UK statistics
Average Net Worth in the UK
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.
Headline numbers
- Median household net wealth
- £293,700
- Wealthiest 10% threshold
- £1,200,500
- Least wealthy 10% ceiling
- £16,500
ONS WAS, Apr 2020 to Mar 2022
Household total net wealth
Bottom decile of households
The detail
Net worth (total net wealth) is everything a household owns - property, pensions, savings, investments and physical possessions such as cars - minus everything it owes. The ONS Wealth and Assets Survey put the median at £293,700 for Great Britain in the period April 2020 to March 2022, the most recent published estimate. Half of households are worth more than this and half less.
Wealth is far more unequally distributed than income. The wealthiest 10% of households held £1,200,500 or more, while the least wealthy 10% held just £16,500 or less - a gap of more than 70 to 1 between the top and bottom deciles, compared with a roughly 5 to 1 gap in full-time pay. Because wealth is so concentrated at the top, the mean is much higher than the £293,700 median and gives a misleading picture of the typical household.
Most household wealth is not cash. Net property wealth made up 40% of the total and private pension wealth 35%, with net financial wealth (savings and investments) just 14% and physical wealth 10%. Stripping out private pensions - which cannot usually be accessed before age 55 - median wealth falls to £181,700, showing how much of a typical household net worth is locked up in the home and the pension.
A caveat on the data: the Office for Statistics Regulation removed the Wealth and Assets Survey accreditation in June 2025 over falling response rates and quality concerns, so these figures should be treated as indicative rather than precise, and no fully comparable newer round has yet been published. For a breakdown of how net worth builds up over a lifetime, see our wealth by age page.
Sources
- ONS - Household total wealth in Great Britain: April 2020 to March 2022 (retrieved 2026-07-01)
- House of Commons Library - Wealth in Great Britain (retrieved 2026-07-01)
- Our methodology & full source list →
Related statistics
- Wealth by Age
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 £357,500 at 75 and over as retirees draw down (ONS Wealth and Assets Survey, April 2020 to March 2022).
- Average UK savings
The FCA Financial Lives Survey 2024 (published May 2025) found that 90% of UK adults have some cash savings - but the median saver holds just £5,000-£5,999. One in ten UK adults have zero cash savings; 21% have less than £1,000 to draw on in an emergency. Financial resilience is concentrated: a relatively small minority of UK adults hold the majority of household cash savings.
- What Counts as Rich
There's no official "rich" threshold, but HMRC data points commonly used as proxies: top 1% income (~£180k/year), additional rate tax band (>£125,140), or top 10% wealth (>£1m household).
- Pension pot needed
The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) Retirement Living Standards split single-person retirement income into Minimum (£14,400/yr), Moderate (£31,300/yr), and Comfortable (£43,100/yr) for 2026/27. Using the 4% safe withdrawal rule, the pension pots needed are roughly £469,000 for Moderate and £764,000 for Comfortable - on top of the new State Pension.