Wealth Concentration in the UK: Who Holds the Top 1%

Wealth in the UK is far more concentrated than income, and the single most-quoted figure for the top 1% depends entirely on how the very richest households are measured. This briefing sets out the verified numbers, flags where they disagree, and separates official statistics from modelled estimates.

Two facts frame everything below. First, the Office for National Statistics household survey and the World Inequality Database produce materially different top 1% shares, because a voluntary survey struggles to capture the largest fortunes. Second, wealth thresholds have risen while the main inheritance tax allowance has stayed fixed, so the tax now reaches a growing minority of estates. Figures are dated at the point of use and are current as at August 2026, subject to change.

Executive summary

• Total privately owned wealth in Great Britain was estimated at £13.6 trillion for April 2020 to March 2022 (ONS, Great Britain).
• The wealthiest 1% of households held 10% of all household wealth, the same share as the least wealthy 50% combined (ONS, Great Britain, April 2020 to March 2022).
• Combining the ONS survey with the Sunday Times Rich List raised the estimated top 1% share to about 23%, from an adjusted baseline near 18%, implying roughly £800 billion of wealth the survey misses (Resolution Foundation, UK, January 2021). Flag: not directly comparable with the ONS 10% headline.
• The wealth Gini coefficient was 0.59, against 0.36 for income, so wealth is distributed considerably more unequally than income (ONS, Great Britain, April 2020 to March 2022).
• Household wealth relative to national income roughly doubled from about three times to about six times since 1980, even as the top 1% share rose by only about one percentage point (Resolution Foundation, UK, December 2024).
• Median household wealth ranged from £489,800 in the South East to £179,900 in the North East (ONS, Great Britain, April 2020 to March 2022).
• In 2022 to 2023, 31,500 estates paid inheritance tax, or 4.62% of UK deaths, creating £6.70 billion in liabilities (HMRC, UK).

Key findings

1. Total privately owned wealth in Great Britain was estimated at £13.6 trillion for April 2020 to March 2022 (ONS, Great Britain).
2. Median household wealth in Great Britain was £293,700 for April 2020 to March 2022, falling to £181,700 when private pensions are excluded (ONS, Great Britain).
3. The wealthiest 10% of households held 41% of total wealth in Great Britain in April 2020 to March 2022, while the least wealthy 50% held 10% (ONS, Great Britain).
4. The wealthiest 1% of households held 10% of household wealth in Great Britain in April 2020 to March 2022, a share equal to that of the least wealthy half combined (ONS, Great Britain).
5. The entry threshold for the wealthiest 1% of households was £3,121,500 of net wealth in Great Britain, April 2020 to March 2022 (ONS, Great Britain).
6. The entry threshold for the wealthiest 10% of households was £1,200,500 of net wealth, against £16,500 or less for the least wealthy 10% (ONS, Great Britain, April 2020 to March 2022).
7. The household wealth Gini coefficient was 0.59 in Great Britain for April 2020 to March 2022, compared with an income Gini of 0.36 (ONS, Great Britain).
8. Merging the ONS survey with the Sunday Times Rich List lifted the modelled top 1% share to about 23%, uncovering roughly £800 billion, about 5% of total wealth, that official measures miss (Resolution Foundation, UK, January 2021).
9. The top 1% share of household wealth rose by only about one percentage point since 1980 in the UK, against a 12-point rise for the US top 1% over the same period (Resolution Foundation, UK, December 2024).
10. The share of wealth held by the top 0.1% roughly doubled to about 9% between 1984 and 2013 in the UK (World Inequality Database, via The Equality Trust, UK).
11. Household wealth relative to national income rose from roughly three times to roughly six times between the pre-1980 period and the 2020s in the UK (Resolution Foundation, UK, December 2024).
12. Net property wealth (40%) and private pension wealth (35%) together made up three-quarters of household wealth in Great Britain for April 2020 to March 2022 (ONS, Great Britain).
13. Median household wealth in the South East (£489,800) was more than double that in the North East (£179,900) in Great Britain, April 2020 to March 2022 (ONS, Great Britain).
14. In 2022 to 2023, 31,500 estates incurred an inheritance tax charge, equal to 4.62% of UK deaths, up 0.23 percentage points on the prior year (HMRC, UK).
15. Inheritance tax liabilities created for 2022 to 2023 totalled £6.70 billion (HMRC Inheritance Tax liabilities statistics, UK), and provisional cash receipts reached £8.2 billion in 2024 to 2025 (HMRC tax and NIC receipts, UK). Flag: liabilities and cash receipts are different measures.

The contested top 1%

The most important caveat in this field is that the headline top 1% share depends on the method. A voluntary household survey rarely reaches billionaires and under-records the largest fortunes, so it tends to understate concentration at the very top. Independent analyses that add administrative or rich-list data produce higher figures.

Flag: these figures are not directly comparable. They use different geographies (Great Britain versus the UK), different wealth concepts and different methods. The ONS 10% is a household-survey estimate; the Resolution Foundation 18% and 23% come from a distributional series that already sits above the survey headline and is then adjusted upward using rich-list data. The direction of travel is consistent, that the survey misses top-tail wealth, but the exact gap should not be read as a single reconciled number.

The Resolution Foundation estimated that official measures miss around £800 billion, roughly 5% of total wealth, concentrated among the very richest households, and that the adjusted top 1% share is over a quarter higher than the unadjusted figure (Resolution Foundation, UK, January 2021). Separately, World Inequality Database figures cited by The Equality Trust show the top 0.1% share roughly doubling to about 9% between 1984 and 2013 (The Equality Trust, UK).

A point of context worth stating plainly: despite very high wealth-to-income ratios, the UK top 1% share of wealth rose by only about one percentage point since 1980, whereas the US top 1% gained about 12 points over the same period (Resolution Foundation, UK, December 2024). Rising wealth in Britain has come mainly from asset prices and pensions lifting all wealth levels, rather than from a sharp shift of shares toward the very top.

What wealth is made of

Concentration is easier to read once the composition of wealth is clear. Property and pensions dominate, which is why house prices and pension values drive most movements in measured wealth.

Source: ONS, Great Britain, April 2020 to March 2022. Components sum to 99% because of rounding.

The wider context is that household wealth relative to national income roughly doubled, from about three times to about six times, between the pre-1980 period and the 2020s, and fell by around £2 trillion when interest rates rose (Resolution Foundation, UK, December 2024). Flag. Because so much measured wealth sits in pensions and property, both of which are sensitive to interest rates and house prices, aggregate wealth figures can move sharply between rounds for reasons unrelated to how it is shared.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has projected that the share of deaths resulting in an inheritance tax charge will reach its highest level in more than 50 years by 2029 to 2030, driven largely by the freeze on the nil-rate bands interacting with rising asset values (Institute for Fiscal Studies, UK). Flag. This is a forecast, not an outturn, and depends on assumptions about house prices and behaviour. From 6 April 2026, agricultural property relief and business property relief give 100% relief on the first £2,500,000 of combined qualifying assets per person and 50% above that, an allowance transferable between spouses and civil partners (gov.uk, announced 23 December 2025), which chiefly affects the concentrated farm and business wealth toward the top of the distribution. For the underlying rules, see Inheritance Tax Explained.

Recommended charts

Five chart specifications for editors and analysts. Each is described, not embedded.

1. Top 1% share by method. Data: 10% (ONS survey), 18% (RF unadjusted), 23% (RF adjusted). Source: ONS 2020–22; Resolution Foundation 2021. Insight: the headline figure more than doubles depending on method. Citation-worthy because it visualises why a single top 1% number is misleading.
2. Wealth versus income inequality. Data: wealth Gini 0.59, income Gini 0.36. Source: ONS, GB, 2020–22. Insight: wealth is far more unequal than income. Citation-worthy as a clean one-frame comparison.
3. Composition of household wealth. Data: property 40%, pensions 35%, financial 14%, physical 10%. Source: ONS, GB, 2020–22. Insight: property and pensions dominate. Citation-worthy for explaining why house prices drive wealth figures.
4. Regional median wealth ladder. Data: regional median household wealth, South East £489,800 to North East £179,900. Source: ONS, GB, 2020–22. Insight: a 2.7-times regional gap at the median. Citation-worthy for the geography-of-wealth story.
5. Inheritance tax reach over time. Data: taxed share of UK deaths, 4.62% in 2022–23, with the IFS projection to 2029–30. Source: HMRC; IFS. Insight: a frozen threshold widens the tax base. Citation-worthy for the fiscal-drag angle.

Methodology

Source selection. Preference was given to Tier 1 primary sources: the ONS Wealth and Assets Survey for distribution, HMRC for inheritance tax, and named research institutions (Resolution Foundation, World Inequality Database via The Equality Trust) for modelled top-tail estimates. Trade and secondary commentary was used only to locate primary figures, which were then verified against the primary release.

Inclusion and exclusion. Every statistic states its figure, date range and geography, with an inline source. Figures that could not be traced to a named source were excluded. Where a figure exists only as a modelled estimate, it is labelled as such and not presented as an official statistic.

Handling conflicts. The clearest conflict is the top 1% share, where the ONS survey (10%, GB) and the Resolution Foundation adjusted series (23%, UK) diverge. Rather than pick one, both are reported with their methods, geographies and a flag that they are not directly comparable.

Derived figures. The four synthesis measures are simple ratios of published figures, computed by Fairchild Oldfield and labelled as estimates, with all inputs linked and limitations stated.

Limitations and date. The main distribution source is a survey round whose accredited official statistics status is suspended and whose fieldwork was affected by the pandemic. Several figures carry sampling error. Content is current as at August 2026 and is subject to change.

Source quality ranking

The Equality Trust and Resolution Foundation are reputable research bodies; where they compile or model figures they are labelled Tier 2, and their underlying primary sources (ONS, WID) are cited directly.

Most quotable statistics

• The wealthiest 1% of households held 10% of all wealth in Great Britain, the same share as the least wealthy half combined (ONS, 2020–22).
• Adjusting for missing top-tail wealth lifts the top 1% share to about 23% and uncovers roughly £800 billion (Resolution Foundation, UK, 2021).
• Total privately owned wealth in Great Britain reached £13.6 trillion (ONS, 2020–22).
• The wealth Gini was 0.59 against an income Gini of 0.36, so wealth is far more unequal than income (ONS, 2020–22).
• A household needed £3,121,500 to enter the wealthiest 1% in Great Britain (ONS, 2020–22).
• Median household wealth in the South East (£489,800) was more than double the North East (£179,900) (ONS, 2020–22).
• Inheritance tax reached 4.62% of UK deaths, or 31,500 estates, in 2022 to 2023 (HMRC).
• The UK top 1% share rose about one percentage point since 1980, against 12 points in the US (Resolution Foundation, 2024).

Data limitations

The main distribution source is a survey whose accredited status is suspended from 2020 to 2022 and whose fieldwork was disrupted by the pandemic. Household surveys understate top-tail wealth, which is why modelled estimates run higher. Figures for Great Britain and the UK are not interchangeable. Inheritance tax liabilities and cash receipts are different measures. The IFS figure is a projection, not an outturn.

Recommended dataset fields

For a downloadable companion dataset: metric name; value; unit; percentile or region; geography (GB or UK); reference period; source organisation; source URL; statistic type (official, modelled or derived); accredited-status note; last-updated date.

Press summary

Wealth in the UK is far more concentrated than income, but the headline figure for the top 1% depends heavily on how it is measured. The Office for National Statistics household survey put total privately owned wealth in Great Britain at £13.6 trillion for 2020 to 2022, with the wealthiest 1% holding 10%, the same share as the least wealthy half combined, and a wealth Gini of 0.59 against 0.36 for income. Independent analysis that adds rich-list data raises the top 1% share to about 23% and finds roughly £800 billion the survey misses. Wealth is also geographic: median household wealth in the South East was more than double the North East. Inheritance tax, charged above frozen thresholds, reached 4.62% of UK deaths in 2022 to 2023. All figures are dated and sourced; the survey's accredited status is currently suspended.

Five suggested headlines

• The top 1% question: why Britain's most-quoted wealth figure ranges from 10% to 23%
• £800 billion the survey missed: what happens when you add the Rich List
• Same slice: the top 1% and the bottom half hold an equal share of Britain's wealth
• A 2.7-times gap: the geography of household wealth from the South East to the North East
• Frozen at £325,000: how a fixed threshold pulls more estates into inheritance tax

Frequently asked questions

Related reading: Estate planning: a complete guide · Inheritance tax explained · UK household wealth data