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Your household's income : Where do you fit in?

Published on 22 August 2022

When you think about your income, do you feel rich, poor, or just plain average? Find out where you lie in the UK income distribution.

Introduction

When you think about your income, do you feel rich, poor, or just plain average? Many of us probably have no idea – or the wrong idea – how we compare with the rest of the population.

But here, just by answering a few short questions, you can find out where you lie in the UK income distribution, and how many people are better or worse off than you.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies does not collect any personally identifiable information from your computer. The information which you supply is not used for any purpose other than in the presentation of results from "Where do you fit in?".

1. Your household

The income that a household needs to attain a given standard of living depends on its size and composition. So, to compare your household income with that of the rest of the population, we first need to know the number of adults and dependent children living in your household.

For this purpose, children are defined as all individuals who are aged 16 or under, or who are aged 16-18 and studying a course up to and including A Levels (Highers in Scotland). All other individuals in your household (including non-dependent children) should be classified as adults.

If there are dependent children living within your household, because older children are more expensive, you need to specify the age group.

If your household contains people from multiple families, for example a house share, then still enter the total number living in the property. The tool assumes that income, and housing costs if supplied, are shared evenly across the household

Your household

2. Your household income and housing costs

Please now enter your net household income and the period over which you have calculated it.

First, you will need to add together the incomes of yourself, your partner and anyone else who lives with you, after deducting income tax and national insurance. In addition to wage or salary income, don't forget to include any benefits you receive, income from savings and investment, profits or losses from self-employment, and any other sources of income.

Over what period does this amount apply?

Second, we need to deduct your council tax payments from your income. How much council tax does your household pay?

Over what period does this amount apply?

When calculating your housing costs, include (where applicable) rent, mortgage interest payments (but not principal payments), water rates, buildings insurance premiums and ground rent and service charges.

Over what period does this amount apply?
Calculate

Your Position

Taking into account household size and composition (click here to see how), we have calculated your position in .

With a household after tax income of £ per week, you .

How to understand the graph : A picture of the United Kingdom income distribution is shown below, with all incomes expressed in terms of the equivalent amount for a household of your type. Each bar corresponds to an income band of about £, and to maintain a reasonable scale, it has been necessary to truncate the distribution at incomes above around £ per week. Around %, or million individuals, have incomes higher than this, after adjusting for the size and composition of their households. Your position in the distribution is shown by the red bar. When we assess the distributional implications of tax and social security changes, we often divide the population into ten equally sized groups, called decile groups. The first decile group contains the poorest 10% of the population, the second decile group contains the next poorest 10% and so on. In the below graph, the alternatively shaded sections represent the different decile groups. As you can see, you are in the decile group.

In conclusion,

Contact

For further information or any questions, please contact: [email protected]

Funded by

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Disclaimer

Working this out involves a number of conceptual issues, including deciding what measure of income to use and what account to take of the needs of different types of households. We recommend that you begin by reading a brief guide to these issues.

Privacy Policy: The Institute for Fiscal Studies does not collect any personally identifiable information from your computer. The information which you supply is not used for any purpose other than in the presentation of results from "Where do you fit in?".