Found a fascinating article in the FT a few weeks ago that turned up again in this afternoon's tidy-up. All about the distribution of incomes in the UK.
"Middle class workers richer than they think", Tues 5th Jan 2010.
Based on 2007-08 prices, and also based on all people with incomes (whether pensioners, those on benefits, full-time and part-time workers).
Mean (average) weekly income per individual, £487 [=£25,342pa]
Median (central figure if you line them all up) weekly income per individual, £393 [=£20,436pa]
Mode (most common) weekly income per individual, c.£260 [=c.£13,520pa]
Other interesting facts:
A childless couple making £25,000 each are in the 87th percentile - i.e. only 13% of the population earn more. That means that most yuppie couples in Cambridge are unquestionably "rich" (especially given the rest of the world...)
Having a child means you need an extra 20% on your income to maintain a
similar standard of living.
47,500 people (the top 0.1%) make more than £350,000 per year!
More stats are available at www.ifs.org.uk/wheredoyoufitin, the people who did the hard work.
