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Resolution Foundation @resfoundation.bsky.social · 19m

Wealth gaps between age groups have widened sharply in recent years.

The difference between those in their early 30s and early 60s has more than doubled in real terms since 2006-08, from £135,000 to £310,000.

Find out more about these trends in our latest report on wealth⬇️

buff.ly/Ya8kInK

Chart showing median real family net wealth per adult, by five-year age group: GB
Most age groups saw their wealth rise in the latest period, but gains were far from equal. Those aged 50-54 recorded the largest increase – typical per adult family wealth rose by £35,000 between 2018-20 and 2020-22 – but people in their late 30s saw only a £9,000 rise. These larger gains for older groups have widened existing wealth gaps: the difference between those in their early 30s and early 60s has more than doubled in real terms since 2006-08, from £135,000 to £310,000.

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Resolution Foundation @resfoundation.bsky.social · 19m

Wealth gaps between age groups have widened sharply in recent years.

The difference between those in their early 30s and early 60s has more than doubled in real terms since 2006-08, from £135,000 to £310,000.

Find out more about these trends in our latest report on wealth⬇️

buff.ly/Ya8kInK

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Resolution Foundation @resfoundation.bsky.social · 34m

Wealth gaps between age groups have widened sharply in recent years.

The difference between those in their early 30s and early 60s has more than doubled in real terms since 2006-08, from £135,000 to £310,000.

Find out more about these trends in our latest report on wealth⬇️

buff.ly/Ya8kInK

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Resolution Foundation @resfoundation.bsky.social · 45m

Great to see our latest research on household wealth featured in today's @theguardian.com.

You can read the full report here ⬇️ www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications...

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Resolution Foundation @resfoundation.bsky.social · 1h

Passive wealth accumulation – where wealth increases due to rising asset prices – has been responsible for more than half the increase in average family wealth between 2010-12 and 2020-22

Read more about what's been happening with household wealth in Britain in our latest report ⬇️

buff.ly/Ya8kInK

Chart showing estimated mean change in family wealth per adult over preceding two years, by type of wealth accumulation: GB

Since the start of the 2010s (2010-12), passive gains have accounted for 53 per cent of the growth in average family wealth, with the remaining 47 per cent coming from active accumulation.

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Resolution Foundation @resfoundation.bsky.social · 2h

It would now take 52 years’ worth of typical earnings – £1.3 million in total – to move from the middle to the top of the wealth distribution.

Read our latest wealth report ⬇️ buff.ly/Ya8kInK

Chart showing ratio of the absolute wealth gap between fifth and top wealth deciles (measured by average family wealth per adult) to median full-time earnings: UK/GB

In 2006-08, the gap in average wealth per adult between the top and middle deciles was equivalent to around 38 times typical fulltime earnings. By 2020-22, this had risen to 52 times

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Resolution Foundation @resfoundation.bsky.social · 4h

And make sure you read our 2025 wealth audit that set the context for the event - Before the fall: The distribution of household wealth in Britain and the impact on families, by @mollybroome.bsky.social & Ricky Kanabar from @uniofbath.bsky.social

www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications...

Before the fall • Resolution Foundation

This report is the fourth in our series of ‘audits’ of households’ wealth, offering the most comprehensive assessment of wealth inequality in Britain. It comes against a backdrop of an unprecedented m...

www.resolutionfoundation.org

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Resolution Foundation @resfoundation.bsky.social · 4h

And that's a wrap!

You can watch back our event - Snakes and ladders: The shifting sands of wealth in Britain - with @pollytoynbee.bsky.social Professor Mike Savage @mollybroome.bsky.social & Lord Willetts here

www.resolutionfoundation.org/events/snake...

Snakes and ladders • Resolution Foundation

The story of wealth across Britain has, until recently, been a straightforward one – decades of rising prices, benefiting those lucky enough to own assets. But that story has been upended in the past ...

www.resolutionfoundation.org

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Resolution Foundation @resfoundation.bsky.social · 4h

Interesting conference-related questions for our panel:

Is higher education still a strong driver of upward social and wealth mobility (as previous studies have shown)? If so, why are politicians so keen to knock universities?

Are widening wealth gaps a factor behind the rise of rise of Reform?

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Resolution Foundation @resfoundation.bsky.social · 4h

Britain's deposit barrier - it would take 12 years for a typical young family to save enough for a deposit on a first-time property, says @mollybroome.bsky.social .

This is why the Bank of Mum and Dad has become so important - but we need other routes into home ownership.

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Resolution Foundation @resfoundation.bsky.social · 4h

Speaking at our event Professor Mike Savage says that Britain (and other rich countries) have undergone a quiet revolution in recent decades with the rise of private wealth.

This rise is often unnoticed and unobtrusive but it has massively reshaped society, and affects people's life chances.

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Resolution Foundation @resfoundation.bsky.social · 4h

Speaking at our event, @pollytoynbee.bsky.social says that Britain has a terrible record either at designing/raising revenue from wealth taxes or, more recently, expanding home ownership.

Every time the Government tries to boost home ownership they just succeed in raising house prices.

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Resolution Foundation @resfoundation.bsky.social · 4h

Concluding, Molly's sets out the implications for policy makers:

- Consider how to expand asset ownership and strengthen opportunities for accumulation.
- Be honest that higher wealth taxes are likely to fall on pensioners and Southern homeowners or their families, not just the super-rich.

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Resolution Foundation @resfoundation.bsky.social · 4h

Key takeaways:

1. Britain’s wealth boom has widened wealth gaps.
2. Passive wealth gains have disproportionately benefited the already-wealthy.
3. Intergenerational wealth inequality and inequality within regions have increased.
4. Wealth mobility in Britain is severely limited.

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Resolution Foundation @resfoundation.bsky.social · 4h

What life events can help you move up Britain's wealth ladder?

Securing employment was found to be the biggest single driver of upward wealth mobility among lower-income families.

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Resolution Foundation @resfoundation.bsky.social · 4h

Furthermore, upward wealth mobility is even more limited for lower income families.

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Resolution Foundation @resfoundation.bsky.social · 4h

Why should we care about widening wealth gaps? Because wealth mobility in Britain is limited.

After controlling for the wealth accumulation effects of ageing, three-in-four people from lower-income families don’t move more than one decile up or down the wealth distribution over a four-year period.

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Resolution Foundation @resfoundation.bsky.social · 4h

Wealth gaps are large between and within region.

They are most stark in London, where high (and rising) house prices and low home ownership rates mean that families at the top held 12 times more wealth per adult than those at the middle (compared to a gap of 5.2 across Britain as a whole).

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Resolution Foundation @resfoundation.bsky.social · 4h

Wealth gaps have risen across Britain, and have shot up between age cohorts.

The wealth gap between people in their early 30s and people in their early 60s has more than doubled between 2006-08 and 2020-22 – from £135,000 to £310,000 (in real cash terms).

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Resolution Foundation @resfoundation.bsky.social · 4h

What has driven these rising wealth gaps? Passive gains - such as rising house prices - rather than any active behaviour on the part of households, such as saving or acquriring assets.

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Resolution Foundation @resfoundation.bsky.social · 5h

In fact. it would now take 52 years’ worth of typical earnings – £1.3 million in total – to move from the middle to the top of the wealth distribution.

A full-time employee saving all their earnings across their entire working life would still not be able to reach the top of the wealth ladder.

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Resolution Foundation @resfoundation.bsky.social · 5h

Instead, real cash wealth gaps have grown - from £1 million in 2006-08, to £1.3 million by 2020-22.

The size of these wealth gaps really matter because it makes it harder for people to earn their way into becoming wealthy.

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Resolution Foundation @resfoundation.bsky.social · 5h

Has Britain's long and steady rise in household wealth led to rising wealth inequality as soom have claimed?

No, wealth inequality is high - far higher than income inequality - but has remained reamarkably stbale over the past four decades.

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Resolution Foundation @resfoundation.bsky.social · 5h

...because more recent national accounts data suggests that household wealth has fallen in the wake of rapid interest rate rises. It will take some time for us to get detailed data on this time period.

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Resolution Foundation @resfoundation.bsky.social · 5h

Kicking off our event, Senior Economist @mollybroome.bsky.social says that household wealth peaked on the eve of the crisis, and our new research examines the shape and distribution of that wealth.

Why 'before the fall'?...

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