Wales
Income inequalities
Key points
- The poorest tenth of the population have, between them, around 2% of Wales' total income and the second poorest tenth have 4%.
- In contrast, the richest tenth have 25-30% and the second richest tenth have 15%.
- The income of the richest tenth is almost as much as the income of all those on below-average incomes (i.e. the bottom five tenths) combined.
- The overall distribution of income has changed little over the last decade (assuming that the sharp increase in 2006/07 for the richest tenth is a statistical artifact arising from small sample sizes rather than a real change).
- Most of these proportions are similar in Wales as for Great Britain as a whole, as is their lack of change over time. The main exception is the richest tenth which (except for 2006/07 - see above) has a smaller share of the total income in Wales than in Great Britain as a whole: 25% compared to 30% (see the UK indicator on income inequality).
- When comparing incomes of those at the top and the bottom with those in the middle, income inequality in Wales is somewhat lower than in Great Britain as a whole.
Graph 1: Over time
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Graph 2: Shares
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Graph 3: Inequalities
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Definitions and data sources
The first graph shows the share of the total income of the population for selected income deciles (tenths), namely the two poorest deciles and the two richest deciles. Clearly, the shares added up for all ten deciles would total 100% of the total income.
The second graph shows the distribution of total income across the ten income deciles.
The third graph shows the income of households at the 10th and 90th percentiles of the income distribution as proportions of average (median) Welsh income. For comparison purposes, the equivalent figures for Great Britain as a whole are also presented.
The data source for all the graphs is Households Below Average Income, based on the Family Resources Survey (FRS). Income is disposable household income after deducting housing costs, equivalised (adjusted) for household size and composition.
Overall adequacy of the indicator: high. The FRS is a well-established annual government survey, designed to be representative of the population as a whole.