Official Statistics

Personal Wealth Statistics and the Wealth and Assets Survey

A comparison of the two main sources of statistics that estimate wealth.

• From: HM Revenue & Customs
• Published: 30 September 2016

Documents

Personal Wealth Statistics and the Wealth and Assets Survey

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Details

There are 2 sources of National Statistics that produce estimates of wealth. The first is the HMRC Personal Wealth Statistics, a long standing series first published in 1976, based on administrative data submitted for inheritance tax purposes. The second source is the Wealth and Assets Survey, a longitudinal sample survey of private households produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which started in 2006.

Both sets of data use the term ‘wealth’, but differ in the methodologies and definitions used in the compilation of their estimates.

Published 30 September 2016