British savings report 2025: what Brits really have stored away
Mark Tovey is a finance journalist with bylines in The Guardian, The Motley Fool, and more. He digs into data and FOI-based investigations, and makes finance easier to understand.
Last updated 30th September 2025
17 min read
How do your savings and financial investments compare to the average person in Great Britain?
We've pulled together this report using the most recent data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), simplifying a load of data to break down how people across the UK are saving.
You'll find breakdowns based on age, gender, region and product type, from pensions and ISAs to premium bonds.
Some of what we found is encouraging. Some of it is grim. But all of it is useful if you want to see how you're getting on compared to your rivals.
Let's take a look.
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Where is Britain's money really saved?
Spoiler: it's not in stocks, crypto, or gold bars under the floorboards.
Here's the not-so-sexy truth: the largest segment of Brits' savings is in private pensions, representing 35% of total household wealth.
Not because they're glamorous (they're not) but because they're automatic.
If you're employed, your pension grows quietly in the background, topped up by your employer and the taxman, while you worry about rent and whether you've left the hob on.
While households in Britain have £5.4 trillion locked into bricks and land, or 40% of their total wealth, today's report looks at financial assets only: savings, ISAs, pensions, shares and so on.
Financial wealth: from nothing to nest eggs
Before we zoom in on savings accounts and specific tax-advantaged accounts, let's define exactly what we're talking about here: net financial wealth.
Net financial wealth is what's left once you add up the money in bank accounts, ISAs, stocks and bonds, etc., then subtract what you owe on credit cards, overdrafts and personal loans. It doesn't count the value of your home or the size of your mortgage.
The table below shows where Britain stands. This is household-level data, so summing up across you, your partner, your children, and the mice that live in the loft.
| Percentile | Net financial wealth | What this means |
|---|---|---|
| 25th percentile | £300 or less | A quarter of all UK households don't have much leftover once debts are subtracted. |
| Median (50th percentile) | £10,400 | The typical household has about ten thousand pounds in savings and investments after debts. |
| 75th percentile | £58,000+ | To be in the top financial quartile you need tens of thousands tucked away, net of debt. |
While things look OK when you put the country into three tidy boxes (bottom quartile, median, top quartile), the situation changes if we get a bit more granular with the data:
- One in ten households are more than £5,000 in the red.
- Another 15% have less than £500 to their name.
That's roughly a quarter of households who couldn't cover the cost of a new fridge without borrowing.
Meanwhile, at the other end, about 17% of households have £100,000 or more in net financial wealth.
Show me the money
Below, we've broken down the most common savings and investment products by median value and how widely they're used.
And before your eyes glaze over because this is like a trip back to school – yes, we're talking about median:
If we lined everyone up by how much they've saved, the median is what the person in the dead centre has. 50% have more, 50% have less. That way, the numbers aren't skewed by the Richard Bransons of this world.
Private pensions
Private pensions sit at the top of the pile, not because we're all diligently maxing them out, but because they're one of the few places money actually gets left alone long enough to grow.
You pay in, your employer often chips in, and the government gives you tax relief as a little "please don't rely on us later" bonus.
The money stays locked up until you're at least 55 (rising to 57 by 2028), which means it has decades to quietly compound in the background. Most pension pots are invested in a mix of shares, bonds, and other assets: the kind of stuff designed to beat inflation and do more than just sit there.
The twist, though, is that the £57,500 figure is only for the people who have private pensions, which is about 70% of the population (of those aged 16+).
If you zoom out and include everyone, even those with nothing saved, the median pension wealth drops to just under £20k.
| Median value (for those who have one) | £57,500 |
| Median value (across everyone) | £19,700 |
It's still the biggest pot most people have, but it puts the £57k headline in perspective.
It's not glamorous. You don't get an app notification every time it earns 12p. But over time, it adds up. For many people, it's the single biggest source of financial security they'll ever have.
So... where else is the money?
Once you look beyond pensions, things start to get a bit weird in the data.
You'd think the typical British household has a few grand in a savings account, maybe an ISA, and that's about it.
And in many cases, that's true: the stats show us Brits have £2,500 in a current account, £7,000 in a savings account, and £10,000 in a cash ISA on average.
Solid, boring, safe.
But then things get... suspiciously high.
Stocks & shares ISAs? Median pot: £34,000.
Fixed-term bonds? £30,500.
Unit/investment trusts? £42,000. Do you know anyone with one of these?
Here's the full table – we'll explain what's happening here below.
| Asset Type | Median Value | % of Households |
|---|---|---|
| Current accounts (in credit) | £2,500 | 96% |
| Savings accounts | £7,000 | 61% |
| ISAs (all types) | £14,000 | 43% |
| Cash ISAs | £10,000 | 33% |
| National Savings certificates and bonds | £1,400 | 25% |
| Stocks and Shares ISAs | £34,000 | 13% |
| UK shares | £4,000 | 11% |
| Current accounts (in overdraft) | £400 | 9% |
| Fixed term bonds | £30,500 | 5% |
| Employee shares and share options | £5,000 | 5% |
| Insurance products | £50,000 | 4% |
| Unit/Investment trusts (UITs) | £42,000 | 4% |
| Overseas shares | £10,000 | 2% |
| Other formal financial assets | £50,000 | 1% |
| Lifetime ISAs | £6,000 | 1% |
| UK bonds/gilts | £15,000 | 0% |
These aren't typos... but they are misleading.
These are the median values among the people who hold them.
Fewer than 5% of people have money in fixed-term bonds, and UK bonds or gilts? We're talking rounding errors. Less than 1%.
Take Unit/Investment Trusts (UITs). For most people, UIT just sounds suspiciously like something that gives you a burning sensation when you go to the toilet. Yet among the 4% of people who actually hold them, the median pot is a chunky £42,000.
Reporting the median amount as the "average" is a bit like asking "how many yachts does the average yacht club member own?" while ignoring the fact many of us make do with cheap caravan holidays.
Premium Bonds: the nation's quiet obsession
One line in the table deserves its own moment in the spotlight: National Savings certificates and bonds. These are mostly Premium Bonds and are held by a quarter of UK households, making them one of the most widely held financial products after current accounts, savings accounts and ISAs.
Launched in 1956, they don't pay interest; instead your money goes into a monthly prize draw, with tax-free winnings from £25 to £1 million. You can cash out at any time. The median Premium Bond holder has £1,400 stashed away.
All told, there's £122 billion stored in these things across 24 million people. That's not half bad for a product run by a machine named ERNIE.
But are they a good place to store your cash? Check out this video to get the lowdown on the nation's quirkiest (and arguably ill-advised) savings habit:
And what about ISAs?
For all the tax perks on offer and despite Martin Lewis's best efforts, ISAs still haven't gone fully mainstream. Fewer than half of UK households (43%) hold one at all.
Cash ISAs are the most popular, turning up in a third of households. But while they're safe and simple, their returns have been painfully sluggish over time, averaging just 1.21% a year over the past decade.
Meanwhile, only 13% of households hold a stocks & shares ISA, despite the fact they've delivered average annual returns of 9.64% over the same period.
Past performance isn't a promise of future returns: just because stock market investors beat cautious Doris stuffing cash into savings last go around, it doesn't mean she won't have the last laugh.
Perhaps surprisingly, take-up of the lifetime ISA is still tiny, with only 1% of the UK holding one, representing only 6% of the eligible population.
This lack of enthusiasm can likely be attributed to a lack of knowledge, and partly to the product's harsh restrictions. Either way, LISAs appear to remain a fringe part of the ISA landscape, and more a useful savings vehicle for first-time buyers than a mainstream tool for building long-term, tax-free wealth alongside a pension.
"We're English, thanks"
Turns out we like our money invested locally. Over 1 in 10 households own UK shares, but just 1 in 50 stray abroad.
Foreign stocks? Bit... foreign, aren't they?
A nation divided: regional financial wealth gaps
Look at a map of Britain and you'll find names straight out of a sketch show: Scratchy Bottom, Wetwang, Great Snoring, Pratt's Bottom, Ugley, Crapstone.
A wealth map is less of a laugh, unless you're in the South East, where you're entitled to a smug little "haw-haw".
| Region | 2010–12 | 2020–22 | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| South East | £12,700 | £22,000 | 73.2% |
| South West | £9,100 | £14,100 | 54.9% |
| East of England | £8,100 | £14,000 | 72.8% |
| Scotland | £3,400 | £12,000 | 252.9% |
| London | £5,900 | £10,600 | 79.7% |
| England (all regions) | £6,200 | £10,500 | 69.4% |
| West Midlands | £4,200 | £9,700 | 131.0% |
| East Midlands | £6,000 | £7,900 | 31.7% |
| Wales | £4,600 | £7,200 | 56.5% |
| Yorkshire & the Humber | £5,200 | £6,700 | 28.8% |
| North West | £3,500 | £6,000 | 71.4% |
| North East | £2,500 | £5,200 | 108.0% |
| Great Britain (all) | £5,900 | £10,400 | 76.3% |
Households in the South East sit on the fattest nest eggs. Household net financial wealth there hit £22,000 in 2022. That's double the national median of £10,400 and more than four times what a typical house in the North East has – £5,200.
And London? It's less "four houses on Mayfair" and more "the dog ate the iron and top hat and now you have a five-figure vet bill".
Median household net financial wealth in the capital is just £10,600, less than half the South East's figure.
That's probably because it's a city of extremes, with booming incomes for some and zero saving power for the millions paying eye-watering rents to live in mildew-decorated shoeboxes.
On a regional level, most areas have grown their net financial wealth in real terms over the last decade, while some have struggled to keep up with the cumulative 26.7% inflation over the period.
How wealth changes with age
So now we know where the money is (or isn't) region by region. But what about who has it?
Unsurprisingly, the values swing wildly depending on how many birthdays you've had.
Start with the under-16s. Nearly 1 in 2 are in households worth over £5,000, and more than 1 in 3 are above £12,500. This isn't because they've cornered the market on ultra-rare Labubus with angry eyebrows, but because they still live with their parents, who probably are paying into a pension and aren't spending their income on Deliveroo and LED lights for their gaming setup.
Now cut to the age when you move out and reality slaps you in the face. Among 25–34s, more than 1 in 5 are in households over £5,000 in the red while 35% have negative net wealth.
| Age Group | Less than -£5,000 | -£5,000 to -£500 | -£500 to £0 | £0 to £500 | £500 to £5,000 | £5,000 to £12,500 | £12,500 to £25,000 | £25,000 to £50,000 | £50,000 to £100,000 | £100,000+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 16 | 18% | 10% | 2% | 5% | 18% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 6% | 11% |
| 16-24 | 17% | 7% | 2% | 5% | 16% | 11% | 10% | 10% | 8% | 14% |
| 25-34 | 22% | 10% | 3% | 5% | 15% | 12% | 9% | 9% | 6% | 9% |
| 35-44 | 16% | 9% | 2% | 4% | 14% | 12% | 11% | 12% | 8% | 12% |
| 45-54 | 13% | 8% | 2% | 6% | 14% | 11% | 10% | 11% | 11% | 16% |
| 55-64 | 8% | 6% | 1% | 6% | 11% | 9% | 9% | 12% | 13% | 24% |
| 65+ | 2% | 4% | 1% | 4% | 12% | 12% | 11% | 13% | 15% | 28% |
| All persons | 13% | 8% | 2% | 5% | 14% | 11% | 10% | 11% | 9% | 17% |
The turning point comes slowly.
By 45, more people are in households that are into the "modestly solvent" zone. There's still 23% with negative net wealth, although 43% now sit between £5,000 and £100,000, and 16% are in the £25,000–£100,000 range.
By 65, just seven percent are still in the red, while 28% have £100,000 or more in net wealth.
The path to financial security might feel less like an escalator and more like climbing a wall coated in chip fat. But the stats show debts peak early and wealth builds late. For most, at least.
Age and the pension problem
While the late-game savings picture looks rosier than the reckless twenties, there's one pot that still isn't filling fast enough: pensions.
For many Brits, that pot is less a golden cauldron and more a sad, upturned cat bowl.
For people in their late fifties and early sixties, the median pension pot not yet in payment is worth £96,500 for those who actually have one. Spread over a 20-year retirement, that's about £400 a month before tax (not including continuing growth of the pot).
Add on State Pension and it can cover the basics (housing costs aside) but with little buffer for extras.
Some suggest you should have around six times your salary saved by 60 if you want to maintain your standard of living in retirement. With the UK median income sitting at roughly £33,000, that target comes to £198,000.
That's double what official stats show the median person coming up to retirement actually has – and this figure will keep increasing each year with inflation.
| Age group | Median wealth in pensions not yet in payment |
|---|---|
| 16-24 | £5,500 |
| 25-34 | £18,800 |
| 35-44 | £39,500 |
| 45-54 | £76,600 |
| 55-64 | £96,500 |
The great divider is between those with defined benefit (DB) pensions (the so-called "gold-plated" kind) and those on defined contribution (DC) plans.
A typical 55-64 year old with a DB scheme has about £113,000 in accrued value, versus just £45,000 for someone in a DC plan.
Public sector workers with DB pensions often retire as "paper millionaires", their guaranteed income valued in the six or seven figures. Meanwhile, millennials and Gen Z auto-enrolled into DC schemes keep on drip-feeding contributions into the market, praying the markets don't tank.
The gender gap
Men are more likely to end up in A&E with a Philips screwdriver embedded in their eyebrow. Men are also more likely to have serious financial cushions. Okay, we made the first one up, but it's probably true.
The latest data shows 18% of men have household net financial wealth of £100,000 or more. For women, it's 16%. That's a gap of two percentage points, meaning men are about 12% more likely to sit in the six-figure club.
| Gender | Less than -£5,000 | -£5,000 to -£500 | -£500 to £0 | £0 to £500 | £500 to £5,000 | £5,000 to £12,500 | £12,500 to £25,000 | £25,000 to £50,000 | £50,000 to £100,000 | £100,000+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Men | 14% | 8% | 2% | 5% | 14% | 11% | 10% | 11% | 10% | 18% |
| Women | 13% | 8% | 2% | 5% | 15% | 12% | 10% | 11% | 9% | 16% |
What explains the gap? Wages, mostly. Across a lifetime, men earn more, and uninterrupted careers mean more consistent pension contributions and investment growth. Women are also more likely to take career breaks or work part-time, which slows wealth-building.
At the bottom end, the pain's also (slightly) more male-dominated: about a quarter of men and women have negative wealth, with 14% of men and 13% of women more than £5,000 in net financial debt.
Debt: the invisible wealth killer
If net financial wealth looks skinny, it's not just because saving is hard: it's because debt eats away at it.
Personal loans, hire purchase agreements, overdrafts and credit cards steadily whittle down the totals. They're the cuckoo in the nest that edges out the chicks, flinging aside everything you spent so long nurturing, then squatting there demanding worms on tap.
How widespread is it?
More than half of households (55%) are carrying some kind of non-mortgage debt, according to the ONS. So if you've got a credit card balance or a lingering student loan, you're in the majority.
How big are the debts?
For the median indebted household, it's about £3,600. A quarter of borrowers owe less than £800 while the top quarter owe £11,600 or more.
The structure of Britain's debt
Before we get into the weeds, a note: everything here is about non-mortgage debt. We're leaving mortgages to one side, partly because paying down a home loan is usually seen as building an asset (more investment than dead weight, with its value hopefully more than netted out by the bricks-and-land underpinning it).
Around a third of households are carrying credit card balances, and most of those carry a balance from month to month (the most expensive way to borrow).
Overdraft use has fallen sharply, from 18 percent of households in 2008–10 to just 9 percent today, with the typical amount in the red falling from £500 to £400 over the period.
Student loans loom largest of all, with median balances over £21,000. For many younger families, this is the single biggest debt on the books. The repayment system, being income-based, is less punishing than commercial credit, but it still flattens household wealth totals.
| Type of debt | % of households | Median balance | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Credit cards | 32% | £1,100 | Balances on credit, store and charge cards. Includes households who pay in full and those carrying debt. |
| Overdrafts | 9% | £400 | Authorised overdrafts in current accounts, in active use. |
| Personal loans | 15% | £5,600 | Formal borrowing from banks, building societies or finance companies, excluding mortgages and student loans. |
| Hire purchase | 17% | £4,100 | Instalment credit agreements, typically for cars, furniture or household appliances. |
| Student loans | 7% | £21,000 | Loans from the Student Loans Company for higher education tuition and maintenance. |
| Mail order credit | 10% | £300 | Catalogue shopping accounts allowing goods to be bought on credit. |
Seventeen percent of households have hire purchase debt, with a median balance of £4,100.
Even mail order credit has staged a comeback, with 10 percent of households using it in the most recent stats from 2020–22, double the proportion in the 2018–20 period (almost certainly pandemic driven).
For anyone under the age of 40, that's catalogue shopping on credit: you pick something out of a catalogue (once a big glossy book through the letterbox, now mostly online) and you pay it back in dribs and drabs.
The table above covers the formal stuff. But what about money owed informally, the kind extracted from friends and family with Puss-in-Boots eyes and a solemn pinky promise to pay it back?
Only about 1 percent of households reported having this kind of debt in 2020–22, the same proportion as a decade earlier.
What has changed is the size of those IOUs. The median informal loan has ballooned from £1,800 in 2010–12 to £7,800 in the most recent data.
So while the number of people tapping the Bank of Mum and Dad (or Gran and Grandad, or that one mate who doesn't know how to say no) hasn't budged, the cheques have definitely gotten bigger.
Falling behind
By 2020–22, about 5 percent of households with fixed-term non-mortgage loans had already stumbled ending up in arrears (defined as two or more missed payments). Of those 144,000 households, the typical amount owed was £400, with the most indebted quartile owing three times that.
Stats at a glance
- Nearly a quarter of households have less than £500 in net financial wealth.
- About 11 percent owe £5,000 or more than they have in savings.
- Roughly one in five have negative net financial wealth.
- Around 17 percent hold £100,000 or more.
- Private pensions make up about 35 percent of total household wealth.
- Typical balances are about £2,500 in current accounts and £7,000 in savings.
- Only 43 percent of households have any form of ISA.
- Just 13 percent hold a stocks and shares ISA.
- 1 in 10 households hold UK shares, just 1 in 50 strays abroad.
- Over half of households carry non-mortgage debt with a median balance around £3,600.
- Median net financial wealth is about £22,000 in the South East compared with about £5,200 in the North East.
- London's median net financial wealth is just £10,600.
- Debts peak for those aged in their mid 20s to mid 30s while wealth builds and peaks near retirement.
Financial Interest provides guidance, not advice. If you’re unsure about anything, speak with a qualified adviser. When investing, your capital is always at risk. Past performance does not guarantee future results.
