Median UK Household Income

The detail

ONS puts median household disposable income at £36,700 a year in the financial year ending (FYE) 2024, a small 0.8% rise on FYE 2023 that ONS does not treat as statistically significant. This is the latest ONS release. Disposable income is the money households have for spending and saving after direct taxes such as Income Tax, National Insurance and Council Tax; it includes earnings, private pensions, investment income and cash benefits from the state.

Gross income is a different measure: ONS defines it as original income plus cash benefits, before direct taxes are taken off. Mean gross household income was £55,200 in FYE 2024, down 1.7% on the year. It is not comparable with the £36,700 median: it is a mean rather than a median, and it is measured before direct taxes.

Every figure in the release is equivalised. Equivalisation accounts for the fact that households with more members need more income for the same standard of living; ONS uses the modified OECD equivalisation scale. The spread is wide: median disposable income was £16,800 for the poorest fifth of people and £71,100 for the richest fifth.

Note: several official sources are all called "average UK income" in casual speech but measure different things. The ONS figures above come from its Household Finances Survey. The Family Resources Survey and Households Below Average Income (HBAI) are DWP publications, and the HBAI median is published on a different basis (see our poverty line page). ONS's Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) measures individual employee pay, not household income. Mixing them up is how contradictory claims about "typical" UK earnings appear in the press.