Regional gross disposable household income, UK: 1997 to 2022

• In 2022, gross disposable household income (GDHI) in the UK grew by 6.3% when compared with 2021; GDHI in England grew by 6.5%, while GDHI in Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales grew by 6.3%, 5.5% and 4.4%, respectively.
• Of the countries and regions classified by International Territorial Level (ITL) 1, London had the highest GDHI per head in 2022 where, on average, each person had £32,330 available to spend or save; the North East had the lowest at £18,388, which compares with a UK average of £22,789.
• In 2022, Westminster was the local area (ITL3) with the highest GDHI per head at £69,058, which was over three times the UK average; Leicester had the lowest GDHI per head at £15,075.
• The ITL3 local areas showing the largest increases in total GDHI in 2022 were Greater Manchester South West (8.4%) and Bristol (8.2%); the local areas with the smallest increases were Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire (3.3%) and Powys (3.8%).

UK total gross disposable household income (GDHI) in 2022 was over £1.5 trillion. Of that, 86.5% was in England, 7.4% was in Scotland, 3.8% was in Wales and 2.3% was in Northern Ireland. When compared with the size of each country's population, only England had a GDHI per head above the UK average.

Total GDHI in the UK increased by 6.3% between 2021 and 2022. Of the four countries of the UK, only England exceeded this growth, with 6.5%. The smallest increase between 2021 and 2022 was in Wales, where total GDHI grew by 4.4%.

Table 1 provides an overview of GDHI for the four UK countries and International Territorial Level (ITL) 1 regions. 

Of the 12 ITL1 regions, the region with the strongest growth in total GDHI in 2022 was the South West with 7.1%, followed by the South East with 6.9%. The lowest growths were in Wales and Scotland, with 4.4% and 5.5%, respectively.

Three ITL1 regions had GDHI values above the UK per head value of £22,789. These were London (£32,330 per head), the South East (£26,058 per head) and the East of England (£23,661 per head). The lowest value was in the North East (£18,388 per head).

At the International Territorial Level 3 (ITL3), the 10 places with the highest gross disposable household income (GDHI) per head in 2022 were all in London and the South East of England, with the top seven all in London (Table 2). The area with the highest GDHI per head was Westminster where, on average, each person had £69,058 to spend or save. This is over three times the UK average of £22,789.

The 10 places with the lowest GDHI per head were all in four ITL1 regions of England: the East Midlands, the West Midlands, Yorkshire and The Humber, and the North West. The ITL3 area with the lowest GDHI per head was Leicester where, on average, each person had £15,075 to spend or save.

A full breakdown of the income components flowing into and out of households, showing which components are having the greatest impact on household finances for each area, is available in the data tables linked from Section 5: Data on gross disposable household income.

At the ITL3 level, all 179 areas saw an increase in total GDHI between 2021 and 2022. Total GDHI in the UK increased by 6.3% in 2022, with 70 of the ITL3 areas showing stronger growth, and 98 areas showing weaker growth, than the UK total.

The areas showing the largest increases in total GDHI were Greater Manchester South West (8.4%), the City of Bristol (8.2%), Buckinghamshire County Council (8.1%) and Brent (8.1%). The areas showing the smallest increases were Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire (3.3%), and Powys (3.8%).

GDHI figures include the effect of price inflation. Of the 179 ITL3 areas, only seven showed growth equal to, or greater than, the Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers' housing costs (CPIH) annual growth rate of 7.9%. The remaining 172 ITL3 areas showed growth lower than the CPIH annual growth rate. This might be interpreted as a decrease in the real-terms value of disposable income. However, the CPIH does not account for any regional variation in the cost of living.

Figure 2: Gross disposable household income per head for UK local authorities, 1997 to 2022

Notes:

1. The City of London is not shown on the map because its GDHI per head is a large outlier value.

Gross disposable household income

Gross disposable household income (GDHI) is the amount of money that all the individuals in the household sector have available for spending or saving after they have paid direct and indirect taxes and received any direct benefits. GDHI is a concept that is seen to reflect the “material welfare” of the household sector. The household sector includes residents of traditional households, as well as those living in communal establishments. GDHI also includes the business income of self-employed people.

International Territorial Levels

The UK geographies classification system, International Territorial Level (ITL), has superseded the Nomenclature of Units for Territorial Statistics (NUTS) classification system. The ITL areas have initially been set to be an exact copy of the current NUTS areas for the UK. The first update to the ITL classification is expected to take effect next year.

Per head

Estimates can be divided by the resident population of a country, region, or area to give a value per head. This can be a useful way of comparing regions of different sizes. Because GDHI is measured according to the residence of the person, not their place of work, GDHI per head is not subject to distortion from commuting. It does, however, include the entire population of an area, including children and retired people.

Accredited official statistics

These accredited official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in October 2012. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled “accredited official statistics”.

Coherence and comparability

Figures for 2022 are provisional, as national estimates have not been through supply and use balancing at the time of this publication.

Some of the regional data sources we use also have considerable time lags. This means that the latest year is an estimate modelled on the previous year’s distribution. While these estimates only affect certain components of income, they can be more important in some areas than others.

Because the previous year (2021) was affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, patterns seen in 2021 may be less reliable as a model for 2022 activity. We therefore advise caution, particularly in the interpretation of estimates of mixed income for 2022. These estimates may be subject to greater revision than usual next year.

This year we have updated the population estimates for all UK nations to include rebased estimates covering the years between the censuses (2012 to 2020 in England and Wales and 2012 to 2021 in Scotland).

As a result, there is no longer any discontinuity in the population estimates in this release. However, we do not yet have updated estimates for the additional breakdown of the Scottish areas needed to create estimates for some International Territorial Level areas of Scotland (ITL2 and ITL3). We have therefore suppressed any estimates of gross disposable household income (GDHI) per head for 2012 to 2022 in those areas from this release.

The figures in the accompanying datasets are all in current prices, which include the effect of price inflation, and are consistent with those published in the UK National Accounts, The Blue Book: 2023.

Quality and methodology information

See our Regional accounts methodology for guidance and methodology relating to regional gross disposable household income (GDHI). Our regional accounts methodology guide provides an overview of the methodology used to compile regional accounts outputs.

More quality and methodology information on strengths, limitations, appropriate uses, and how the data were created is available in our regional GDHI QMI.

Our guide to sources of data on income and earnings outlines the different data sources and outputs that feed into the analysis of income and earnings within the UK. Further information on income and earnings statistics produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and other government departments is also available.

Revisions

GDHI estimates in this release show revisions for the period 1997 to 2021.

All our estimates are subject to uncertainty. We revise our estimates annually for previous years to incorporate new information, correct statistical errors, and to adopt and test new statistical techniques.

More information on how we measure and communicate uncertainty for our surveys is available.

All revisions to our estimates follow our Revisions and corrections of errors policies. The main causes of revisions in this release are changes to our methods, and revised figures published in the UK National Accounts, The Blue Book: 2023. Regional GDHI is consistent with Blue Book 2023 and we will publish revised estimates next year to align with Blue Book 2024.

In line with Blue Book 2023, we have incorporated two new taxes into our estimates for the household sector: visa charges and registration of land title (Scotland). For visa charges, we use a combination of local area migration statistics and National Insurance Number registrations. This is in line with our Country and regional public sector finances methodology. For registration of land title (Scotland), we use the number of residential property sales from Registers of Scotland.

In addition to Blue Book changes, this year we have changed our source of private and public sector employment figures from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) to the Annual Population Survey (APS). The APS has a larger sample size than the LFS, with approximately 320,000 individuals and 150,000 households on its annual datasets. This has reduced volatility and improved our method used to apportion:

• employer’s social contributions
• gross property income
• imputed social contributions
• social benefits
• employee’s social contributions

Revisions to the published figures over time are available in our regional GDHI revisions triangles datasets.