Average UK Savings 2025: FCA Financial Lives Survey

The detail

The FCA Financial Lives Survey 2024 - the largest official UK household financial survey, with around 20,000 respondents - found that 90% of UK adults have some cash savings, but the median saver holds only £5,000-£5,999. The median figure is suppressed because most UK adults hold modest deposits while a relatively small wealthy minority hold the majority of household cash.

One in ten UK adults have ZERO cash savings - roughly 5 million people who could not cover an unexpected £500 bill from their own resources. A further 21% have less than £1,000, meaning approximately 31% of UK adults (around 16 million people) have less than a month of typical UK rent in emergency savings.

Distribution is highly skewed. The top 10% of UK households by cash holdings have over £100,000 in deposits; the top 1% have £500,000+. Concentration has increased post-2020 as base rates rose and asset-rich households benefited from higher savings rates, while inflation-driven cost-of-living rises eroded the deposits of low-income households.

Practical implication: the "recommended emergency fund" of 3-6 months of expenses (£6,000-£15,000 for a typical UK household) is unreachable for the bottom 40% of UK adults at current incomes. The savings ISA + Premium Bonds + workplace pension scheme structure is well-designed for the upper half of UK households but does not address the lower half who can not even reach the savings ISA allowance.