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Population, 2021: 67,030,000
Gross National Income, Atlas method (Current USD) (Billions), 2021: $3,001.90
GNI per capita, Atlas method (Current USD), 2021: $44,790
Income Share Held by Lowest 20%, 2021: 7.6%
Gross Domestic Product (Current USD) (Billions), 2021: $3,122.48

Source: World Bank. World Development Indicators database. Country: United Kingdom. Last accessed July 31, 2023.

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Population, 2021: 67,281,000
Gross Domestic Product Per Capita (Current USD) (2010-2019): $
Share of Household Income (2010-2019):
    Bottom %: NA; Top 20%: %; Bottom 20%: %
Gini Coefficient (2010-2019):
Palma Index of Income Inequality (2010-2019):

Note: Gini coefficient – Gini index measures the extent to which the distribution of income (or, in some cases, consumption expenditure) among individuals or households within an economy deviates from a perfectly equal distribution. A Gini index of 0 represents perfect equality, while an index of 100 implies perfect inequality.
Palma index of income inequality – Palma index is defined as the ratio of the richest 10% of the population’s share of gross national income divided by the poorest 40%’s share.

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“As of 2020, the United Kingdom has the fifth biggest economy in the world, behind the United States, China, Japan and Germany (Aldrick, 2020). GDP in current prices increased from $1341.6 billion in 1995 to $2.7 trillion in 2020, or equivalently, $40 284.6 per person (in current US$) (Table 1.2). GDP in current prices decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic, falling 9.7% in 2020, the largest reduction of all G7 countries (ONS, 2021c). This means that GDP in current prices was in fact greater in 2015, at $2.9 trillion. GDP has begun to recover since the lifting of social distancing measures; however, as of the first quarter of 2021, GDP remains below pre-pandemic levels and is not expected to return to these levels until at least 2022 (OBR, 2021). Government borrowing also reached £355 billion in 2020, levels not seen since the Second World War (OBR, 2021). Government borrowing as a percentage of GDP in 2021 was 13.1% above the EU-27 average, but 32% below the average of G7 countries (ONS, 2021h). This strain on public finances, combined with an imperative to increase public spending on the health service to address backlogs of elective care created by the COVID- 19 pandemic, has resulted in the incumbent government announcing tax increases for both employee and employer national insurance contributions and dividends from stocks and shares (BBC, 2021).”

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“Income inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient has remained steady since at least the mid-1990s, at a value in the mid-30s (Table 1.2). This level of income inequality is one of the highest of all EU-27 and G7 countries, only marginally lower than the United States, which had a Gini coefficient of 39 in 2017 (OECD, 2021a). Data availability on the at risk of poverty rate in the United Kingdom is poor, although from what data are available, it appears to be relatively stable, at around one quarter of the population (Table 1.2). In 2019, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights published a report on poverty in the United Kingdom, which found that 14 million people, one fifth of the population, live in poverty, largely driven by policies of austerity introduced by the government in 2010 in an attempt to curb public spending and reduce government borrowing (United Nations, 2019).”

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World Health Systems Facts is a project of the Real Reporting Foundation. We provide reliable statistics and other data from authoritative sources regarding health systems in the US and sixteen other nations.

Page last updated July 31, 2023 by Doug McVay, Editor.