middle income band · dwp 2024–25
£41.6k–<£52k
the median household falls in this annualised gross, pre-tax income band.
this is a band, not an exact median or an average. it includes earnings, benefits, pensions and other household income.
a field guide to the uk household
what does a household actually bring in?
one national average hides the bit you probably care about: how many adults earn, and how many children are in the house. here’s what the official tables do—and don’t—say.
the more useful question · dwp 2024–25
how do families distribute across annual gross income bands?
percent of households in each annualised gross, pre-tax income band. the right-hand figure is the share on £104,000+ per year.
£104,000+ is an income threshold, not an average.
annual equivalents, not a new annual survey. the official dwp table reports weekly gross-income bands; every boundary here is multiplied by 52. incomes can fluctuate through the year, and these percentages cannot reveal an exact mean—particularly with an open-ended top band.
01 / household structure
children change the distribution.
filter the composition rows below. longer warm-coloured segments mean a greater share of households in higher annualised gross-income bands. bars use published rounded percentages; suppressed cells are not estimated.
loading official figures…
each row is a different subgroup, not a share of all uk households. sample sizes are survey observations. [low] and [w] in the source mean suppressed/withheld; those cells are left uncoloured.
02 / age cohorts
age is not a salary curve.
the published frs income-by-composition table does not cross age of household head with income and children. a separately published age table shows where income comes from, not average income at that age. no age-specific pound figures are shown here because these sources don't support them.
03 / relationship status
two adults ≠ married.
the composition table counts adults and children, not marriages. married, civil-partnered and cohabiting couples cannot be separated in these figures. and “unmarried” could mean a solo adult or a cohabiting couple, which makes it a terrible proxy.
the methodology, not the vibes
where the numbers come from.
for a defensible age × married/cohabiting × number of children mean or median, you need a custom weighted survey extract (and checks on small cells). the current published table cannot produce that intersection. this site intentionally reports missing slices as missing.
- dwp family resources survey 2024–25table 2.5, income and state support workbook. percentages of households by composition and weekly gross income; annual bands here are ×52.
- dwp stat-xplorecustom cross-tabulation option; small cells and weighting require care.
machine-readable static endpoint: /api/income.json. no keys or personal data are used by this site.