I came across some research and statistics put together recently by Aspire Money, a finance broker here in the UK. The research is all about how the average UK household spends more than the average UK wage. It makes for interesting reading, so I wanted to cover some of these stats today.
According to this research, anyone who has £2,065 to their name is amongst the wealthiest 50% in the world (shockingly, that’s just 1% of the world’s population by the way). It certainly puts into perspective just how little many people do have.
With the gap between the rich and poor ever increasing, Aspire Money have taken a look at where the average UK household spends their disposable income and how many people can afford to do this. These are some of the key points within their report:
• According the Office of National Statistics the average UK household spends £517.30 every week
• The average UK wage is £26,500 per annum or £509.62 per week – before tax!
• Over 13 million people in the UK are living below the poverty line
• Top 1% of the population own 50% of the wealth
• To be amongst the wealthiest 50% in the world you need just £2,065 to your name
This is a graphical representation of the average wages in the UK. Check out the income gap between a premier league footballer and that of a hairdresser!
I really wanted to embed an interactive tool here which calculates how much people in these occupations have earned by the time you’ve read the article over at Aspire Money. Unfortunately, I couldn’t do that, so here’s a link to it instead (and the full stats). You can input your own salary via the interactive tool and see how much you’ve earned yourself during that time too.
In terms of what the average Brit spends their paycheck on, almost half of it goes towards energy bills and transport costs. Other key areas of spending are recreation and culture, food and non-alcoholic drinks, followed by a much lower percentage of spend on restaurants and hotels.
Final thoughts…
It is evident that there are many people living in the UK who are struggling to make ends meet especially if an unexpected bill or expenditure lands them in financial difficulty. For those people that are bringing in a single income, this must be even more difficult.
There’s no doubt that with the average UK spend outweighing the average UK wage, there are more and more people who are finding the cost of living impossible to keep up with.
If you live in the UK, what do you think to these stats?
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1 Comment
This is crazy and insane. The distribution seems really unequal that is why most of them are living below the poverty line. Definitely, I am sure there are less household bringing a one-household income. And people in the UK would need to get another job to address their financial problems.