The median UK household net worth is £293,700, according to the Office for National Statistics' Wealth and Assets Survey. It peaks at £502,500 for households aged 65–74 — roughly 33 times higher than the youngest households, where the median is just £15,200.
If your number looks low against your age group, read to the end before drawing conclusions: the most common reason for a disappointing comparison isn't a lack of wealth, it's an incomplete count.
Median household net worth by age (UK)
Source: ONS Wealth and Assets Survey, April 2020 – March 2022.
These are household figures — couples' combined wealth. Individual median net worth is much lower, around £125,000. If you've calculated your personal net worth, compare against the individual figure; if you've calculated as a couple, use the household one. (If you haven't calculated either yet, start here or go straight to the calculator.)
Why wealth climbs so steeply with age
Three compounding forces drive the curve:
Property. Mortgage repayments convert income into equity over decades, and UK house price growth has amplified it. Property accounts for roughly 40% of total household wealth.
Pensions. Private pensions are the largest single component of UK household wealth — and the most invisible, because the money arrives by salary deduction and sits unexamined for decades. This is also why older households' figures surprise people: a £400,000 pension pot doesn't feel like wealth in the way a house does, but it counts identically.
Time. Investment returns compound. Someone who started saving at 25 isn't twice as wealthy at 65 as someone who started at 45 — they're often several times wealthier.
Why averages mislead
Two cautions before you compare yourself to anything:
- The mean is inflated. The wealthiest 10% of households hold assets of £1.2 million or more, which drags average (mean) figures far above the experience of a typical household. Mean UK household wealth is roughly double the median. Always compare against medians.
- Region rewrites the table. Median household wealth is £489,800 in the South East and £179,900 in the North East — a gap driven mostly by property prices, not behaviour. A "below average" net worth in Newcastle may represent better financial decisions than an "above average" one in Surrey.
The comparison most people get wrong
Here is the practical problem with benchmarking: the official figures count everything — every pension from every job, every account, every policy. Most people's self-calculated net worth doesn't.
The UK has an estimated £89 billion in lost and unclaimed assets across some 28 million accounts, including £31 billion in 3.3 million forgotten pension pots averaging £9,470 each. If you've changed jobs several times and moved house a few more, comparing your remembered net worth against the ONS's complete one understates your position — possibly by tens of thousands of pounds.
Before deciding you're behind your age group, make sure you've counted properly. Our guide to the assets people forget when calculating net worth lists the usual suspects.
What matters more than the benchmark
A single comparison against your age group tells you where you are; it can't tell you whether you're improving. The more useful habits are tracking your own number over time, knowing what's driving changes in it, and keeping the count complete. Use the net worth calculator to establish your baseline, then revisit it annually.