Income in the United Kingdom
The median income in the United Kingdom is about $47 a day per person (2021 PPP dollars) — richer than 90% of everyone alive. Half of the United Kingdom lives on less than that.
The world's own median person — about $7.73 a day — would stand in the bottom 2% of the United Kingdom.
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The curve
Daily income per person, log scale, PPP dollars — the same curve the machine walks you across.
What it takes to stand where
Take-home income per person, in today's GBP, at each point on the curve of the United Kingdom (the machine's convention: household take-home divided by the people it supports).
| Richer than… | per year, per person | per day (PPP $) |
|---|---|---|
| 10% of the United Kingdom | £7,317 | $22 |
| 25% of the United Kingdom | £10,453 | $32 |
| 50% of the United Kingdom | £15,530 | $47 |
| 75% of the United Kingdom | £22,631 | $68 |
| 90% of the United Kingdom | £31,441 | $95 |
| 99% of the United Kingdom | £72,671 | $219 |
Rounded, never inflated: the machine floors "richer than" claims.
The four levels in the United Kingdom
How much of the United Kingdom and of the world lives on each of four income levels. The cuts are the World Bank's $3.00 (international poverty line) and $8.30 (upper-middle-income line), both 2021 PPP; the top cut, $33, is the machine's own, four times the $8.30 line. The objects are what an income on each level tends to buy across the world's surveys — not a description of any one country.
| Level | per day (PPP $) | What tends to come with it, worldwide | United Kingdom | World |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | under $3.00 | a fire to cook on, water carried home from the well, everywhere on foot | <1% | 13% |
| Level 2 | $3.00–$8.30 | a bicycle, a gas canister for the stove, a tap within walking distance | 1% | 39% |
| Level 3 | $8.30–$33 | a motorbike, a gas stove, a bank account | 26% | 32% |
| Level 4 | $33+ | a car, a fridge, hot water from the tap | 73% | 15% |
- Level 1 · under $3.00 a dayUnited Kingdom <1% · World 13%a fire to cook on, water carried home from the well, everywhere on foot
- Level 2 · $3.00–$8.30 a dayUnited Kingdom 1% · World 39%a bicycle, a gas canister for the stove, a tap within walking distance
- Level 3 · $8.30–$33 a dayUnited Kingdom 26% · World 32%a motorbike, a gas stove, a bank account
- Level 4 · $33+ a dayUnited Kingdom 73% · World 15%a car, a fridge, hot water from the tap
About 73% of the United Kingdom lives on Level 4, $33 a day or more per person; worldwide, roughly one in seven people do.
The line that moved
Fewer than 1% of the United Kingdom lived under the $3.00 line at every survey since 1990 — this is a line that moved long before the data begins.
Share of the United Kingdom under $3.00 a day (2021 prices) at each national survey, World Bank PIP via Our World in Data; the faint line is the world's.
Worldwide, the share under the World Bank's $3.00-a-day line fell from about 43% in 1990 to about 10% today (Our World in Data; the latest years are the Bank's nowcast). Where the lift came, it came the unglamorous way: wages, harvests, workshops.
Who earns what in the United Kingdom
8 portraits, not payroll data: each stands roughly where that kind of work typically earns on the curve of the United Kingdom.
| the lowest 10% | the earnings of a care worker on the minimum wage — first visit at seven, last at nine |
|---|---|
| 10–25% | the earnings of a supermarket shelf-stacker — nights, mostly |
| 25–45% | the earnings of a call-centre agent in Leeds |
| 45–65% | the earnings of a plumber — booked solid until March |
| 65–82% | the earnings of a secondary-school teacher — marking on the sofa again |
| 82–93% | the earnings of an NHS doctor in year five |
| 93–98% | the earnings of a barrister — wig and all |
| the highest 2% | the earnings of a City fund manager — the Square Mile keeps its own score |
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Where this comes from
The World Bank's Poverty and Inequality Platform percentile distribution for the United Kingdom (survey year 2021), in 2021 PPP dollars; incomes typed in today's money are deflated to 2021 prices with the national CPI and converted with the 2021 consumption-PPP factor. Snapshot fetched September 2026. Full methodology & honesty rules.
Neighbours on the curve
The countries whose median income sits nearest to the United Kingdom's — and a few far from it, for scale.