National balance sheet estimates for the UK: 2020

• The UK’s net worth was estimated at £10.0 trillion in 2019, an average of £150,000 per person.
• The UK’s net worth fell by 1.3% or £128 billion between 2018 and 2019; this was the weakest annual growth since 2012 and below the compound annual growth between 2009 and 2019 of 4.1%.
• The household sector’s net worth grew by 3.7%, or £373 billion, to £10.4 trillion between 2018 and 2019; insurance, pension and standardised guarantee schemes contributed 2% of households’ net worth while the value of land contributed 0.1%.
• General government’s net worth fell by 12.8%, or £112 billion, to negative £989 billion between 2018 and 2019, the result of falling financial net worth outpacing a moderate increase in non-financial net worth.
• Financial net worth fell by nearly 80% or £255 billion to minus £579 billion in 2019, with net liability of debt securities growing to £990 billion.

The UK recorded a net worth of £10.0 trillion in 2019, an average of £150,000 per person. The UK’s net worth fell by 1.3% or £128 billion between 2018 and 2019; this was the weakest annual performance since 2012 and below the compound annual growth between 2009 and 2019 of 4.1%, and 8.4% between 1995 and 2007.

Estimates of the value of land are calculated by subtracting estimates of buildings and structures from the total value of land including buildings. In most years the growth in net worth is driven by changes to the value of land.

Since 1995, changes in the value of land have broadly accounted for just under two-thirds of the increase in net worth. Between 2009 and 2019, the growth in the value of land declined and has remained below the 1995 to 2007 growth rate. Growth in the value of land was relatively weak in 2018 only contributing 0.8% of the 3% increase in non-financial assets and in 2019 the value of land fell, contributing to non-financial assets only growing by 1.2%.

Financial assets only affect total UK net worth where the assets and liabilities are not both held domestically; where this does not occur, assets will have a corresponding liability of an equal and opposite value.

The largest contribution to the reduction in net worth in 2019 was because of the net worth of financial assets. In 2018, there were proportionately low foreign currency deposits with UK banks, which led to an increase in financial assets. In 2019, foreign currency deposits recovered and this resulted in an increase in financial liabilities, therefore reducing the UK’s net worth.

Produced assets, which include the value of fixed assets such as buildings and machinery, as well as inventories, have grown by an average of 3.5% from 2010 to 2019 compared with 5.7% from 1995 to 2007. These comparators set aside the economic downturn in 2009. Produced assets grew by 3.9% in 2019 and reduced the decline in UK net worth.

Growth in the value of other buildings and structures accounted for most of the increase in non-financial assets in 2019. Growth of 6.1% was higher than the average increase of 4.1% since 2009.

The value of dwellings increased by 6.6% in 2018 accounting for a third of the growth in non-financial assets, but in 2019 the growth in dwellings slowed to 2%.

The growth in household net worth of 3.7% in 2019 is below the average growth rate of 4.5% since 2009 and less than half of the growth rate between 1995 and 2007. Insurance, pension and standardised guarantee schemes made the largest contribution to growth of 2% in 2019 to household net worth, with equity and investment funds contributing 1.1% to the increase.

Private non-financial corporations accounted for around half of the growth in non-financial assets in 2019. With weaker house price growth in 2018 and 2019, the contribution to growth from households to the value of non-financial assets fell.

General government consists of central and local government, but excludes public non-financial corporations (for example, local authority owned housing).

Government net worth has remained negative for the past 12 years, reaching negative £989 billion in 2019. This is caused by financial net worth falling faster than non-financial worth in 2019; this follows two years of modest increases in net worth.

Financial net worth in the UK fell to nearly minus £0.6 trillion in 2019. The UK has seen negative financial net worth since 2009. From 1995 to 2007, currencies and deposits accounted for the largest net liability, but this has fallen from £878 billion in 2007 to £365 billion in 2019. In 2010, the net liability of debt securities overtook currencies and deposits, with net liabilities growing to £990 billion in 2019.

In 2019, the UK’s largest net financial assets were loans, and equity and investment fund shares and units, with a value of £517 billion and £214 billion respectively.

More quality and methodology information on strengths, limitations, appropriate uses, and how the data were created is available in the UK national balance sheet estimates QMI.

The national balance sheet is a measure of the wealth, or total net worth, of the UK. It shows the estimated market value of financial assets (for example, loans) and non-financial assets (for example, dwellings). The data are used to monitor economic performance, to inform monetary and fiscal policy decisions and for international comparisons.

All data referred to in this bulletin are annual estimates at current prices and include changes in prices, as well as in the volume of assets. All data use market value, which is an estimate of how much these assets would sell for if sold on the market today. Obviously, if all these assets were sold simultaneously this would affect prices, but this effect is put to one side.

Annual growth rates are calculated using compound annual growth.

These estimates differ from those published in Chapter 10 of the 2020 Blue Book because of revisions to the values of net capital stocks.

Revisions

Data in this publication reflect revisions to:

• produced assets, following changes to estimates of net capital stock
• non-produced assets, following changes in the House Price Index
• financial assets, following the 2020 Blue Book

Net worth has been revised down by 1.8% in 2018, by £187 billion and has had smaller downward revisions since 1997.