The richest 10 per cent in Great Britain holds nearly half of all the country’s wealth, pre-pandemic data show, even as inequality remained stable over the 14 years before March 2020.
A tenth of households held 43 per cent in the period between April 2018 to March 2020, data from the Office for National Statistics showed today, which revealed huge differences across income groups, ages and regions.
In contrast, the bottom half of the population held 9 per cent. Wealth inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient however has remained stable over the 14-year period, the ONS said.
The figures are the most comprehensive set of data on wealth distribution but exclude the period of the pandemic, when the total increased, separate ONS data showed.
The top 1 per cent of households hold more than £3.6m, compared with £15,400 or less for the least wealthy 10 per cent.
Age showed striking differences, with the median wealth of those aged 55 years to under the state pension age about 25 times higher than those aged 16 to 24 years.
The top region was the South East, which has had one of the fastest increases in average wealth since 2006. Its median wealth of £503,400 was about three times higher than that of the North East, with £168,500, the region with the lowest wealth.
London has an average of £340,300, reflecting the lowest property ownership rate in the country, low participation in private pensions and decreasing median wealth in the latest period. Yet it holds 15 per cent of wealth, probably because of its higher property values.
The Gini coefficients, which measure inequality, showed that London was the region with the most uneven distribution.