The Wealth of the Nation 2019

Every year CACI release their updated estimates of the income of households across the United Kingdom, with data indicating the average household income for every single one of the 1.7 million residential postcodes in the UK.

With the release of the 2019 data this Spring it provides a great opportunity for us to take stock of the nation’s finances, their disparities and some overarching trends.

Over the next few weeks we’ll highlight some our findings from analysis of the data in a series of blogs under the “Wealth of the Nation” banner, and provide informed opinion pieces on a range of topics including affordability of housing, the behaviour of the nation’s savers and a look at the underbanked, those without access to a full service bank account, and how their needs might be addressed.

These reports are authored by our very own subject matter experts who work directly with many leading organisations and well known brands across finance, local government, property, retail and other sectors.

But we’ll start today with a few headline numbers.

In 2019 the average gross household income in the UK was £39,800, an increase from £39,100 in 2018. Drill down and the differences become apparent. At a Regional level the South East has, not surprisingly, the highest mean figure at £46,400, and Northern Ireland has the lowest at £33,400.

London residents aren’t far behind the south east with a mean gross household income of £44,000.

London residents aren’t far behind the South East with a mean gross household income of £44,000. However, when you look at disposable income, once the cost of mortgage, rents, bills and other essential outgoings are taken into account, Londoners are actually doing worse than the UK average, with a net disposable income of just £13,600 against a UK average of £17,500.

Of course within London itself there is a huge income disparity, with a proportion of households receiving incomes far exceeding the national average.

Drilling further down we’ve identified the top 10 and bottom 10 Postcode Sectors in the UK by Mean Household Income:

Top 10 Postcode Sectors By Mean Annual Household Income:

• EC3N 4 – London – £73,700
• WD3 4 – Loudwater – £73,000
• SE21 7 – London – £72,800
• SW11 6 – London – £71,200
• AL5 3 – Harpenden – £71,100
• AL5 2 – Harpenden – £70,800
• SW1Y 5 – London – £70,700
• N20 8 – London – £70,500
• AL1 4 – St Albans – £69,900
• KT22 0 – Oxshott – £69,700

Bottom 10 Postcode Sectors by Mean Annual Household Income:

• TS1 5 – Middlesbrough – £14,800
• PA15 1 – Greenock – £15,000
• B7 4 – Birmingham – £15,100
• CH41 3 – Birkenhead – £15,100
• B19 3 – Birmingham – £15,600
• BT13 1 – Belfast – £15,900
• L28 7 – Liverpool – £16,000
• L5 0 – Liverpool – £16,100
• L28 5 – Liverpool – £16,200
• L20 8 – Bootle – £16,600

Top 10 Local Authorities by Mean Annual Household Income:

• Elmbridge – £58,300
• Richmond upon Thames – £58,000
• St Albans – £57,500
• Wokingham – £57,200
• Chiltern – £57,100
• Epsom and Ewell – £56,100
• Hart – £55,400
• Surrey Heath – £55,300
• South Bucks – £55,200
• Waverley – £54,900

Bottom 10 Local Authorities by Mean Annual Household Income:

• Blaenau Gwent – £28,000
• Knowsley – £28,200
• Nottingham – £28,600
• Sandwell – £28,900
• Strabane – £29,100
• Stoke-on-Trent – £29,100
• Liverpool – £29,200
• Kingston upon Hull – £29,300
• Belfast – £29,700
• Merthyr Tydfil – £30,400

By aggregating from individual postcodes we can understand and compare average incomes at any geographical level.

We can also do this across different demographic groups. For example, Manchester has the lowest average income for retired households of all Local Authorities at £17,900, whilst other demographic groups have proportionally higher incomes.

That said, retired households will, in general, have significantly lower outgoings, and the disposable income for retired households is often higher than for single and young couples.
Equivalised income estimates provide a further means of comparison, taking into account household size.

Manchester has the lowest average income for retired households of all local authorities at £17,900, whilst other demographic groups have proportionally higher incomes

All this information has proved vital time and time again for our clients – decision makers and policy makers from all areas of business and government – to provide a detailed understanding of areas, key to supporting the needs of communities, providing appropriate services and to make sound commercial judgements.

All figures quoted in this article are sourced from CACI’s Paycheck and Paycheck Disposable Income datasets.