UK Pay & Tax Statistics 2026/27

HMRC published cryptoasset capital gains data for the first time on 27 August 2026. In 2024/25, 17,600 taxpayers reported £1,377 million of gains on cryptoassets from £13,799 million of disposal proceeds. The figures are provisional and exclude trusts.

Being in the UK's top 1% of income earners requires total pre-tax income of roughly £207,000 per year (HMRC Personal Incomes Statistics, tax year 2023/24 - the most recent complete dataset).

Full-time UK employees need gross pay of roughly £76,903 per year to be in the top 10% of earners by salary (ONS ASHE 2025, 90th percentile of full-time annual pay).

The median full-time UK salary is £39,039 in the ONS 2025 Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings - the most commonly cited "average" UK salary.

The median UK household disposable income was £36,700 a year in the financial year ending 2024 - after direct taxes, including cash benefits, and equivalised for household size (ONS, the latest release).

UK full-time median pay peaks between ages 40-49 at £44,244, with workers aged 22-29 earning around £32,347 and 60+ workers around £36,467 (ONS ASHE 2025).

Chief executives, marketing/sales directors and specialist medical practitioners top ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings occupational pay data - all with median full-time pay above £90,000.

Education-support, hospitality, cleaning and retail are the lowest-paid UK occupational groups, with full-time medians typically £21,000 to £25,000 - close to the National Living Wage floor.

The low-income line used in the UK's official poverty statistics is 60% of median household income. In the latest DWP figures, for FYE 2025 (April 2024 to March 2025), that is £373.80 a week (about £19,400 a year) after housing costs, or £431.40 a week (about £22,400 a year) before housing costs, for a couple with no children.

There's no official "rich" threshold, but three proxies are commonly used: the top 1% of UK taxpayers by income (£207,000 or more, HMRC, 2023-24), the additional-rate tax band (above £125,140), or the wealthiest 10% of households in Great Britain (£1,200,500 or more, ONS).

Effective combined tax (Income Tax + employee NI) rises from 16.3% on a £30,000 salary to 39.1% on £150,000 in 2026/27 (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) - not the headline marginal rate but the blended total-tax share.

UK real average weekly earnings (total pay, adjusted for CPIH inflation) were £531 a week in July 2026, 2.9% above the pre-financial-crisis peak of £516 in March 2008. The series has been above that peak in every month since February 2024, after 16 years below it outside the Covid distortion.

The median UK gender pay gap for full-time employees is 6.9% (ONS ASHE 2025), down from 7.1% in 2024 and by more than a quarter over the past decade. The gap widens sharply from around age 40, which ONS says may reflect the impact of motherhood.

The FCA Financial Lives 2024 survey (published 16 May 2025, still the latest wave) found that 90% of UK adults had some cash savings, and that the median amount among those savers was £5,000 to £5,999. 29% of adults had no investible assets or less than £1,000, while 43% had £10,000 or more.

The 2026 Sunday Times Rich List (online 15 May 2026, in print 17 May) counted 157 UK billionaires. The Equality Trust calculates that they hold just under £670 billion, more than 22p in every pound of UK GDP. The 350 people and families on the list share £784 billion, up 1.4% on the year.

The English Housing Survey 2024-25 (published 4 December 2025) put owner occupation at 65% of all households in England - 36% outright owners and 29% mortgagors. 19% rented privately and 16% from a social landlord. The figures cover England only, not the whole UK.

The UK House Price Index put the average UK house price at £273,000 in July 2026, up 1.4% on a year earlier (provisional). Country split: England £293,000 (+1.1%), Wales £215,000 (+2.6%), Scotland £196,000 (+2.3%) and Northern Ireland £202,000 (+9.2%, April to June 2026). The North East had the fastest growth of the English regions at 4.9%; London prices fell 3.3%.

The Student Loans Company reports £296.6 billion of income-contingent student loans outstanding in England at the end of financial year 2025-26 (31 March 2026): £294.6 billion of higher education loans and £2.0 billion of further education loans. The higher education balance grew by £28.0 billion (10.5%) in the year.

The ONS Price Index of Private Rents (PIPR) put average UK monthly private rent at £1,400 in August 2026, up 3.8% in the year (provisional). England averaged £1,459, Wales £846 and Scotland £1,013 in August; Northern Ireland, whose data run two months behind, averaged £874 in June.

HMRC data released to Rathbones under a Freedom of Information request show 5,070 people held ISAs worth £1 million or more at the start of the 2023/24 tax year. Rathbones projects that this could have risen to around 17,600 by April 2026, assuming 8% annual returns and full use of the annual ISA allowance.

The Retirement Living Standards, published by Pensions UK, put the yearly cost of retirement for one person outside London at £13,900 (Minimum), £32,700 (Moderate) and £45,400 (Comfortable). Allowing for Income Tax and a full new State Pension, and drawing 4% a year, that implies a pot of about £630,000 for Moderate and £1,054,000 for Comfortable.

HMRC's Income Tax liabilities statistics (published 15 July 2026) project 40.8 million Income Tax payers in 2026/27, of whom 7.70 million pay at the higher rate (up 33.8% on 2023/24) and 1.29 million at the additional rate (up 44.4%). The 2026/27 figures are projections built on 2023/24 data.

The UK unemployment rate for people aged 16 and over was estimated at 4.9% in May to July 2026 (ONS Labour market overview, released 15 September 2026). That is up 0.2 percentage points on the year and largely unchanged on the quarter. The employment rate (16-64) was 75.1% and the economic inactivity rate 20.9%.

Food banks in the Trussell community distributed 2,644,835 emergency food parcels in the 2025 calendar year (1 January to 31 December 2025), per Trussell's end-of-year statistics published in March 2026. That is 12% fewer than the 3 million given out in 2024, which Trussell puts largely down to easing inflation, but still 45% more than in the pre-pandemic year of 2019.

The UK household saving ratio - the share of disposable income that households save rather than spend - was 8.8% in Q2 2026 (April to June), per the ONS Quarterly National Accounts published on 30 September 2026. That is up from 8.6% in Q1 2026 but below the 10.2% of Q1 2025, and still above the 2015-19 pre-pandemic average of 6.6%.

The UK economic inactivity rate - the share of people aged 16 to 64 who are neither in work nor looking for work - was 20.9% in May to July 2026, per the ONS Labour Force Survey released on 15 September 2026. That is down 0.1 percentage points on both the year and the latest quarter, but above the 20.3% of December 2019 to February 2020, just before the pandemic.

UK long-term international net migration was 171,000 in the year ending December 2025 per ONS provisional data - down 48% from the revised 331,000 figure for YE December 2024 (and around 82% below the 944,000 peak in YE March 2023, which ONS revised upwards from a previously published 906,000 peak in YE June 2023 in its November 2025 methods update). The driver is a 47% fall in non-EU+ nationals arriving for work-related reasons, plus continued falls in study-route dependant visas.

The Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee voted by a majority of 6-3 to maintain Bank Rate at 3.75% at its meeting ending 16 September 2026, with three members voting for a 0.25 percentage point rise to 4%. The vote repeated July's 6-3 split. CPI inflation rose to 3.1% in August and the MPC expects it to rise further over coming quarters as higher energy prices pass through. The next decision is due on 5 November 2026.

Around 9 in 10 (90%) eligible employees in Great Britain were saving into a workplace pension in 2025 - 22.6 million people - per the DWP "Workplace pension participation and savings trends" statistics published on 30 July 2026. Total annual workplace pension savings for eligible savers reached £166.1 billion, a £63.5 billion real-terms increase on 2012, when automatic enrolment began.

The average monthly mortgage payment on a new purchase was £1,592 in January 2026 per Rightmove - £119 (7%) lower than January 2025. The figure assumes the average asking price, a 20% deposit, the average two-year fixed rate (4.23% in January 2026 against 4.99% a year earlier) and a 25-year term. Rates have since moved up: the Bank of England said in September 2026 that the quoted two-year fixed rate was around 95 basis points higher than before the Middle East conflict.

In England, a full-time (50 hours a week) nursery place for a child under two costs an average of £148.82 a week in term time for families eligible for the 30-hour working-parent entitlement, per the Coram Family and Childcare Survey 2026 - down 38.9% on 2025 after funded hours rose from 15 to 30 a week in September 2025. Scotland and Wales have no funded hours for under-twos: a part-time (25 hour) nursery place costs £133.08 a week in Scotland and £163.33 in Wales. Families in England not eligible for funded hours pay £189 a week for a part-time place.

UK nominal regular pay growth (excluding bonuses) was 3.5% in May to July 2026, per the ONS Average Weekly Earnings bulletin of 15 September 2026. In real terms, regular pay grew 0.6% after adjusting for CPIH inflation, or 0.8% using CPI. Total pay including bonuses grew 3.9% in cash terms, 0.9% in real (CPIH) terms.

Outstanding credit card lending to UK individuals was £83.3 billion in August 2026 (seasonally adjusted), per Bank of England Money and Credit statistics published on 29 September 2026. The annual growth rate of credit card borrowing rose to 13.3%, and the effective interest rate on interest-charging credit cards was 21.55%. 71% of StepChange debt-advice clients had credit card debt in January 2026.

London has the highest median full-time pay in the UK at £49,692 a year, while the North East is lowest at £34,403 - against a UK median of £39,039 (ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, April 2025, workplace-based full-time gross pay).

Financial and insurance activities is the highest-paying UK industry at a £58,488 median full-time salary, while accommodation and food service is the lowest at £28,687 - against a UK median of £39,039 (ONS ASHE 2025, workplace-based full-time gross pay).

The median salary of UK first-degree graduates in full-time work 15 months after leaving is £28,500 (HESA Graduate Outcomes 2022/23), while the UK's top 100 graduate employers pay a median starting salary of £35,000 (High Fliers, The Graduate Market in 2026).

The Real Living Wage - a voluntary rate set by the Living Wage Foundation - is £14.10 an hour across the UK and £15.45 in London for 2026/27, announced on 15 October 2026. That is higher than the statutory National Living Wage of £12.71, which is the legal minimum for workers aged 21 and over in 2026/27.

The median full-time salary in London is £49,692 a year - about 27% above the UK median of £39,039 (ONS ASHE 2025, workplace-based). The London mean is much higher, at £70,275, pulled up by a large cohort of very high earners.

There is no official UK definition of "middle class" by income, but the honest anchors are the ONS median household disposable income of £36,700 (financial year ending 2024) and the median full-time individual salary of £39,039 (ASHE 2025). The two measure different things: one is household income after tax, the other individual pay before tax.

There is no official "good salary" line, but the honest anchor is the ONS median full-time salary of £39,039 (ASHE 2025) - earning comfortably above that puts you above the typical UK worker. The top 10% of full-time employees earn above £76,903 and the top 5% above £99,387.

The median UK pensioner has net income of £455 a week - roughly £23,700 a year - after direct taxes and housing costs (DWP Pensioners Incomes Series, financial year ending 2025). Pensioner couples have a median of £650 a week and single pensioners £332 a week.

Median household total net wealth in Great Britain was £293,700 in the ONS Wealth and Assets Survey covering April 2020 to March 2022 - the most recent published figures. The distribution is extremely skewed: the wealthiest 10% of households held £1,200,500 or more, while the least wealthy 10% held £16,500 or less.

Median household total net wealth rises steeply with age, from £15,200 for households headed by someone aged 16-24 to a peak of £502,500 for the 65-74 age band, before dipping to £373,100 at 75 and over (ONS Wealth and Assets Survey, April 2020 to March 2022).

Raising a child to age 18 costs about £250,000 for a couple and £290,000 for a lone-parent family, according to the Child Poverty Action Group Cost of a Child in 2025 report (October 2025). These totals include rent, childcare and council tax; the basic cost excluding those is £167,679 for a couple and £189,053 for a lone parent.

HMRC reported £118 billion of total self-employment profit across 5.34 million people with self-employment income in 2023-24 - an average (mean) of about £22,000 each. Typical (median) self-employment income is far lower and well below the £39,039 median for full-time employees, because a long tail of high earners pulls the mean up.