Life in the UK Focus on Household Income

Carnegie UK publishes an annual wellbeing index called Life in the UK. ​

This measures social, economic, environmental and democratic wellbeing across the UK, giving governments insight to understand whether we are collectively living better or worse. The 2023 Life in the UK Index, conducted in partnership with Ipsos, was based on a survey of more than 6,900 people.

This 2023 insights paper presents further detail on the inequalities we identified in collective, social, economic, environmental and democratic wellbeing by annual household income in the UK. It reveals that those with lower household incomes are more likely to be worse off across a range of areas.

For example, people with the lowest annual household income are:

• Five times more likely than those in households earning £52,000-£99,999 to report that they can’t afford enough food for everyone in their household.
• Almost four times more likely than those in the top two household income brackets (£52,000-£99,999 and £100,000 and above) to report that they can’t keep their homes adequately warm.
• Around twice as likely to report poor health and mental health than any other income group.
• Significantly more likely than any other income group to experience discrimination, to report feeling unsafe walking alone at night, and to report low levels of trust in local councils, the legal system and courts and trust in the police.