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Household Incomes

Tim Farron: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the average annual household income was in (a) England and Wales, (b) Cumbria, (c) Westmorland and Lonsdale, (d) urban areas and (e) rural areas in each year since 1997. [88641]

Dawn Primarolo: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician who has been asked to reply.

Letter from Stephen Penneck, dated 25 July 2006:

The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking what the average annual household income was in (a) England and Wales (b) Cumbria (c) Westmorland and Lonsdale (d) urban areas (e) rural areas in each year since 1997. I am replying in her absence. (88641)

The main national source of statistics on household income is the Family Resources Survey (FRS) which the Department of Work and Pensions use to produce the annual publication Households Below Average Income (HBAI). The tables attached here have been provided by DWP. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) have also produced some estimates of household income for wards for 2001/02 only, and these have been used to calculate an estimate of household income for the Westmoreland and Lonsdale constituency.

Household income statistics are shown both including housing costs (before housing costs), and excluding housing costs (after housing costs). Using these two bases, Table 1 shows both the mean and median annual household income in England and Wales from 1996/97 to 2004/05. The median is the middle income i.e. the income above which half of the population live and below which the other half live. All household incomes shown here are equivalised. This means that they are standardised to take into account the different size and composition of households.

Table 2 shows the mean and median annual household income in the North West and Merseyside Government Office Region (GOR). GORs are the smallest areas for which robust estimates
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can be produced from the Family Resources Survey. These regional estimates are produced by averaging over three survey years. Cumbria and Westmorland and Lonsdale are situated in the North West and Merseyside GOR.

Table 3 shows incomes for households situated in the urban and rural areas of England.

ONS has published estimates of household income for wards for 2001/02 only. These estimates are based on a statistical model and are experimental statistics—this means they have been
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developed in accordance with the principles set out in the National Statistics Code of Practice but have yet to be fully accredited as National Statistics. These ward based estimates have been used to estimate mean annual equivalised household income for the Westmoreland and Lonsdale constituency for 2001/02. Mean income before housing costs was £18,680, while after housing costs it was £17,130. It should be remembered that these estimates are produced using different methods so there is some uncertainty about how comparable they are with the estimates based solely on the FRS, used in Tables 1-3.

Table 1: Mean and Median Household Income, England and Wales, 1996/97 to 2004/05
Annually equivalised pounds, current prices
	Before Housing Costs		After Housing Costs
	Mean	Median	Mean	Median
1996/97	16,200	13,200	13,900	11,200
1997/98	16,900	13,600	14,600	11,600
1998/99	17,700	14,000	15,200	11,900
1999/2000	18,500	14,800	15,900	12,700
2000/01	19,200	15,200	16,700	13,100
2001/02	20,400	16,000	17,900	14,000
2002/03	21,000	16,900	18,600	14,800
2003/04	21,500	17,300	19,000	15,100
2004/05	22,600	18,100	19,800	15,700
Note: All results shown for England and Wales are single-year values as sample sizes for England and Wales are large enough to support a robust single-year time-series. Source: FRS

Table 2: Mean and Median Household Income, North West and Merseyside, 1996/97-1998/99 to 2002/03-2004/05
Annually equivalised pounds, current prices
	Before Housing Costs		After Housing Costs
	Mean	Median	Mean	Median
1996/97-1998/99	15,100	12,600	13,100	10,800
1997/98-1999/2000	15,900	13,100	13,900	11,300
1998/99-2000/01	16,500	13,700	14,400	11,900
1999/2000-2001/02	17,200	14,500	15,100	12,700
2000/01-2002/03	17,800	15,000	15,700	13,300
2001/02-2002/03	18,800	15,700	16,800	14,000
2002/03-2004/05	19,700	16,300	17,700	14,500
Note: Figures in this table are provided using three-year moving averages, as single year estimates derived from sample sizes for a GOR the size of North West and Merseyside do not provide a robust guide to changes over time. Hence, information may not be consistent with previously published single-year estimates for North West and Merseyside. Source: FRS

Table 3: Mean and Median Household Income in the Urban and Rural areas in England, 1996/97 to 2004/05
Annually equivalised pounds, current prices
	Before Housing Costs				After Housing Costs
	Mean		Median		Mean		Median
	Urban	Rural	Urban	Rural	Urban	Rural	Urban	Rural
1996/97	16,000	17,300	13,000	14,000	13,600	15,000	11,000	12,100
1997/98	16,700	18,000	13,300	14,500	14,300	15,600	11,300	12,500
1998/99	17,700	18,200	13,800	14,700	15,100	15,900	11,600	12,500
1999/2000	18,500	19,100	14,600	15,700	15,800	16,500	12,400	13,500
2000/01	19,200	20,000	15,000	16,100	16,600	17,500	12,900	14,000
2001/02	20,600	20,700	15,900	20,700	17,900	20,700	13,800	14,800
2002/03	21,100	21,400	16,500	17,900	18,600	19,000	14,600	15,900
2003/04	21,700	21,900	17,200	17,900	19,000	19,500	14,900	15,800
2004/05	22,600	20,600	17,700	20,600	19,700	20,600	15,200	16,900
Note: All values presented for rural and urban areas in England are single-year estimates as sample sizes for these areas are large enough to support a robust single-year time-series. Source: FRS

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