Accredited official statistics

Households below average income: 1994/95 to 2017/18

Statistics on the number and percentage of people living in low income households for financial years 1994/95 to 2017/18.

Documents

Households below average income: an analysis of the income distribution 1994/95 to 2017/18

Request an accessible format.
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email accessible.formats@dwp.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Summary results

Request an accessible format.
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email accessible.formats@dwp.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Data tables

Request an accessible format.
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email accessible.formats@dwp.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Directory of tables (a guide to the information in the data tables Zip file)

Request an accessible format.
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email accessible.formats@dwp.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Households below average income (HBAI): quality and methodology information report 2017/18

Request an accessible format.
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email accessible.formats@dwp.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Details

This Households Below Average Income (HBAI) report presents information on living standards in the United Kingdom year on year from 1994/95 to 2017/18.

It provides estimates on the number and percentage of people living in low-income households based on disposable income. Figures are also provided for children, pensioners, working-age adults and individuals living in a family where someone is disabled.

Use our infographic to find out how low income is measured in HBAI.

Most of the figures in this report come from the Family Resources Survey, a representative survey of around 19,000 households in the UK.

Data tables

Summary data tables are available on this page, with more detailed analysis available to download as a Zip file.

The directory of tables is a guide to the information in the data tables Zip file.

HBAI data on Stat-Xplore

UK-level HBAI data is available from 1994/95 to 2017/18 on the Stat-Xplore online tool. You can use Stat-Xplore to create your own HBAI analysis.

Note that regional and ethnicity analysis are not available on the database because multiple-year averages cannot currently be produced. These are available in the HBAI tables.

HBAI information is available at:

  • an individual level
  • a family level (benefit unit level)
  • a household level

Read the user guide to HBAI data on Stat-Xplore.

We are seeking feedback from users on this development release of HBAI data on Stat-Xplore – email team.hbai@dwp.gov.uk with your comments.

Updates to this page

Published 28 March 2019

Sign up for emails or print this page