44 per cent of wealth owned by richest 10 per cent

The wealthiest tenth of households own nearly 44 per cent of overall wealth, and are over 850 times wealthier than the least wealthy tenth of households, according to the Office for National Statistics. The figures are based on 2008–2010 data from the longitudinal Wealth and Assets Survey.  

Key points

  • The lower half of the distribution owns, in combination, just under 10 per cent of all wealth – less than a quarter of that owned by the top decile.
  • A household requires total wealth greater than £967,000 to belong to the top decile. The median value for household total wealth is £232,000. By contrast, each household in the bottom 10 per cent of the distribution has wealth of less than £13,000.
  • The south-east region of England has the highest percentage of 'wealthy' households: 15.5 per cent belong to the wealthiest decile nationally, compared with only 6.9 per cent of those in Scotland.
  • Over half (56.6 per cent) of the combined wealth held by the top 10 per cent of households consists of private pension wealth, averaging £742,000 per household. More than two out of five households (43.3 per cent) in the least wealthy half of the distribution have no private pension wealth at all.
  • In the wealthiest 10 per cent of households, the highest percentage of household heads is aged 55–64 (37.6 per cent). For household heads living in a household in the bottom half of the distribution, the highest percentage is aged 25–34 (24.0 per cent).

Source: Press release 3 December 2012, Office for National Statistics
LinksONS press release | Guardian report

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