In London, an annual salary of approximately £289,000 or more is generally considered the threshold for being wealthy, driven by the city's high cost of living, property prices, and lifestyle expectations. While a £100,000+ income places individuals in the top 4% of UK earners, many in London, often called HENRYs (High Earners, Not Rich Yet), do not feel wealthy due to expenses.
People in the UK believe an average annual income of £213,000 constitutes wealth, over six times the national average salary1 - according to HSBC UK's new insight report, 'Your Money's Worth: Defining Wealth in 2025', with the top 4% of earners often setting a much higher bar and underestimating their comparative ...
The top 10% of earners in the UK generally start around £60,000 to £77,000+ annually, depending on the data source and year, with thresholds around £59,200 (2023 HMRC) to £76,900 (2025 average) for full-time earnings, reflecting significant income growth and variation by age, profession (like lawyers, consultants, doctors, financiers), and location (London higher).
According to a February 2025 study from HSBC, people in the UK believe you need an average annual income of £213,000 to be wealthy. The figure is around six times the national average income and represents the top 4% of earners.
Finally, add 1, 500 for basic living. That's groceries, travel, general expenses. Now, if someone on 100 K has a family, then only having nine hundred pounds at the end of the month is simply not enough. So, I would say that you need to earn closer to 150, 000 per year to have a comfortable life in London.
How Much Do You Really Need to Earn to Live in London?
How rare is a 100k salary in the UK?
Yes, a £100k salary in the UK is quite rare, placing you in the top few percent of earners (around the top 4-5%), but it's not considered "wealthy" by many due to high taxes (especially the 60% effective rate above £100k), living costs, and other expenses, making it feel less significant than the number suggests.
To be classified as middle class in London, a household typically needs to earn £76,200 annually. Powell adds that although the median UK salary is a useful benchmark for the middle class, factors like regional cost of living and household size greatly influence financial stability.
In order to be in the top 5% in terms of net worth, your total wealth must be at least £1,988,500 – nearly two million pounds! To save up to two million pounds, when you earn that top 5% income of £87,012, you would need to save 100% of your income for nearly 23 years.
The 7 Levels of Wealth describe a progressive journey from basic financial survival to abundant financial freedom and legacy, typically moving through stages like Survival, Security, Stability, Independence, Freedom, and Abundance, with some models adding Growth or Legacy Creation, focusing on mindset, habits (emergency funds, investing), and net worth milestones to achieve greater financial control and choices.
Wealthy people (defined by HMRC as those earning more than £200,000 a year or with assets of more than £2 million) paid £119 billion in personal taxes to the Exchequer in 2023-24, an average of £140,000 tax paid per wealthy individual – this accounted for 25% of the UK's personal tax receipts.
In London, those in the top wealth decile (i.e. the 10% of people with the highest wealth) hold 44.3% of London's total net wealth. Those in the bottom decile (the bottom 10%) hold none of London's total net wealth.
Your equivalised disposable income of £??? per year puts you in the above of households in the UK. The top 10% of households have an average equivalised disposable income of £70,900 per year while the bottom 10% have an average of £10,600.
Gopi Hinduja and his family are number one for both Britain and London, with a collective value of £35 billion. That's despite losing £5.2 million a day over the past 12 months due to a $14 billion family legal feud..
The upper class is a property-owning class living from earnings made from the ownership, control, and exploitation of property such as land, capital, large businesses, or share holdings, and whose members enjoy superior, traditionally grounded status privileges.
Given the above breakdown, a good joint salary in the UK for a couple with one child could be anything from around £55,000–£65,000, allowing them to have a good standard of living with some room for luxuries such as a yearly holiday.
