Average Incomes in UK

There are different ways of measuring average incomes in the UK.

• Average Household Incomes – combined income of a family. This may include 2 or 3 salaries
• Average Individual Incomes – average income of individual earner.
• Gross Income – Original income before tax and benefits
• Disposable Income – Final income after subtracting tax and adding benefits.
• Median Average Incomes
• Mean Average Incomes

Graph Showing Inequality in Average Income

The graph below shows the distribution of average incomes. The top 20% households earn 16 times more than the bottom 20%, although this is significantly lessened by the impact of the tax and benefit system

Source: ONS (2005-06)

This shows average incomes in the UK were just under £30,000 in 2006.

Average Weekly Pay

According to National Statistics the median weekly pay was £457 in April 2007. This gives an average yearly salary of £23,764

The highest weekly pay, was unsurprisingly in London £581, compared to £402 in Northern Ireland.

• The best paid professions are Health professionals’, (median pay of full-time employees of £1,019 a week),
• followed by ‘Corporate managers’ (£702) and
• ‘Science and technology professionals’ (£670).
• The lowest paid of all full-time employees were ‘Sales occupations’, at £264 a week.

Source: National Statistics Online

Regional Disparities in Average Incomes

Average Household Incomes in London exceed £100,000 [1 BBC] Most of the top 20 Earning regions are in the South East, with parts of Greater London, seeing average house hold incomes exceed £100,000. There are said to be 1 million households with an average income of greater than £100,000 in the UK.

 See also:

• Ratio of Average Incomes to Average House Prices
  
• Poverty, Inequality and Economic Growth