UK median household disposable income rose 3.5% to £39,200 in 2024-25, ONS estimates

Serguey Asael Shinder13 October 2026, 06:542 min read

The Office for National Statistics has published its estimates of average household income in the UK for the financial year ending 2025 (April 2024 to March 2025), from its Household Finances Survey. The accompanying dataset is dated 2 October 2026.

The headline. Median household disposable income was £39,200, up 3.5% from the previous financial year. Disposable income is what households have for spending and saving after direct taxes such as income tax, National Insurance and council tax; it includes earnings, private pensions, investment income and cash benefits. Figures are adjusted for inflation and equivalised for household size, using the modified OECD scale.

Across the distribution.

• The poorest fifth: median disposable income up 5.6% to £18,300, which the ONS says brings it back in line with the pre-pandemic level of financial year ending 2020.
• The richest fifth: up 5.0% to £77,000, back to the level of financial year ending 2021 after two years of decline.

Inequality. The Gini coefficient fell by 0.2 percentage points to 32.7%, which the ONS describes as relatively stable. The ratio of mean disposable income of the richest fifth to the poorest fifth (S80/S20) stayed at 5.6.

A caution on the data. The survey sample for FYE 2025 is notably smaller after the Survey of Living Conditions ended; the release covers about 8,000 private households. The ONS warns that more granular estimates, such as decile-level figures and those for retired households, are subject to greater uncertainty. The survey does not include people in institutions such as care homes and hostels or people who are homeless, and the ONS notes that household income surveys can under-report at the top and bottom of the distribution.

Context. The ONS points out that the Department for Work and Pensions' Family Resources Survey, with a larger sample, underpins the official Households Below Average Income poverty series; the ONS series is the main source for how taxes and benefits redistribute income.

Source: Office for National Statistics, "Average household income, UK: financial year ending 2025" — https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/incomeandwealth/bulletins/householddisposableincomeandinequality/financialyearending2025