What is the Gini coefficient for the UK?

The Gini coefficient summarises income inequality on a scale from 0% (everyone has the same income) to 100% (one person has everything). The ONS put the UK figure for disposable household income at 32.7% in the financial year ending 2025, down 0.2 percentage points, in its bulletin of 2 October 2026.

DWP's Households Below Average Income report gives its own Gini, based on individuals: 33% before housing costs and 37% after housing costs for the same year, unchanged from the year before. The ONS also publishes the ratio of incomes of the richest fifth to the poorest fifth.

These figures cover income, not wealth; wealth inequality is far higher and is measured separately in the ONS Wealth and Assets Survey. International comparisons should use the OECD or similar series built on a common definition. See our guide to IMF, OECD and World Bank data.

Official sources: ONS household disposable income and inequality · HBAI report, FYE 1995 to FYE 2025

When is the next figure out?

The IMF publishes the World Economic Outlook and Fiscal Monitor in April and October around its Spring and Annual Meetings, with shorter WEO Updates around January and July; the WEO database is released with each full report. The OECD publishes its Economic Outlook twice a year with interim reports in between, Revenue Statistics each December and Health Statistics each summer, and lists dates for its headline statistics news releases on a release calendar. The World Bank updates World Development Indicators several times a year and records changes in a revision history file.

Every official release due in the next two weeks is on the release calendar.

Terms used in this answer

• Mean
  The total of all values divided by how many there are. Often what people mean by 'average', it can be pulled up or down by a few extreme values.
• Gini coefficient
  A single number summarising inequality of income or wealth, from 0 (everyone has the same) to 100 or 1 (one person has everything).

Where the figures come from

• International Monetary Fund, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and World Bank data
  How to check UK versus other countries claims with IMF, OECD and World Bank data: which database to use, PPP versus exchange rates, and data vintages.

Related questions

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This answer says where the official figures are published and how they are defined. It gives no verdict on any claim. To report an error, send a correction request. More questions about poverty, incomes and cost of living: all Poverty, incomes and cost of living questions.