Rich by income
HMRC’s Survey of Personal Incomes places the top tenth of individual taxpayers above about £67,400 in 2023/24. The top 5% begins around £93,600, while the top 1% starts at approximately £207,000.
Those are individual totals before tax. They include salary, self-employed profit, taxable pensions, rental profit, interest, dividends and other taxable income. They do not describe a household’s disposable income.
| Position | Approximate annual individual income | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Median taxpayer | £29,700 | Half of taxpayer incomes are lower |
| Top 20% | £49,900 | One in five taxpayer incomes are higher |
| Top 10% | £67,400 | One in ten are higher |
| Top 5% | £93,600 | One in twenty are higher |
| Top 1% | £207,000 | One in a hundred are higher |
Why a high income may not feel rich
Income rank measures relative position, not financial slack. A household with young children, a large mortgage and one high earner can have less disposable income than a dual-income household with lower individual salaries. London housing costs can also absorb much of a regional pay premium.
The timing of the income matters as well. Someone newly earning £100,000 may have little accumulated wealth. Someone retired on £35,000 may own a mortgage-free home and have substantial pension assets.
High income usually creates the capacity to become wealthy. It does not prove that wealth has already accumulated.
Rich by wealth
ONS household wealth includes property equity, private pensions, financial assets and physical possessions, less debts. The median household held about £293,700 in total wealth in the 2020–22 survey period.
The wealthiest 10% of households held at least £1,200,500, while entry to the top 1% was around £3,121,500. Those figures include pensions, which many people omit when estimating their own position.
Age changes the comparison
Wealth usually rises through working life as pensions and housing equity accumulate. Comparing a 30-year-old directly with a 70-year-old therefore answers a rather limited question. Current income tends to peak earlier than wealth.
A practical definition
For everyday discussion, “high income” can reasonably begin somewhere around the top 10%, currently about £67,400 for an individual taxpayer. “Wealthy” is better reserved for households with substantial assets, perhaps around the top 10% wealth threshold of £1.2 million. Neither threshold captures security, dependants, health, housing or control over one’s time.
Four useful questions
What is your individual income rank? What is your household disposable-income rank? How does your salary compare with similar employees? How does your accumulated wealth compare? The answers can differ substantially.