Household income
Published
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1. Main facts and figures
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in the 3 years to March 2019, an average of 28% of households in the UK had a weekly income of below £400 (before tax)
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28% of households had a weekly income of £1,000 or more
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Black households were the most likely out of all ethnic groups to have a weekly income of less than £400
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households in the Indian ethnic group were the most likely to have a weekly income of £1,000 or more
2. Things you need to know
What the data measures
The data measures the weekly income of households in the UK before tax. It includes the total income of everyone who lives in the household.
The data only includes private households.
Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number, so some totals may not add up to 100%.
Not included in the data
Data based on fewer than 100 responses is not shown.
The data does not include:
- people who live in communal accommodation (for example, care homes)
- people with no fixed address (for example, homeless people)
- households where not all residents completed the survey
The ethnic groups used in the data
The data uses the ethnic categories from the 2011 Census.
Data is aggregated for the Black, Mixed and Other ethnic groups, which means estimates are shown for these groups as a whole. Data is shown separately for White British people and all other White people (‘White Other’ ethnic group).
Some households contain people from different ethnic backgrounds. Each household’s ethnicity is based on the head of the household (usually the person with the highest income). The data does not account for people of different ethnic backgrounds who live in the same household.
Methodology
Read the detailed methodology document (PDF opens in a new window or tab) for this data.
The data is an average for the 3 years from April 2016 to March 2019. This is to make sure there are enough households to be able to make reliable generalisations. You can read more about combining multiple years of data and some of the issues involved.
The figures on this page are based on survey data. Find out more about:
- interpreting survey data, including how reliability is affected by the number of people surveyed
- [how weighting is used] to make survey data more representative of the whole group being studied
3. By ethnicity
| Ethnicity | Up to £99 | £100 to £199 | £200 to £299 | £300 to £399 | £400 to £499 | £500 to £599 | £600 to £699 | £700 to £799 | £800 to £899 | £900 to £999 | £1000 or above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | 2 | 5 | 10 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 28 |
| Bangladeshi | 1 | 2 | 7 | 12 | 10 | 12 | 17 | 10 | 4 | 4 | 21 |
| Chinese | 5 | 3 | 14 | 9 | 10 | 5 | 9 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 31 |
| Indian | 2 | 3 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 46 |
| Pakistani | 2 | 6 | 8 | 7 | 12 | 14 | 11 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 22 |
| Asian other | 3 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 11 | 10 | 8 | 10 | 5 | 5 | 32 |
| Black | 3 | 6 | 10 | 15 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 20 |
| Mixed | 2 | 4 | 9 | 12 | 12 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 5 | 30 |
| White British | 2 | 5 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 28 |
| White other | 3 | 3 | 7 | 7 | 10 | 8 | 10 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 34 |
| Other | 2 | 4 | 12 | 10 | 9 | 11 | 6 | 8 | 5 | 5 | 27 |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity’ (CSV)
Summary of Household income By ethnicity Summary
The data shows that, on average in the 3 years to March 2019:
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28% of households in the UK had a weekly income of below £400 (before tax)
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28% of households had a weekly income of £1,000 or more
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households in the Black (34%) and Chinese (31%) ethnic groups were the most likely out of all ethnic groups to have a weekly income of less than £400
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households in the Indian (46%) ethnic group were the most likely to have a weekly income of £1,000 or more – this was more than twice the percentage of Pakistani (22%), Bangladeshi (21%) and Black (20%) households in this income band
4. Data sources
Source
Family Resources Survey: financial year 2018/19
Type of data
Survey data
Type of statistic
National Statistics
Publisher
Department for Work and Pensions
Note on corrections or updates
The figures for the share of income in the download file before the year ending March 2015 may not match the DWP’s published figures. This is because the way of adjusting for inflation changed from the Retail Price Index to the Consumer Price Index from the year ending March 2015 onwards.
Publication frequency
Yearly
Purpose of data source
The main purpose of the Family Resources Survey (FRS) is to give the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) data to develop, monitor and evaluate social welfare policy.
The survey is also used by other government departments, including for tax and benefit policy modelling by HM Treasury and HM Revenue and Customs. The FRS is also used extensively by academics and research institutes for social and economic research.
5. Download the data
Measure, Time, Time_Type, Ethnicity, Ethnicity_Type, Value, Value_type, Denominator