Full details of the characteristic of responding farms can be found at Appendix A of the notice.

For further information about the Farm Business Survey please see: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-environment-food-rural-affairs/series/farm-business-survey

Data analysis

The results from the FBS relate to farms which have a standard output of at least 25,000 Euros. Initial weights are applied to the FBS records based on the inverse sampling fraction for each design stratum (farm type by farm size). These weights are then adjusted (calibration weighting) so that they can produce unbiased estimators of a number of different target variables. Completion of the additional survey on household incomes and off-farm activities of the farmer and spouse was voluntary and a sample of around 1,000 farms was achieved. In order to take account of non-response, the results have been reweighted using a method that preserves marginal totals for populations according to farm type and farm size groups. As such, farm population totals for other classifications (e.g. regions) will not be in-line with results using the main FBS weights, nor will any results produced for variables derived from the rest of the FBS (e.g. farm business income).

Accuracy and reliability of the results

We show 95% confidence intervals against the results. These show the range of values that may apply to the figures. They mean that we are 95% confident that this range contains the true value. They are calculated as the standard errors (se) multiplied by 1.96 to give the 95% confidence interval. The standard errors only give an indication of the sampling error. They do not reflect any other sources of survey errors, such as non-response bias. For the Farm Business Survey, the confidence limits shown are appropriate for comparing groups within the same year only; they should not be used for comparing with previous years since they do not allow for the fact that many of the same farms will have contributed to the Farm Business Survey in both years.

Availability of results

This release contains headline results for each section. The full set of results can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-environment-food-rural-affairs/series/farm-business-survey#publications

Defra statistical notices can be viewed on the on the statistics pages of the Defra website at https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-environment-food-rural-affairs/about/statistics. This site also shows details of future publications, with pre-announced dates.

Data Uses

Data from the Farm Business Survey (FBS) are provided to the EU as part of the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN). The data have been used to help inform policy decisions (e.g. Reform of Pillar 1 and Pillar 2 of Common Agricultural Policy) and to help monitor and evaluate current policies relating to agriculture in England (and the EU). It is also widely used by the industry for benchmarking and informs wider research into the economic performance of the agricultural industry.

User engagement

As part of our ongoing commitment to compliance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/assessment/code-of-practice/index.html, we wish to strengthen our engagement with users of these statistics and better understand the use made of them and the types of decisions that they inform. Consequently, we invite users to make themselves known, to advise us of the use they do, or might, make of these statistics, and what their wishes are in terms of engagement. Feedback on this notice and enquiries about these statistics are also welcome.

Definitions

Household income of the principal farmer Principal farmer’s household income has the following components: (1) The share of farm business income (FBI) (including income from farm diversification) attributable to the principal farmer and their spouse. (2) Principal farmer’s and spouse’s off farm income from employment and self-employment, investment income, pensions and social payments. (3) Income of other household members. The share of farm business income and all employment and self-employment incomes, investment income and pension income are recorded as gross of income tax payments and National Insurance contributions, but after pension contributions. In addition, no deduction is made for council tax.

Household A household is defined as a single person or group of people living at the same address as their only or main residence, who either share one meal a day together or share the living accommodation. A household must contain at least one person who received drawings from the farm business or who took a share of the profit from the business.

Drawings Drawings represent the monies which the farmer takes from the business for their own personal use. The percentage of total drawings going to each household is collected and is used to calculate the total share of farm business income for the principal farmer’s household.

Mean Mean household income of individuals is the ”average”, found by adding up the weighted household incomes for each individual farm in the population for analysis and dividing the result by the corresponding weighted number of farms. In this report average is usually taken to refer to the mean.

Percentiles These are the values which divide the population for analysis, when ranked by an output variable (e.g. household income or net worth), into 100 equal-sized groups. E.g. twenty five per cent of the population would have incomes below the 25th percentile.

Median Median household income divides the population, when ranked by an output variable, into two equal sized groups. The median of the whole population is the same as the 50th percentile. The term is also used for the midpoint of the subsets of the income distribution

Quartiles Quartiles are values which divide the population, when ranked by an output variable, into four equal-sized groups. The lowest quartile is the same as the 25th percentile. The divisions of a population split by quartiles are referred to as quarters in this publication.

Quintiles Quintiles are values which divide the population, when ranked by an output variable, into five equal-sized groups. The divisions of a population split by quintiles are referred to as fifths in this publication.

Assets Assets include

Earnings and employment statistics from Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Real Time Information (RTI), UK, NUTS 1, 2 and 3 areas and local authorities, monthly, non-seasonally adjusted.

About the dataset This dataset uses information from the DWP benefit system to provide estimates of children living in poverty for wards in London. In order to be counted in this dataset, a family must have claimed Child Benefit and at least one other household benefit (Universal Credit, tax credits or Housing Benefit) during the year. The numbers are calibrated to the Households Below Average Income (HBAI) dataset used to provide the government's headline poverty statistics. The definition of relative low income is living in a household with equivalised* income before housing costs (BHC) below 60% of contemporary national median income. The income measure includes contributions from earnings, state support and pensions. Further detail on the estimates of dependent children living in relative low income, including alternative geographical breakdowns and additional variables, such as age of children, family type and work status are available from DWP's statistical tabulation tool Stat-Xplore. Minor adjustments to the data have been applied to guard against the identification of individual claimants. This dataset replaced the DWP children in out-of-work benefit households and HMRC children in low income families local measure releases. This dataset includes estimates for all wards in London of numbers of dependent children living in relative low income families for each financial year from 2014/15 to the latest available (2022/23). The figures for the latest year are provisional and are subject to minor revision when the next dataset is released by DWP. Headlines Number of children The number of dependent children living in relative low income across London, rose from below 310,000 in the financial year ending 2015 to over 420,000 in the financial year ending 2020, but has decreased since then to below 350,000, which is well below the number for financial year ending 2018. While many wards in London have followed a similar pattern, the numbers of children in low income families in some wards have fallen more sharply, while the numbers in other wards have continued to grow. Proportion of children in each London ward Ward population sizes vary across London, the age profile of that population also varies and both the size and make-up of the population can change over time, so in order to make more meaningful comparisons between wards or over time, DWP have also published rates, though see note below regarding caution when using these figures. A dependent child is anyone aged under 16; or aged 16 to 19 in full-time non-advanced education or in unwaged government training. Ward level estimates for the total number of dependent children are not available, so percentages cannot be derived. Ward level estimates for the percentage of children under 16 living in low income families are usually published by DWP but, in its latest release, ward-level population estimates were not available at the time, so no rates were published. To derive the rates in this dataset, the GLA has used the ONS's latest ward-level population estimates (official statistics in development). Percentages for 2021/22 are calculated using the 2021 mid year estimates, while percentages for 2022/23 are calculated using the 2022 mid year estimates. As these are official statistics in development, rates therefore need to be treated with some caution. Notes *equivalised income is adjusted for household size and composition in order to compare living standards between households of different types.

Average weekly earnings at sector level headline estimates, Great Britain, monthly, seasonally adjusted. Monthly Wages and Salaries Survey.