Income progression

Data on changes in the annual incomes of men and women aged 25 to 44 years in the UK, by socio-economic background.

  1. Summary main findings
  2. By sex
  3. About the data
  4. Download the data

Summary main findings

Data from 2014 to 2021 shows that annual incomes of men and women aged 25 to 44 years from professional backgrounds went up more than for those from intermediate or working class backgrounds.

Average incomes increased steadily from the age of 25 to 35 years, and tended to flatten out after. The average increase was greater for young people from professional backgrounds than for those from intermediate or working-class backgrounds.

Women’s average earnings were lower, and did not go up as quickly as men’s.

By sex

Visualisation for by sex

Income progression of men and women aged 25 to 44, by socio-economic background (UK, 2014 to 2021 combined)

Use the radio buttons to choose a dataset to view

Click or tap on legend items to toggle visibility

Data for by sex

Income progression of men and women aged 25 to 44, by socio-economic background (UK, 2014 to 2021 combined)
Age Lower working Higher working Intermediate Lower professional Higher professional
Men (£) Women (£) Men (£) Women (£) Men (£) Women (£) Men (£) Women (£) Men (£) Women (£)
25 20,484 12,825 22,028 14,823 23,883 16,326 26,856 19,074 29,984 22,050
26 21,785 14,106 23,479 16,111 25,390 17,670 28,602 20,490 31,766 23,579
27 23,000 15,290 24,844 17,302 26,812 18,916 30,263 21,810 33,463 25,012
28 24,132 16,378 26,125 18,396 28,150 20,066 31,839 23,032 35,076 26,347
29 25,178 17,369 27,321 19,394 29,402 21,120 33,331 24,159 36,604 27,586
30 26,140 18,263 28,433 20,295 30,570 22,077 34,738 25,188 38,048 28,729
31 27,017 19,061 29,460 21,099 31,654 22,937 36,060 26,121 39,406 29,774
32 27,809 19,762 30,402 21,807 32,652 23,700 37,298 26,957 40,680 30,724
33 28,517 20,366 31,259 22,418 33,566 24,367 38,451 27,697 41,869 31,576
34 29,139 20,874 32,031 22,932 34,395 24,938 39,519 28,339 42,974 32,332
35 29,677 21,285 32,719 23,350 35,139 25,411 40,502 28,886 43,994 32,991
36 30,131 21,600 33,322 23,671 35,799 25,788 41,401 29,335 44,928 33,554
37 30,499 21,818 33,841 23,896 36,374 26,069 42,215 29,688 45,779 34,020
38 30,783 21,939 34,274 24,024 36,864 26,252 42,944 29,945 46,544 34,389
39 30,982 21,963 34,623 24,055 37,269 26,340 43,588 30,104 47,225 34,662
40 31,097 21,891 34,887 23,990 37,590 26,330 44,148 30,167 47,821 34,838
41 31,126 21,723 35,066 23,828 37,826 26,224 44,623 30,134 48,332 34,917
42 31,071 21,457 35,161 23,569 37,977 26,021 45,013 30,004 48,759 34,900
43 30,932 21,095 35,171 23,214 38,043 25,721 45,319 29,777 49,101 34,786
44 30,707 20,637 35,096 22,762 38,025 25,325 45,540 29,453 49,358 34,575

Download for by sex

For the full download file, see Download the data.

About the data

Data source

Office for National Statistics (ONS), Labour Force Survey (LFS)

Time period

2014 to 2021 (combined)

Geographic area

UK

What the data measures

The data shows the levels of income progression for people aged 25 to 44 years in the UK, by sex and socio-economic background.

Data is shown for the following socio-economic backgrounds:

  • higher professional class
  • lower professional class
  • intermediate class
  • higher working class
  • lower working classes

These are based on the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SEC), set by the ONS.

Things you need to know

The data used is weighted using the LFS probability weights.

Estimates are derived from a logistic regression of annual income by socio-economic background and age, controlling for survey year and number of dependent children.

The error bars show 95% confidence intervals. These intervals show where we expect the true value from a population to be 95% of the time. For example, a confidence interval with the range of values from 5 to 10 implies that there is a 95% chance that the true population value is between 5 and 10, and a 5% chance that it is outside of this range. The narrower the confidence interval or range, the more precise the estimate. Read more about confidence intervals

Type of data

Survey data

Full report

Read more in State of the Nation 2023 on GOV.UK.

Download the data

Download full dataset (CSV, 36KB)

This file contains the following variables:

  • Indicator code
  • Indicator name
  • Area code
  • Area name
  • Area type
  • Age
  • Socio-economic background
  • Category type
  • Category
  • Value
  • Lower confidence interval
  • Upper confidence interval
  • Standard error
  • Time period
  • Unit
  • Sex

This is a new website - your feedback will help us to improve it.