Wealth in Great Britain

How is household wealth measured?

Household wealth is made up of four components:

• net property wealth
• net financial wealth
• physical wealth
• private pension wealth

What do Britain’s total wealth statistics show?

Median household wealth in Great Britain was £293,700 in the period April 2020 to March 2022. This is slightly higher in real terms than in April 2018 to March 2020. This increase was due to an increase in pension wealth: excluding private pensions, household wealth fell slightly. This is shown in the chart below. 

Source: ONS, Total Wealth: Wealth in Great Britain, 24 January 2025, Table 2.4

In April 2020 to March 2022, net property wealth made up 40% of household wealth in Great Britain, private pension wealth made up 35%, net financial wealth made up 14% and physical wealth made up 10%.

How significant is wealth inequality in Britain?

In March 2020 to April 2022, the Gini coefficient for total household wealth in Great Britain was 0.59. Wealth tends to be distributed more unequally than income: in 2022/23, the income Gini coefficient was 0.35 before housing costs and 0.39 after housing costs.

Financial wealth was the most unequally distributed component of wealth, while physical wealth was the least unequal. This is shown in the chart below.

In April 2020 to March 2022, the wealthiest 10% (decile) of households had wealth of £1,200,500 or more, while the least wealthy 10% had £16,500 or less. This is shown in the chart below.

Source: ONS, Total Wealth: Wealth in Great Britain, 24 January 2025, Tables 2.3 and 2.5