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.

Preliminary estimates for Great Britain from the Wealth and Assets Survey using attitudinal data around individuals' attitudes towards saving for retirement, not dependent on thorough checking and imputation methodology.

Preliminary estimates for Great Britain from the Wealth and Assets Survey using attitudinal data on individuals' attitudes towards pensions, not dependent on thorough checking and imputation methodology.

Preliminary estimates for Great Britain from the Wealth and Assets Survey using attitudinal data not dependent on thorough checking and imputation methodology.

Survey on income.

Data relevant to experimental statistics on financial resilience from round 6 of the Wealth and Assets Survey.

Results from the Wealth and Assets Survey

Source agency: Office for National Statistics

Designation: National Statistics

Language: English

Alternative title: WAS

Households that have liquidity problems and solvency problems only

Percentage of total wealth owned by households in each decile for London and Great Britain. Data extracted from the ONS Wealth and Assets Survey (WAS) microdata. This dataset is one of the Greater London Authority's measures of Economic Fairness. Click here to find out more.

Main results from the Wealth and Assets Survey incorporating results from the second wave of the survey.

Source agency: Office for National Statistics

Designation: National Statistics

Language: English

Alternative title: Wealth and Assets Survey Wave 2

Graph and download economic data for Share of Financial Assets Held by the 90th to 99th Wealth Percentiles (WFRBSN09139) from Q3 1989 to Q1 2025 about wealth, percentile, financial, assets, and USA.

A combined analysis of income and wealth based upon results from the third wave of the Wealth and Assets Survey and covering the period 2010-12.

Source agency: Office for National Statistics

Designation: National Statistics

Language: English

Alternative title: Wealth in Great Britain Wave 3

A longitudinal survey that collects information about the economic well being of households and individuals including their assets and debts, pension provision, how wealth is distributed and factors that may affect financial planning.

Source agency: Office for National Statistics

Designation: Experimental Official Statistics

Language: English

Alternative title: WAS

🇬🇧 영국 English Survey on income.

Percentage of total wealth owned by households in each decile for London and Great Britain. Data extracted from the ONS Wealth and Assets Survey (WAS) microdata. This dataset is one of the Greater London Authority's measures of Economic Fairness. Click here to find out more.

Preliminary estimates for Great Britain from the Wealth and Assets Survey using attitudinal data on individuals' attitudes towards bills and credit commitments, not dependent on thorough checking and imputation methodology.

This statistic shows the distribution of investable assets of China's internet wealth management users in 2018. According to a survey, about 17 percent of investable assets of the surveyed internet wealth management users in China were kept as bank savings.

Decile cut-off values from regional, state and rural/urban distributions of the national wealth index score calculated from the NFHS-2 survey (1998–9) household sample.

SD: Standard Deviation.Assets selected to create a national wealth index from the DLHS-1 (1998–9) survey, with coding definitions.