A rise in pension wealth drove median household wealth to increase between April 2020 and March 2022, although household wealth fell slightly when private pensions were excluded, according to government data.

Over the period, median household wealth in Great Britain increased from £292,200 to £293,700.

Property wealth made up 40 per cent of household wealth, followed by private pension wealth (35 per cent), net financial wealth (14 per cent), and physical wealth (10 per cent).

However, when private pension wealth is excluded, median household wealth was £181,700 in April 2020 to March 2022, slightly lower in real terms than in April 2018 to March 2020.

Furthermore, the Resolution Foundation estimated that, since 2022, rising interest rates, high inflation, and declining asset values had resulted in a “large fall” in wealth.

The national accounts’ measure of aggregate ‘household net worth’ showed that total wealth fell by 19 per cent in real terms between 2021 and 2023.

Government data for April 2020 to March 20202 highlighted that the wealthiest 10 per cent of households had wealth of £1,200,500 or more, while the least wealthy 10 per cent had £16,500 or less.

Looking at wealth inequality in Britain, the government uses the ‘Gini coefficient’, whereby 0 equals no inequality, and one equals maximal inequality.

In March 2020 to April 2022, the Gini coefficient for total household wealth was 0.59, with financial wealth being the least equally distributed wealth category (0.87) and physical wealth being the most (0.47).

Around one in seven (14 per cent) households had wealth of £1m or more, while 17 per cent had net financial wealth of £100,000 or more.

According to the Wealth and Assets Survey, the wealthiest 1 per cent of households held 10 per cent of all household wealth in Great between April 2020 to March 2022, and held wealth of at least £3,121,500.

Intergenerational wealth inequality has worsened, with people aged 65 to 74 experiencing an increase in financial wealth of £3,300 in real terms, compared to £800 for people aged 25 to 34 during the period.

Median household wealth was highest in the South East (£489,800) and lowest in the North East (£179,900).

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