Trends in UK Inequality and Poverty

Popular discussion of inequality or poverty in the UK is often confused because there are many different measures of both. [1] Some facts are largely immune to measurement issues, like the fact that UK inequality and poverty increased significantly in the 1980s. Bourquin, Brewer and Wernham provide a good discussion, and this chart is taken from there. So, for example, the ratio of the post-tax income of the top 10% compared to the bottom 10% rose substantially in the second half of the 1980s (helped by cuts to the top rate of tax), but has, if anything, fallen slightly since then. In the past I have looked at the outer edges of the income distribution, and in particular the share of income going to the top 1%. That’s an income of around £200,000. Here is data from the World Inequality Database, which unlike earlier is pre-tax. For post-tax data see the IFS here. (For more on the characteristics of the 1%, see here.) I’ve included data since WWII just to illustrate that the post-war…