36.22
% of pre-tax national income, 2024
Moderate trust, 64 of 100 The sources disagree: their figures run from 25 to 36.22.
- WID
- World Bank
Recorded change in how a source reports; hover or focus the ring for details.
Show the data as a table
| Year | World Inequality Database, top 10% pre-tax national income share | World Bank, income share held by highest 10% (household surveys) |
|---|---|---|
| 1980 | 28.48 | 22.9 |
| 1981 | 28.48 | 23.7 |
| 1982 | 28.66 | 23.7 |
| 1983 | 29.05 | 23.6 |
| 1984 | 29.64 | 23.2 |
| 1985 | 29.74 | 23.8 |
| 1986 | 29.89 | 25.3 |
| 1987 | 30.23 | 26.8 |
| 1988 | 30.95 | 26.9 |
| 1989 | 30.95 | 25.7 |
| 1990 | 32.91 | 27.5 |
| 1991 | 33.56 | 26.7 |
| 1992 | 33.63 | 26.6 |
| 1993 | 34.23 | 26.8 |
| 1994 | 34.35 | 27.9 |
| 1995 | 34.49 | 27.3 |
| 1996 | 35.64 | 27.2 |
| 1997 | 35.62 | 27.6 |
| 1998 | 36.62 | 28.6 |
| 1999 | 36.76 | 28.7 |
| 2000 | 35.97 | 31.2 |
| 2001 | 36.3 | 29.3 |
| 2002 | 36.59 | 27.7 |
| 2003 | 37.81 | 27.3 |
| 2004 | 37.21 | 27.3 |
| 2005 | 38.4 | 27.9 |
| 2006 | 38.73 | 28.3 |
| 2007 | 38.76 | 26.5 |
| 2008 | 37.07 | 27.6 |
| 2009 | 38.65 | 27.4 |
| 2010 | 34.84 | 26.4 |
| 2011 | 35.8 | 25.9 |
| 2012 | 36.69 | 25.7 |
| 2013 | 38.81 | 25.3 |
| 2014 | 36.86 | 25.6 |
| 2015 | 35.69 | 25.7 |
| 2016 | 35.72 | 25.5 |
| 2017 | 36.12 | 25 |
| 2018 | 36.12 | 25.9 |
| 2019 | 35.79 | 25.1 |
| 2020 | 35.79 | 24.9 |
| 2021 | 36 | 25 |
| 2022 | 36.25 | – |
| 2023 | 36.22 | – |
| 2024 | 36.22 | – |
All countriesAll of United Kingdom's figuresCompare
United Kingdom among 216 countries
128 have a higher figure and 87 a lower one. Definitions differ between countries, and their years run from 2011 to 2024.
What this number counts
- Counts
- Share of national income received by the top 10% of adults, before taxes and transfers
- Where
- United Kingdom
- When
- Latest year available: WID 2024, World Bank 2021; series from 1980 (one year, not an average)
Where the number comes from (2 sources)
| Source | Figure and year | Definition | Quality | Counts for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
World Inequality Database, top 10% pre-tax national income shareWorld Inequality Lab (World Inequality Database) · Model-based estimateRetrieved 2026-10-27 · Data (zip file) | 36.222024 | Share of pre-tax national income received by the top 10% of adults (age 20 and over), with income split equally between spouses (WID variable sptinc992j, percentile p90p100).Pre-tax national income is income before taxes and transfers but after pensions, scaled to national-accounts national income, so it includes income that households do not report in surveys, such as retained company profits. Raw file: WID_data_GB.csv and WID_metadata_GB.csv in the WID bulk download (wid_all_data.zip, dated 15 October 2026); only the sptincj992 p90p100 rows were kept, in raw/income-inequality-by-country/wid/. Values are WID shares times 100. WID data-quality grade for 2024: 1 (carried forward or backward from the nearest estimate). WID method note for this country: "Summary of data construction by year (see source for details): 1980: extrapolated distribution, 1981-2005: survey + concept correction + tax data, 2006-2014: survey + tax data, 2015-2020: extrapolated distribution using survey data, 2021-2023: extrapolated distribution. Before 1980, series is constructed based on the trend observed in the fiscal income data available (see sources). Before 1908, pretax income shares estimated based on methodology in long-run paper (see sources)." | 3 of 5 checks
| 68% |
World Bank, income share held by highest 10% (household surveys)World Bank · Official economic statisticsRetrieved 2026-10-27 | 252021 | Share of household income per person received by the top 10% of people, from the 2021 household survey (FRS-LIS).Each person is given the household total divided by household size, and ranked by it. The survey data come through the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS). Raw file: SI.DST.10TH.10.json (World Bank WDI API, last updated 8 October 2026); welfare type, coverage and comparability matched by country, year and value in pip_all.csv (https://api.worldbank.org/pip/v1/pip?country=all&year=all&povline=3&fill_gaps=false&format=csv). | 4 of 5 checks
| 32% |
- WID68%
- World Bank32%
How the trust score was worked out
- Quality26.5 / 40
How well the sources are made
- Agreement11.4 / 30
How close the sources are to each other
- Independence16 / 20
How many separate ways the number was measured
- Freshness10 / 10
How recent the newest data is
Who reports it, and since when
- World Bank: no figure here after 2021, while others reach 2024
- WID, 1981: WID grades 1981–2014 as tax and survey data, at least one in tabulated form (data-quality grade 4), after carried forward or backward from the nearest estimate the year before. source
- WID, 2022: WID grades 2022–2024 as carried forward or backward from the nearest estimate (data-quality grade 1), after one type of source (survey or tax data) the year before. source
- World Bank, 1994: The World Bank marks the 1994 survey as not comparable with the 1993 survey (a new comparable spell starts). source
figure no figure here, inside its range no later figure recorded change
Why the numbers differ
- Income concept: WID measures pre-tax national income, which adds income households do not receive in cash or do not report, such as retained company profits, so that the total matches national accounts. The World Bank uses income or consumption as reported in household surveys, and the OECD uses disposable income after taxes and transfers.
- Unit: WID ranks adults and splits income equally between spouses. The World Bank ranks people by household income or consumption per person. The OECD ranks people by household disposable income divided by the square root of household size.
- Data source: surveys miss part of the income at the top. WID adds tax records where it has them and otherwise corrects survey data with models or regional averages; its data-quality grade for each year says which.
- Measure: a Gini index summarises the whole distribution and the top decile's share describes one group, so the two can move differently. The Gini indexes are shown in their own sets for the featured countries.
- Consumption and income: for many countries in Africa and Asia the World Bank survey measures consumption, which is spread more evenly than income, so those shares are not comparable with income shares elsewhere.
- Not independent everywhere: for countries without tax data, such as Nigeria and South Africa, WID builds its series from World Bank survey tabulations, which each row's WID note states.
Common mistakes
- Reading WID figures for the latest year as observed: WID carries the last estimate forward for most countries and grades those years as imputed. (source, retrieved 2026-10-27)
- Comparing a pre-tax share with an after-tax one: taxes and transfers lower the measured inequality, so WID pre-tax shares and OECD disposable-income figures answer different questions. (source, retrieved 2026-10-27)
- Treating the World Bank series as yearly: values exist only for survey years, and the survey measure (income or consumption) can differ between countries and years. (source, retrieved 2026-10-27)
Download, cite and report an error
From the table How much of each country's income goes to the top 10%, and how has that changed since 1980? Updated 2026-10-27.
Download every value in this table (CSV)
Cite as: RealStats, “Top 10% income share in United Kingdom”, updated 2026-10-27, with the original sources listed on the page.