Households Below Average Income

Product Description

The Households Below Average Income (HBAI) report presents information on UK living standards based on household income measures for financial year ending (FYE) 20234 Estimates are provided for average incomes, income inequality, and for the number and percentage of people living in low-income households. The statistics are the UK’s primary source of poverty estimates and, with a larger sample size, are also the main source on household incomes.

The HBAI statistics are commonly referred to as ‘poverty statistics’ which show the number or percentage of people living in poverty. This publication uses terms such as ‘income statistics’ and ‘people living in low-income households’ to describe more precisely what the data reflects. Although low income is a significant aspect of poverty, there are other aspects of poverty too. This publication also includes measures of ‘material deprivation’, which provide an indication of peoples’ ability to access or afford a range of everyday goods and services. Supporting statistics are also provided on household food security levels and prevalence of food bank usage for all individuals in the UK, including those in low-income households.

Comparison of changes in our headline low income statistics between years are made by rounding to the nearest percentage point for each year. This means that changes reported in the narrative do not always match visual differences between the levels displayed in the charts. Where changes are identified in the commentary, they are marked as not statistically significant [ns] or as statistically significant [s] in our accompanying data tables.

As with all household survey data, results are subject to uncertainty, especially in the short term. As well as maximising the sample size, in order to improve the representativeness of the sample, we apply weights to align results to published data for totals such as population, geography and tenure.