FOI reference: FOI-2026-3445
You asked
- Could you tell me what the value of the UK's largest pension is?
- If not, could you tell me what the average value of the top 10 pensions is?
- What is the average size of pension in the UK?
We said
Thank you for your request.
We produce household and individual wealth estimates, using data collected on the Wealth and Assets Survey (WAS) which is collected on a biennial basis and most recently published for Round 8 (April 2020 to March 2022). Please note the Wealth and Assets Survey covers Great Britain, not the UK.
WAS does not capture the value of the largest or top ten largest pensions in the UK, it instead provides weighted estimates of population-level statistics based on a representative sample of Great Britain. Estimates of pension wealth using WAS cover private pensions wealth and do not include the value from state pensions entitlements.
Our latest estimates for pensions wealth can be found here: Pension wealth: wealth in Great Britain. In Table 6.10 we report median individual private pensions wealth for those with at least some pensions wealth as £57,500, and for all adults as £19,700. As the wealth distribution is highly skewed, we typically reports averages as (weighted) medians rather than means as our measure of central tendency. Please also note that we have recently changed our methodology for estimating defined benefit pensions wealth, with more details found here: Estimating defined benefit pension wealth in Great Britain - Office for National Statistics. This means the pension wealth estimates provided above and further pension wealth estimates produced in Round 8 are not directly comparable with previous Rounds of WAS.
If you have any further questions regarding WAS, please contact wealth.and.assets.survey@ons.gov.uk for more information.