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Based on fresh analysis, the average earner in the UK would require over five decades of earnings to attain the financial standing of the richest 10% in the country.

Growing Financial Divide Through the Years

This research analyzed wealth distribution statistics including the Covid pandemic period and discovered that during 2006-08, it would have required 38 years of median full-time earnings to reach the top 10th of the economic ladder.

An economic expert involved with the analysis stated: "Economic disparities in Britain are now so large that a typical full-time employee saving all their earnings across their entire working life would continue to be incapable to attain the highest level of the wealth ladder."

Quantifying the Economic Gap

The research discovered that the difference between the assets of the average person and someone in the top 10% was £1m in the pre-crisis period, but had widened to £1.3m in real terms by the pandemic years.

The analyst continued: "These gaps are doubly concerning as financial progression in Britain is restricted – individuals who begin life affluent tend to stay wealthy, and the opposite holds true."

Proportional Economic Disparity

Even with the economic divide widening in absolute terms, the percentage of total wealth in the UK owned by the most affluent homes – termed "comparative financial divide" – has been "mostly consistent since the 1980s," per the research.

Throughout these years, overall assets in the UK surged from three times the yearly economic output, to almost 7.5 times.

Factors of Wealth Inequality

Referred to as "automatic" appreciation, via growing real estate costs and adjustments to superannuation evaluations, were the key contributors of the expanding economic divide from 2010 onward, according to the report.

These increases generally flowed to older, property-owning households, the analysis reveals – worsening the intergenerational wealth divide.

Generational Economic Gaps

The median economic difference between individuals aged 30-34 and those in their early 60s increased over twofold in actual value, from £135,000 in 2006-08, to £310,000.

Area-Based Disparities

There were also pronounced geographic differences, with the median value of wealth in 2020-22 reaching £290,000 in the southeastern region, where property prices have tended to rise rapidly, compared with £110k in the north-east.

COVID Era Effects

Amid the health crisis, when millions of workers were covered under the government-supported job retention program, and pandemic lockdowns curtailed consumption options, the data shows countless homes were capable of accumulating, enhancing their financial standing.

Higher-income households fared much better, though. "The average household in the poorest fifth saw their cash reserves rise by merely £80 during the COVID years (from 2019 to 2022), broadly the same as the pre-crisis period. Conversely, the average household in the top income bracket saw their liquid savings grow by 4,200 pounds," the report finds.