Income and earnings statistics

Income is an important topic for most people and our users want timely answers to a broad range of questions on this topic.

In the UK, official statistics on income and earnings are produced by three government departments; Office for National Statistics (ONS), Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

In addition, there are several other official statistics producers including the Northern Ireland, Scottish and Welsh Governments. This means that understanding the statistical landscape and finding the right statistic for the right purpose can be challenging for our users.

Therefore, we have developed a joint vision statement, laying out the future of our income and earnings statistics. By stating what we aim to achieve, we have been able to identify actions needed to improve income and earnings statistics.

Our work plan is focused on making improvements in five main areas:

• coherence of narrative – we will ensure that our publications provide a coherent description of the income and earnings landscape
• coherence of sources – we will ensure that our data sources are coherent, taking an “admin data first” approach
• quality – we will improve the granularity, completeness and timeliness of our statistics
• accessibility – we will ensure that our statistics are accessible to all users from a single point of access
• user engagement – we will be user driven and will actively engage with users of our statistics in an open and transparent manner to get their views

We have already made it easier to access our statistics:

• read our Income and earnings statistics guide
• search for statistics on our Income and earnings statistics interactive database
• access our associated glossary
• read important questions answered

Updates on our work will be provided through this website, blog posts and user engagement events. If you would like to know more about our work, or have suggestions for how we can improve official income and earning statistics, please email us via the GSS.Income.Earnings@ons.gov.uk mailbox.