Income percentiles in United Kingdom
Where each yearly income band starts in United Kingdom, in GBP, and what a reading there measures.
Reference data version 2026.4, reference year 2024.
Three cut-offs
- Bottom tenth
- under £17,000 a year
- Top tenth
- from £73,000 a year
- Top hundredth
- from £150,000 a year
The middle of the distribution, the 40th to 55th percentile, is £31,000 – £39,000 a year.
Every band
The 11 bands the income question offers in United Kingdom, verbatim, lowest first.
| Band | Yearly income |
|---|---|
| Below the 10th percentile | under £17,000 |
| 10th to 25th percentile | £17,000 – £24,000 |
| 25th to 40th percentile | £24,000 – £31,000 |
| 40th to 55th percentile | £31,000 – £39,000 |
| 55th to 70th percentile | £39,000 – £49,000 |
| 70th to 80th percentile | £49,000 – £57,000 |
| 80th to 90th percentile | £57,000 – £73,000 |
| 90th to 95th percentile | £73,000 – £92,000 |
| 95th to 98th percentile | £92,000 – £120,000 |
| 98th to 99th percentile | £120,000 – £150,000 |
| Top 1% | £150,000 or more |
Per earner. The source publishes household income divided by everyone in the household; the labels multiply it by 2.05, the people one worker's income stands for in United Kingdom, so a person can place their own income.
What the data rests on
- Confidence
- Medium
- Years covered
- 1981 to 2024
- Survey-based years
- 93% of covered years
- Nearest survey
- 3 years from 2024
- Age bands
- 6 of 6 resolved by the OECD
- Measured on
- income
- Currency
- GBP (£)
Why: the span is short of the longest horizon.
What a reading in United Kingdom measures
- Your place: which of the bands above your income is in now, against the band it was in a year ago, read as a position in the income distribution of United Kingdom itself.
- Your ground: both incomes with consumer prices in United Kingdom taken out, against how the middle of the distribution moved over the same year.
- Nothing is compared across borders. A reading in United Kingdom is measured against United Kingdom alone.
A band is a range, so a move inside one band does not register, and published distributions understate the very top. The confidence level above travels onto every card measured here.