Personal Incomes Statistics 2020 to 2021: Summary Statistics
Updated 29 February 2024
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1. Introduction
About this publication
The Survey of Personal Incomes (SPI) is based on information held by HMRC on individuals who could be liable to UK Income Tax. It is carried out annually by HMRC and covers income assessable to tax for each tax year.
Most tables in this statistics release exclude individuals who are not taxpayers. This can occur for a number of reasons, for example if they have no Income Tax liability due to their deductions, reliefs and personal allowances exceeding their total income, or if their income is below the Personal Allowance. Figures cover the United Kingdom and tax year 2020 to 2021 unless stated otherwise.
The SPI is compiled to provide information to the public, Members of Parliament, other Government Departments, companies, and organisations. It is a quantified evidence base from which to cost proposed changes to tax rates, personal allowances and other tax reliefs for Treasury Ministers. It is used to inform policy decisions within HMRC, the Treasury and the Devolved Administrations, as well as for tax modelling and forecasting purposes. In addition, it is used to provide summary information for the National Accounts that are prepared by the Office for National Statistics.
Supporting documents to the SPI annual publication are:
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accompanying statistical tables in Tables 3.1 to 3.11, 3.16 and 3.17 and the geography National Statistics tables 3.12 to 3.15a by tax year
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supporting documentation on the methodology used to produce these statistics is available on our website for the tax year 2020 to 2021 Personal Incomes Statistics 2020 to 2021: Supporting Documentation
Throughout this summary, individual figures have been rounded independently to three significant figures. Therefore, the sum of component items may not necessarily add to the totals shown.
2. Taxpayer numbers
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there were 31.7 million taxpayers in the tax year 2020 to 2021, of those 17.9 million were male and 13.7 million female (Table 3.2 and Table 3.3)
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this represents an increase of 200,000 taxpayers since the 2019 to 2020 tax year
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the number of male taxpayers was similar to the 2019 to 2020 tax year, while the number of female taxpayers increased by 1.4%
3. Total Income Breakdown
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the total income before tax received by taxpayers in the tax year 2020 to 2021 was £1,180 billion (Table 3.3)
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this is 2.1% higher than the total income reported in the previous tax year
Figure 1: Amount of income in the tax year ending 2021 and percentage change since tax year ending 2020 (Table 3.5 and Table 3.6)
Table 1: Amount of income in the tax year ending 2021 and percentage change since tax year ending 2020 (Table 3.5 and Table 3.6)
| Type of income | Amount of income in billions | Percentage change since tax year ending 2020 |
|---|---|---|
| Self-employment | £97 | +10.8% |
| Employment | £827 | +1.7% |
| Pension | £163 | +3.7% |
| Property, interest, dividend and other | £92 | -4.9% |
Source: Survey of Person Incomes for tax year 2020 to 2021, Table 3.5 and Table 3.6.
Figure 2: Proportion of income by type
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there were increases in most types of income over the tax year 2020 to 2021, with increases of 10.8% for self-employment income, 1.7% for employment income and 3.7% for pension income. However there was a decrease of 4.9% for property, interest, dividend and other income (Table 3.5 and Table 3.6)
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self-employment income did not increase uniformly across all sectors, ranging from a decrease of 12% (£380 million) in Arts, Entertainment and Recreation to an increase of 28% (£1.06 billion) in Wholesale and Retail Trade (Table 3.9)
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property, interest, dividend and other income accounts for the smallest proportion of total income at 7.8% of the total income
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employment income accounts for the largest proportion of total income at 70.2%
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pension income is 13.8% of total income
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self-employment income is 8.2% of total income
4. Income Tax liabilities breakdown by tax rate
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Income Tax liabilities for tax year 2020 to 2021 were £196 billion (Table 3.4)
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total Income Tax liabilities increased by around £6.6 billion (3.5%) compared to the previous tax year
Figure 3: The breakdown of Income Tax by the number of taxpayers and estimated tax liability for each marginal rate of tax
Table 2: The breakdown of Income Tax by the number of taxpayers and estimated tax liability for each marginal rate of tax
| Tax rate | Number in millions | Percentage of taxpayers | Percentage of total tax |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic rate | 26.6 | 84.2% | 33.8% |
| Higher rate | 4.0 | 12.7% | 33.2% |
| Additional rate | 0.4 | 1.3% | 32.5% |
| Savers rate | 0.6 | 1.9% | 0.4% |
Source: Survey of Personal Incomes for tax year 2020 to 2021, Table 3.4.
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there were 26.6 million basic rate taxpayers who accounted for 84.1% of taxpayers and 33.8% of total tax
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there were 4.0 million higher rate taxpayers who accounted for 12.6% of taxpayers and 33.2% of total tax
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there were 0.4 million additional rate taxpayers who accounted for 1.4% of taxpayers and 32.5% of total tax
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there were 0.6 million savers rate taxpayers who accounted for 2% of taxpayers and 0.4% of total tax
5. Taxpayers of pension age
Taxpayers of pension age are those over the State Pension Age (SPA), which for the purposes of these statistics is aged 66 for females and males as at 5 April 2021.
There were 6.47 million taxpayers of pension age for the tax year 2020 to 2021; of these 58.8% are male and 41.2% are female. (Table 3.12)
The number of taxpayers of pension age increased 3.5% since the previous tax year. They account for 20.4% of all taxpayers and 15.2% of total income.
The South East has the highest number of taxpayers of pension age and the largest amount of total income (1.02 million and £31.5 billion respectively). Northern Ireland has the fewest taxpayers of pension age and the lowest amount of total income (134,000 and £3.7 billion respectively) (Table 3.12).
Figure 4: Number of taxpayers of pension age and total income in the tax year ending 2021
Table 3: Number of taxpayers of pension age and total income in the tax year ending 2021
| Region | Taxpayers in millions | Total Income in billions |
|---|---|---|
| North East | 0.25 | £6.2 |
| North West | 0.68 | £17.5 |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | 0.50 | £12.8 |
| East Midlands | 0.48 | £12.5 |
| West Midlands | 0.55 | £14 |
| East of England | 0.65 | £18.7 |
| London | 0.52 | £18.8 |
| South East | 1.02 | £31.5 |
| South West | 0.69 | £19 |
| Wales | 0.33 | £8.3 |
| Scotland | 0.54 | £14 |
| Northern Ireland | 0.13 | £3.7 |
Source: Survey of Personal Incomes for tax year 2020 to 2021, Table 3.12.
6. Total Income by Region/Country
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the region with the highest number of taxpayers was again the South East region with around 4.7 million (15%) of the total figure
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the number of taxpayers did not change uniformly across the UK, ranging from a decrease of 52,000 (1.2%) in London to an increase of 55,000 (4%) in Wales and 80,000 (3.6%) in East Midlands (Table 3.11)
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the region with the highest amount of total income was London, which saw an increase of around £7 billion since the tax year ending 2020 and reached £227 billion, however its share of total income remains unchanged at 19% (Table 3.11)
Figure 5: Number of taxpayers and type of income by Region/Country
Source: Survey of Personal Incomes for tax year 2020 to 2021, Table 3.11.
7. Sub-regional statistics
Income by county and region
The highest regional mean and median value for total income, £54,200 and £31,500 respectively, are found in London. The county with the highest mean and median value of total income was Surrey at £55,300 and £33,000 respectively. The lowest mean total income was £29,600 for South Yorkshire. The lowest median of total income was estimated for West Midlands at £23,800. (Table 3.13)
Income by borough and district or unitary authority
The highest mean value of total income was estimated in Kensington and Chelsea (£198,000) while the highest median value was in the City of London (£56,700). The lowest mean and median value of total income was Blackpool UA at £25,400 and £21,300 respectively. (Table 3.14)
Income by Parliamentary Constituency
The parliamentary constituency with the highest mean value of total income was Kensington (£190,000) while the highest median value was estimated in the Cities of London and Westminster (£46,000). The parliamentary constituency with lowest mean value of total income was Preston, (£24,500). The lowest median value was in Birmingham, Hodge Hill (£20,600). (Table 3.15)
Note
These values from tables 3.13 to 3.15 are sample based estimates; confidence intervals at the 95% level are available. For more information on estimates and measures of precision see the supporting documentation.
8. Contact Information
If you have any queries regarding this publication, please use the contact information below to get in touch.
Statistical contact: N Anderson, spi.enquiries@hmrc.gov.uk
Media contact: HMRC Press Office, news.desk@hmrc.gov.uk
Website: Personal Income Statistics
Frequency: Published annually
Coverage: United Kingdom Theme: The Economy
Publication date: 8 March 2023
Next publication date: February/March 2024