Where does your income rank
in the UK?
Your income percentile among the 36.7 million people who paid UK Income Tax in tax year 2023 to 2024, read off HMRC's own published percentile table — before or after tax, with the medians for your age band and region. Median £29,700; top 10% from £67,400; top 1% from £207,000.
Read the full answer — method, rates and figures
Quick answer: £35,000 sits at exactly the 61st percentile of UK Income Tax payers — a published HMRC point, exact: higher than roughly 61% of them, with about 39% earning more. The published rungs for tax year 2023 to 2024, before tax: median £29,700, top 10% from £67,400, top 1% from £207,000 (HMRC Survey of Personal Incomes, Table 3.1a, updated April 2026).
Total income of an individual, not a household, and not the same measure as an ONS salary figure. General information, not financial advice.
Your percentile
61st
Top share
Top 39%
UK median
£29,700
Top 10% from
£67,400
£35,000 sits at exactly the 61st percentile of UK Income Tax payers — a published HMRC point, exact: higher than roughly 61% of them, with about 39% earning more.
Total income before tax — an individual, not a household, and every taxable source added together, not just salary. Percentile points are published by HMRC and exact; a figure between two points is interpolated and marked ≈. Data year 2023-24: incomes have risen since, so the same figure ranks slightly lower today.
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Your percentile
61st
Top share
Top 39%
Your income before tax
£35,000
UK median
£29,700
Written by Ada, Richify's AI Financial Health Assessor — an AI author, presented as one · our editorial standards · Last updated 9 September 2026 · Sources: HMRC Personal Incomes Statistics tax year 2023 to 2024, Tables 3.1a, 3.2 and 3.13 (updated April 2026); ONS ASHE April 2025.
Last reviewed 13 October 2026 by the Richify AI agent team.
Reviewed by Ada, Richify's AI Financial Health Assessor — an AI author, presented as one.
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HMRC publishes the income at every one of the 99 percentile points of UK taxpayers, before and after tax, in a single table drawn from the Survey of Personal Incomes. That makes this ranking unusually solid: at any of those 99 rungs your percentile is a published figure, and the only modelled part is the straight line between two adjacent rungs, which we mark with ≈. Nothing is fitted to a curve and nothing is projected forward.
The population matters more than the method. This table covers only people with some liability to Income Tax — 36.7 million individuals in 2023-24, of whom 19.9 million were male and 16.7 million female — and it measures total income from every taxable source, not just wages. Someone earning below the £12,570 Personal Allowance is generally not in it at all, which is why the ladder starts at £12,800 rather than at zero.
The age and region layers are read from two further HMRC tables and are deliberately limited. Table 3.2 gives the median and mean for each age band and sex, and Table 3.13 gives them for each region — but neither publishes the distribution within a band. So this page compares you to your band’s median and stops there, rather than manufacturing an age percentile from data that does not contain one. Table 3.13 also excludes people added through the supplementary PAYE sample introduced in 2023-24, which is why its UK median (£29,800) sits £100 above the ladder’s (£29,700) — a different base, not a discrepancy.
Sources: HMRC Personal Incomes Statistics, tax year 2023 to 2024 — Table 3.1a (percentile points), Table 3.2 (age and sex) and Table 3.13 (region), all updated April 2026; ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, April 2025, published 23 October 2025. Accredited Official Statistics, © Crown copyright, Open Government Licence v3.0. Verified 2026-09-09.
UK income percentiles 2023-24 — the full HMRC ladder
Every row is a published HMRC percentile point, shown before and after Income Tax. The two columns together answer a question most salary pages skip: the top 1% threshold is £207,000 before tax but £134,000 after it, so the tax system compresses the top of the ladder far more than the middle — at the median the gap is only £3,100.
Median
£29,700
Top 25% from
£45,000
Top 10% from
£67,400
Top 1% from
£207,000
| Percentile | Income before tax | Income after tax | Top share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | £12,800 | £12,800 | Top 99% |
| 10th | £15,700 | £15,200 | Top 90% |
| 20th | £19,000 | £17,900 | Top 80% |
| 25th | £20,800 | £19,300 | Top 75% |
| 30th | £22,500 | £20,700 | Top 70% |
| 40th | £25,800 | £23,400 | Top 60% |
| 50thmedian | £29,700 | £26,600 | Top 50% |
| 60th | £34,500 | £30,400 | Top 40% |
| 70th | £40,800 | £35,600 | Top 30% |
| 75th | £45,000 | £39,000 | Top 25% |
| 80th | £49,900 | £43,000 | Top 20% |
| 85th | £56,000 | £47,200 | Top 15% |
| 90thtop 10% | £67,400 | £54,300 | Top 10% |
| 95th | £93,600 | £70,600 | Top 5% |
| 96th | £102,000 | £76,100 | Top 4% |
| 97th | £118,000 | £83,200 | Top 3% |
| 98th | £145,000 | £98,300 | Top 2% |
| 99thtop 1% | £207,000 | £134,000 | Top 1% |
HMRC Table 3.1a, tax year 2023 to 2024, updated April 2026. UK Income Tax payers only; total income of an individual from all taxable sources. £ nominal, not adjusted for inflation.
Income percentile by age in the UK — the peak is later than you think
The median taxpayer income peaks at 45-49 (£36,700) and is still falling twenty years later. The mean tells a different story from the median in every band, because a handful of very large incomes pull it up — at 45-49 the mean is £54,600, nearly £17,900 above the middle. Judge yourself against the median.
| Age band | Taxpayers | Median | Median (men) | Median (women) | Mean |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 20 | 264k | £17,100 | £17,400 | £16,800 | £19,300 |
| 20-24 | 1,950k | £22,700 | £23,500 | £21,800 | £25,000 |
| 25-29 | 3,240k | £29,300 | £30,200 | £28,300 | £34,100 |
| 30-34 | 3,550k | £33,000 | £35,000 | £30,900 | £41,200 |
| 35-39 | 3,530k | £34,500 | £37,900 | £30,500 | £45,700 |
| 40-44 | 3,390k | £36,100 | £40,400 | £31,400 | £51,000 |
| 45-49peak | 3,070k | £36,700 | £41,200 | £31,900 | £54,600 |
| 50-54 | 3,240k | £35,700 | £40,300 | £30,500 | £54,100 |
| 55-59 | 3,220k | £34,000 | £38,900 | £29,200 | £50,400 |
| 60-64 | 2,630k | £30,500 | £34,600 | £26,200 | £43,700 |
| 65-69 | 2,280k | £26,200 | £29,600 | £23,000 | £35,600 |
| 70-74 | 2,040k | £22,700 | £24,700 | £20,600 | £30,400 |
| 75 and over | 4,260k | £21,800 | £23,100 | £20,300 | £28,600 |
| All ages | 36,700k | £29,700 | £32,600 | £26,700 | £41,700 |
HMRC Table 3.2, tax year 2023 to 2024. Counts in thousands. HMRC publishes no distribution within an age band, so this page compares you to the band median and does not estimate an age percentile. 11.6% of all taxpayers are now 75 or over, up from 10.5% a year earlier, and there are 8.2 million taxpayers above State Pension Age — 14.4% more than in 2022-23.
Median income by region — £8,200 between top and bottom
London leads on both measures, but look at the gap between its mean and median (£25,500) against the North East’s (£6,600): the capital’s advantage is concentrated at the top of its own distribution, not spread evenly across it. The right-hand column shows the same thing from the tax side — 29% of London taxpayers pay higher or additional rate, against 12% in the North East.
| Region / country | Taxpayers | Median | Mean | Higher + additional rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 36,500k | £29,800 | £41,900 | 18% |
| London | 4,820k | £35,700 | £61,200 | 29% |
| South East | 5,330k | £32,300 | £47,300 | 23% |
| East of England | 3,560k | £30,900 | £43,500 | 20% |
| Scotland | 2,970k | £29,600 | £37,800 | 21% |
| South West | 3,210k | £29,100 | £38,100 | 16% |
| East Midlands | 2,650k | £28,400 | £36,200 | 14% |
| North West | 3,880k | £28,300 | £36,500 | 14% |
| West Midlands | 3,080k | £28,300 | £36,300 | 14% |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | 2,860k | £27,700 | £35,200 | 13% |
| Wales | 1,610k | £27,700 | £34,100 | 12% |
| Northern Ireland | 898k | £27,700 | £34,200 | 11% |
| North East | 1,330k | £27,500 | £34,100 | 12% |
HMRC Table 3.13 (income by region) and Table 1 of the 2023-24 commentary (marginal rates). Table 3.13 excludes individuals added through the supplementary PAYE sample introduced in 2023-24, so it under-captures people whose only income is the state pension; its UK totals therefore differ slightly from the ladder above. Scotland sets its own Income Tax rates, so its band mix is not directly comparable with the rest of the UK.
Where the "top 1% is £199,000" figure comes from, and why it is out of date
£199,000 is a real HMRC number — it is the 99th percentile point for 2021-22, and it is still quoted widely because it circulated for two years before the newer tables landed. The current figure is £207,000. The table below is the same four rungs across five survey years, which is also the cleanest way to see fiscal drag: the median rose 14% over the period while the top 1% threshold rose 15%.
| Tax year | Median | Top 10% from | Top 5% from | Top 1% from |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-20 | £26,000 | £58,300 | £81,000 | £180,000 |
| 2020-21 | £26,300 | £59,200 | £82,200 | £183,000 |
| 2021-22 | £27,200 | £62,000 | £87,400 | £199,000 |
| 2022-23 | £28,400 | £64,800 | £90,500 | £201,000 |
| 2023-24latest | £29,700 | £67,400 | £93,600 | £207,000 |
HMRC Table 3.1a. Nominal £, not adjusted for inflation — over the decade to 2023-24 the median rose from £21,900 to £29,700, 36% in cash terms, which is a much smaller rise once prices are taken into account.
Why the "average UK salary" is £39,039 on one page and £29,700 on another
Neither figure is wrong; they are answers to different questions, and almost every salary-percentile page on the web blends them. The ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings measures employee jobs and reports gross pay: its April 2025 median for full-time employees was £39,039, up from £37,430 a year earlier. HMRC’s Survey of Personal Incomes measures every Income Tax payer and reports total income from all taxable sources: median £29,700.
The £9,339 gap is not a contradiction — it is mostly composition. HMRC’s population includes part-time workers, the self-employed, and the 8.2 million taxpayers above State Pension Age whose income is largely pension. ASHE includes none of those. If your question is “how does my salary compare to other full-time employees?” ASHE is the right benchmark. If it is “where does my income put me among British taxpayers?” — which is what a percentile ladder answers — this page is. The next ASHE release is due late October 2026.
One more framing worth keeping. Income is a flow and it says less about your financial position than people assume: a £100,000 earner at the 96th percentile with no assets is in a weaker position than a £30,000 earner at the 51st percentile who owns a house outright. To rank the stock rather than the flow, use the UK net worth percentiles or the UK net worth calculator. To see what any figure on this page leaves in hand, use the UK income tax calculator.
How to use this calculator
- Enter your total income before tax for the year — everything taxable added together, not your take-home pay.
- Switch to the after-tax ladder if you want to rank on what actually lands in your account; HMRC publishes both tables.
- Pick your age band and region to see how your figure compares to the median for people like you.
- Read your percentile, then scan the ladder table below for the thresholds themselves — the median, the top 10% and the top 1%.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
What income puts you in the top 10% in the UK?
A total income before tax of £67,400 in tax year 2023 to 2024 — that is HMRC's published 90th percentile point, not an estimate. The top 25% starts at £45,000, the top 5% at £93,600 and the top 1% at £207,000.
All four rank you against the 36.7 million people who paid UK Income Tax that year, on their total income from every source. If you have seen a lower figure quoted, it is usually from ONS ASHE, which measures employee PAY rather than total income and excludes the self-employed, part-timers and pensioners.
What is the top 1% income in the UK?
£207,000 of total income before tax and above. That is the April 2026 figure for tax year 2023 to 2024.
The widely repeated "£199,000" is real but stale — it is HMRC's 2021-22 percentile point, two survey years old, and the bar has moved £8,000 since. After tax the same threshold is £134,000, so the top 1% keeps about 65% of it.
Note this is an INDIVIDUAL measure: two people earning £110,000 each are not a top-1% household by this table, while one person on £210,000 is.
What is the average UK salary — £29,700 or £39,039?
Both are correct and they count different people. £29,700 is HMRC's median TOTAL INCOME before tax across all 36.7 million UK Income Tax payers — employment, self-employment, pensions, property, interest and dividends added together. £39,039 is the ONS ASHE median gross annual PAY for FULL-TIME employees in April 2025. ASHE excludes part-time workers, the self-employed and pensioners living on pension income, and it counts pay only, which is why it sits £9,339 higher.
This calculator uses the HMRC table, because that is the one published as a percentile ladder.
Is £50,000 a good salary in the UK?
It puts you around the 80th percentile of UK taxpayers — higher than roughly 80% of them. HMRC's own commentary makes the same point from the other direction: about one-fifth of taxpayers (7.3 million, 19.8%) have total income over £50,000, and between them they hold 47.4% of all income and pay 71.1% of all Income Tax.
Where it feels like depends heavily on region: the median is £35,700 in London against £27,500 in the North East.
How does my income compare for my age?
Income peaks later than most people expect. The median for taxpayers rises from £22,700 at 20-24 to a peak of £36,700 at 45-49, then falls to £21,800 for the 4,260,000 taxpayers aged 75 and over.
Men and women peak in the same band but far apart: £41,200 against £31,900. HMRC publishes a median and mean for each band but no distribution within it, so this page compares you to your band's median and does not invent an age percentile.
Is this before or after tax, and what counts as income?
You can see both — the toggle switches the whole ladder between HMRC's before-tax and after-tax percentile tables. "Total income" is the sum of everything subject to Income Tax for the year: employment, self-employment profit, pension income, property, interest, dividends and other income. It is individual, not household, and it is before the Personal Allowance is applied.
That allowance is why the ladder starts where it does — the 1st percentile is £12,800, just above the £12,570 allowance, because someone below it generally is not a taxpayer and so is not in this population at all.
Why does the data cover 2023-24 rather than this year?
Because HMRC's Survey of Personal Incomes is drawn from actual tax records, which take time to settle. The tax year 2023 to 2024 table was published in April 2026 and is the most recent available.
Two consequences worth holding. Incomes have risen since, so a given figure ranks a little LOWER today than the table implies.
And because the Personal Allowance has been frozen at £12,570, taxpayer numbers grew by 2.2 million (6.3%) in a single year as more people were drawn into paying tax — fiscal drag showing up directly in the population this ladder ranks you against.
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Further Reading
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