Study Notes

Median Income and Relative Poverty

Last updated 29 Dec 2017

One measure of the extent of poverty in the United Kingdom is the percentage of households who are living on below 60 per cent of median earnings.

The median household income is the income of what would be the middle household, if all households in the UK were sorted in a list from poorest to richest.

Household income in this chart includes income from earnings, welfare benefits and tax credits.

The data shows that there has been a gradual fall in the scale of relative poverty using this measure. In 1999, 19 per cent of households had an annual income of 60 per cent below median income Before Housing Costs. This declined to 16% in 2015.

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