Regional gross disposable household income, UK: 1997 to 2024

• Gross disposable household income (GDHI) in the UK grew by 7.4% in 2024 when compared with 2023; GDHI in England grew by 7.3%, while GDHI in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland grew by 7.6%, 7.9% and 8.1%, respectively.
• Of the countries and regions classified as International Territorial Level (ITL) 1, London had the highest GDHI per head in 2024 where, on average, each person had £36,487 available to spend or save; the North East had the lowest at £20,562, compared with a UK average of £25,965.
• Adjusted to remove inflation, in 2024 the highest growth in real household disposable income (RHDI) per head at the ITL1 level was in Northern Ireland at 4.1%; the North East saw the lowest growth in RHDI per head at 2.2%.
• Of the 15 English combined authorities with elected mayors, York and North Yorkshire had the highest GDHI per head in 2024, at £26,911; the West Midlands had the lowest, at £19,688.
• Westminster and City of London was the local area (ITL3) with the highest GDHI per head in 2024 at £84,292, which was over three times the UK average; Leicester had the lowest GDHI per head at £16,786.

UK total gross disposable household income (GDHI) in 2024 was nearly £1.8 trillion. Of that, 86.3% was in England, 7.5% was in Scotland, 3.8% was in Wales and 2.4% 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 7.4% between 2023 and 2024. Of the countries of the UK, the smallest increase between 2023 and 2024 was in England, where total GDHI grew by 7.3%. Northern Ireland recorded the highest growth in total GDHI at 8.1%.

Table 1 provides an overview of GDHI and real household disposable income (RHDI) for UK countries and International Territorial Level (ITL) 1 regions. RHDI removes the effect of price inflation to show disposable income in chained volume measures. More information about RHDI can be found in section 8: Data sources and quality.

In 2024, RHDI per head in the UK increased by 3.1%. Of the 12 ITL1 regions, Northern Ireland recorded the strongest growth in RHDI per head in 2024, increasing by 4.1%, followed by Scotland at 3.7%. The weakest growth in RHDI per head was seen in the North East of England at 2.2%.

Three ITL1 regions had GDHI per head values above the UK average of £25,965. These were:

• London (£36,487 per head)
• the South East (£29,577 per head)
• the East of England (£26,795 per head)

The lowest value was in the North East (£20,562 per head).

The 2025 update to the International Territorial Levels (ITL) geography framework realigned the ITL2 level to match as far as possible the emerging combined authorities with elected mayors, also known as Mayoral Strategic Authorities (MSA), making it more relevant to current areas of economic interest.  

In a change to our usual commentary, this year we include a focus on the 15 currently agreed combined authorities, 12 of which match ITL2 subregions, and the other 3 are included in our supplementary tables for city and enterprise regions (CER).

Of the 15 combined authorities with elected mayors, in 2024 York and North Yorkshire had the highest GDHI per head at £26,911. The lowest GDHI per head in 2024 was seen in the West Midlands at £19,688.

Only York and North Yorkshire, the West of England, and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough had GDHI per head above the UK average of £25,965 in 2024.

We are only able to provide RHDI growth measures for the combined authorities that match ITL2 subregions. Of these, the highest growth in RHDI per head in 2024 was in the East Midlands and Liverpool City Region, both at 3.1%. The lowest growth in RHDI per head was in the North East and West Midlands, both at 2.1%.

At the International Territorial Level (ITL) 3, all five local areas with the highest gross disposable household income (GDHI) per head in 2024 were in London (Table 3).

The ITL3 region with the highest GDHI per head was Westminster and City of London where, on average, each person had £84,292 to spend or save. This is over three times the UK average of £25,965.

The five local areas with the lowest GDHI per head were all in the Midlands or the north of England. The ITL3 area with the lowest GDHI per head was Leicester where, on average, each person had £16,786 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 datasets linked from Section 6: Data on gross disposable household income.

Variation within regions

ITL3 regions can vary within their parent ITL1 region. In London, there is wide variation between Westminster and City of London at £84,292 per head, and Barking and Dagenham and Havering at £24,489 per head. Wales has very little variation, with the highest ITL3 of Monmouthshire and Newport at £23,081 and the lowest in Neath Port Talbot at £19,910.

Figure 2 shows this variation, with ITL1 parent regions ordered highest to lowest by their per head values.

Figure 2: Variation in gross disposable household income per head

Gross disposable household income per head, International Territorial Level (ITL) 3 regions within their parent ITL1 region, 2024

Notes:

1. Estimates for 2024 are provisional.

Figure 3: Average gross disposable household income in your local area

Gross disposable household income per head for UK local authorities, 1997 to 2024

Notes:

1. City of London, and Kensington and Chelsea, are not shown on the map because their GDHI per head are large outlier values. Data for all regions is available in our Regional gross disposable household income: local authorities dataset.
2. Estimates for 2024 are provisional.

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. ITL 2 and 3 were updated in 2025.

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.

Real household disposable income

Real household disposable income (RHDI) is the money that residents have available for spending or saving, after taxes and other social contributions have been deducted, and adjusted to remove the effect of price inflation.

Official statistics in development

These statistics are labelled as "official statistics in development". Until September 2023, these were called "experimental statistics". Read more about the change in the guide to official statistics in development.

Regional gross disposable household income (GDHI) statistics remain official statistics in development while we continue to strengthen the evidence base supporting their quality and public value. Official statistics accreditation was removed from all Office for National Statistics (ONS) outputs using data from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) or Annual Population Survey (APS). APS data contribute to some components of GDHI, but they are one of several inputs and are not expected to materially affect the overall regional distribution of income. This distinguishes regional GDHI from outputs that rely more directly on APS or LFS estimates, and we are working with the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) to provide the necessary evidence for accreditation.

This release introduces experimental estimates of regional real household disposable income (RHDI), which adjust GDHI for changes in prices and provide a measure of households' purchasing power over time. We will continue to evaluate and refine the RHDI methodology, engage with users, and publish further evidence on the quality, coherence, and value of regional household income statistics. This work will support future consideration of accreditation by the OSR for regional GDHI and related outputs.

We value your feedback on these statistics. Contact us at regionalaccounts@ons.gov.uk.

Introduction of real household disposable income

Real household disposable income (RHDI) is the money that residents have available for spending or saving, after taxes and other social contributions have been deducted, and adjusted to remove the effect of price inflation.

RHDI has been identified by the government as an important indicator of growth in prosperity of UK residents, and there is a strong user demand for subnational measures of RHDI to monitor the government's priority aim to reduce the imbalance between countries and regions of the UK.

Production of regional RHDI has not been undertaken before now, owing to a lack of suitable price deflators with which to remove price inflation from estimates of regional gross disposable household income (GDHI). Although national (UK-wide) deflators are available, these do not reflect any regional variation in the cost of living, so they would undervalue the costs in places where those costs are high and overrate the costs in less expensive regions. This would not give a reliable basis for monitoring government targets.

However, with the recent development and publication of our regional household final consumption expenditure (HFCE) statistics for International Territorial Level (ITL) 1 countries and regions, and ITL2 subregions of the UK, we have available estimates of the variation in spending patterns across parts of the UK. These have been used to weight together national price deflators for detailed commodities, so they reflect household spending differences in UK regions. This mirrors the approach taken to deflate regional gross value added (GVA) and gross domestic product (GDP), in which national price deflators for detailed industries are reweighted to represent the composition of activities taking place in each region.

The one area for which we have used regional prices is actual and imputed rental of dwellings. Here we have used the Price Index of Private Rents (PIPR) in place of a national deflator. Again, this is consistent with the deflation of imputed rental in our regional GVA and GDP measures.

Because regional HFCE is compiled and published after regional GDHI, we do not yet have accurate estimates of regional spending in 2024. For this release we have forecast regional spending based on the patterns in 2023 and national growth in each commodity between 2023 and 2024. We will publish revised RHDI estimates with our next regional HFCE release, planned for early 2027.

Coherence and comparability

Figures for 2024 are provisional, as national estimates have not been through supply and use balancing at the time of this publication. RHDI estimates for 2024 are also based on forecast regional spending patterns.

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.

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: 2025.

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 quality and methodology information (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 2023.

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: 2025. Regional GDHI is consistent with Blue Book 2025, and we will publish revised estimates next year to align with Blue Book 2026.