Relative income poverty

We define a person to be living in relative income poverty if he or she is living in a household where the total household income from all sources is less than 60 per cent of the average UK household income (as given by the median).

This means that relative income poverty is a measure of income inequality, not a direct measure of living standards.

For more information on what relative income poverty means, please see our 'What is relative income poverty?' presentation.

The data we have for relative income poverty comes from the Households Below Average Income (HBAI) report published by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).

The headline figure for Wales from this report is the percentage of all individuals in Wales who were living in relative income poverty – this is a national indicator which means it is used to measure progress being made in Wales towards the achievement of the 7 well-being goals.

This indicator is associated with a national milestone: Reduce the poverty gap between people in Wales with certain key and protected characteristics (which mean they are most likely to be in poverty) and those without those characteristics by 2035. Commit to setting a stretching target for 2050.

This data uses equivalised disposable household income.

This data is available from the financial year 1994-95, for UK countries and regions of England by different age groups (all individuals, children, working-age adults and pensioners).

We also carry out extra analysis (StatsWales) to consider economic, family, ethnicity and disability characteristics.

Transformation of Family Resources Survey statistics

DWP is making improvements to the FRS statistics over the next few years, which mean that some data will be revised and will not be comparable with previous years. 

The improvements include linking benefits data and administrative earnings data to survey records to reduce underreporting of income and updating the way the statistics are scaled to population totals (known as grossing, or weighting).

Changes will be introduced gradually, as each new improvement is rolled out. For the 2026 data release, administrative data has replaced survey data in measuring income for the majority of DWP and His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) benefits. This will reduce the under-reporting of benefits that is currently seen in the FRS (and therefore HBAI) and improve data quality in both datasets. 

DWP will make this change in two stages over the coming months, and users should be careful interpreting trends over time whilst these staged revisions are introduced: 

• on 26 March 2026, at the same time as the new FYE 2025 data was published, they published updated statistics for FYE 2022 to 2024
• in summer 2026 they will publish updated statistics for FYE 2019 to 2021

This will mean by summer 2026, an administrative linked HBAI time series will be available from FYE 2019 to FYE 2025 inclusive.

This improvement means key low-income measures, including the number/proportion of people identified as being in relative income poverty for all groups and in all years from FYE 2022 (in March 2026) and from FYE 2019 (in summer 2026), will change. This improvement also means there will be a structural break in the HBAI series at these points, and we advise users not to make a direct comparison of changes in income across the break. If comparisons across the break point are required users should follow the advice set out in the HBAI Background, Information and Methodology report (DWP).

Further details on these and future changes can be found in the FRS: release strategy (DWP) and the HBAI: release strategy (DWP). We have also published a Chief Statistician’s blog summarising the upcoming changes to poverty statistics.

Official statistics status

These official statistics have in previous years been accredited as National Statistics, in accordance with the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007, signifying compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics.

National Statistics are accredited official statistics that meet the highest standards of trustworthiness, quality and public value.

The changes being introduced to the poverty statistics described above will lead to better data in the long run. However, because these changes are still ongoing, the figures are less certain than usual and will be revised in future as methods continue to improve. This impact could be greater when the data are broken down below UK level.

To be open and clear with users, the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) have agreed that our poverty statistics for Wales being published in 2026 can be temporarily reclassified from Accredited Official Statistics to Official Statistics in Development. This signals that the data can still be used, but that figures are subject to revision as the changes continue to be embedded. 

We are committed to helping users understand the developments and interpret changes appropriately. It is still appropriate to use these statistics, however users should take care interpreting trends before and after the change and be prepared for future revisions.

The same approach to reclassification is being taken in Scotland and Northern Ireland. UK-level FRS and HBAI outputs produced by DWP will continue to be published as Accredited Official Statistics. As noted in their regulatory work programme, the OSR are planning to undertake a compliance review of DWP’s statistics based on the transformed FRS.

Impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic

Due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic analysis of the HBAI data below UK level is not recommended using the FYE 2021 data as the combination of smaller sample sizes and additional bias means it is not possible to make meaningful statistical assessments of trends and changes in FYE 2021 compared to the pre-coronavirus level.

Data points that span FYE 2021 period do not include the FYE 2021 survey data in calculations, as it is judged to be of low quality. This means that some real changes that happened to incomes, such as the furlough scheme or the temporary increase of Universal Credit are only partially captured in the time series.

Data collected for FYE 2022 was also affected by the coronavirus pandemic however following extensive analysis the DWP are content that levels of bias in the data resulting from the mode change are lower than for FYE 2021 and have less influence on the statistics. We judge the FYE 2022 HBAI data quality to be robust however caution is advised when making comparisons with previous years and interpreting larger changes.

While FRS fieldwork operations were not identical to pre-pandemic in FYE 2023, they gradually returned throughout the year to something much closer to that than the period spanning the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, when telephone interviewing only was used. The mode of interview for the FRS during FYE 2023 returned to face-to-face by default, with telephone used as an alternative by 28% of sampled households (across the UK).

Small sample

These figures are based on results from the Family Resources Survey (FRS) which samples around 1,200 households in Wales every year. This is quite a small sample and that is why three or more years of data are rolled together to give multi year moving averages. For example, a three-year average is an average of the latest year and the previous two years. This way any unreliability in the single-year estimates is reduced, but it is not eliminated.

Many factors drive change

Movements in these figures are driven by changes in the wider economy, the labour market, the tax/ benefit system and the relative effects of these changes on different groups. Therefore, as there are a large number of complex and interacting factors it is difficult to assess exactly which changes have driven movements in these figures or to predict how things may change in future.

Different costs of living

The use of the UK median in the relative income poverty measure, allows us to compare Wales to other similar UK regions. However, as the cost of living in Wales tends to be below what it is in other areas of the UK, the figures for Wales may suggest the standard of living in Wales is lower than it actually is.  

No statistical significance

None of the changes over time in the headline relative income poverty figures are statistically significant. We advise caution when looking at year on year changes, with longer term trends often giving a clearer picture.

Also, when comparing relative income poverty estimates of different groups of people, bear in mind the likely wide confidence intervals due to small sample sizes. We are working on methodology to allow us to estimate these confidence intervals in future.

Rounded data

All figures shown are rounded to the nearest 10 thousand individuals or whole percentage point.