Absolute income mobility
UK and international data on upward absolute income mobility – people whose income at 30 years old was higher than their parents’ income at the same age.
Summary main findings
Data on people born between 1960 and 1987 in the UK shows that absolute income mobility was above 70% for people born in the mid-1970s. It went down to below 70% for people born later.
By year of birth
Visualisation for by year of birth
Percentage of children whose family income at 30 years old was higher than their parents’ family income at 30 years old, by country and year of birth (‘birth cohort’)
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Data for by year of birth
| Year | Canada (%) | Denmark (%) | Finland (%) | Netherlands (%) | Norway (%) | Sweden (%) | UK (%) | US (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | No data | No data | No data | No data | No data | No data | 67 | No data |
| 1986 | No data | No data | No data | No data | No data | No data | 68 | 58.7 |
| 1985 | 55.8 | No data | 67.2 | No data | No data | No data | 66 | 56.0 |
| 1984 | 55.5 | No data | 67.8 | 68.6 | No data | No data | 70 | 54.4 |
| 1983 | 55.5 | No data | 68.3 | 70.7 | 75.3 | No data | 71 | 55.5 |
| 1982 | 55.5 | 45.9 | 69.4 | 72.9 | 74.7 | No data | 74 | 55.8 |
| 1981 | 56.2 | 48.3 | 69.8 | 73.2 | 74.2 | No data | 73 | 55.3 |
| 1980 | 57.0 | 51.5 | 70.2 | 77.8 | 73.6 | 70.4 | 74 | 58.4 |
| 1979 | 57.3 | 54.1 | 70.6 | 77.7 | 74.7 | 70.6 | 73 | 63.7 |
| 1978 | 58.0 | 56.6 | 70.3 | 78.4 | 75.2 | 71.8 | 75 | 63.0 |
| 1977 | 57.5 | 58.3 | 70.4 | 78.5 | 74.5 | 71.3 | 75 | 61.8 |
| 1976 | No data | 58.9 | 70.1 | 78.8 | 72.0 | 69.5 | 75 | 61.5 |
| 1975 | No data | 59.7 | 70.8 | 78.2 | 71.7 | 69.3 | 77 | 61.8 |
| 1974 | No data | 60.9 | 70.7 | 79.2 | 71.0 | 68.8 | 75 | 61.9 |
| 1973 | No data | 62.0 | 69.3 | 78.1 | 72.1 | 69.0 | 74 | 62.8 |
| 1972 | No data | 63.3 | 69.0 | No data | 69.9 | 69.2 | 73 | 62.3 |
| 1971 | No data | 64.0 | 68.6 | No data | 71.3 | 69.9 | 74 | 62.8 |
| 1970 | No data | 64.7 | 68.2 | No data | 74.1 | 68.3 | 73 | 65.7 |
| 1969 | No data | 64.9 | 68.6 | No data | 74.3 | 65.1 | 69 | 65.4 |
| 1968 | No data | 65.5 | 68.2 | No data | 75.4 | 63.8 | 70 | 64.9 |
| 1967 | No data | 64.5 | 67.9 | No data | 73.9 | 61.7 | 68 | 63.9 |
| 1966 | No data | No data | 68.5 | No data | 73.6 | 60.5 | 67 | 64.1 |
| 1965 | No data | No data | 68.1 | No data | 73.0 | 59.4 | 70 | 64.0 |
| 1964 | No data | No data | No data | No data | 72.9 | 57.9 | 70 | 63.9 |
| 1963 | No data | No data | No data | No data | No data | 58.5 | No data | 65.7 |
| 1962 | No data | No data | No data | No data | No data | 62.6 | No data | 66.4 |
| 1961 | No data | No data | No data | No data | No data | 66.5 | No data | 68.8 |
| 1960 | No data | No data | No data | No data | No data | 67.4 | No data | 74.0 |
Download for by year of birth
For the full download file, see Download the data.
About the data
Data source
Manduca and others (2020). Trends in absolute income mobility in North America and Europe.
Time period
1960 to 1987 (people’s year of birth)
Geographic area
UK and internationally
What the data measures
The data shows estimates of upward absolute income mobility for people born between 1960 and 1987.
The upward absolute mobility rate is the percentage of children in each year (‘birth cohort’) whose family income at 30 years old was higher than their parents’ family income at 30 years old.
Things you need to know
Income is calculated before tax but after benefits, and adjusted for inflation. Incomes for each country are based on both register and survey data.
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, 23KB)
This file contains the following variables:
- Indicator code
- Indicator name
- Area type
- Area name
- Time period
- Sex
- Value
- Unit
- Value note