DOI: 10.5255/ukda-sn-5828-17
title: Households Below Average Income, 1994/95-2023/24
title: Households Below Average Income, 1994/95-
title: HBAI

description:   
&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Households Below Average Income &lt;/em&gt;(HBAI) data presents information on living standards in the UK based on household income measures for the financial year.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;HBAI uses equivalised disposable household income as a proxy for living standards in order to allow comparisons of the living standards of different types of households (that is, income is adjusted to take into account variations in the size and composition of the households in a process known as equivalisation). A key assumption made in HBAI is that all individuals in the household benefit equally from the combined income of the household. This enables the total equivalised income of the household to be used as a proxy for the standard of living of each household member.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In line with international best practice, the income measures used in HBAI are subject to several statistical adjustments and, as such, are not always directly relatable to income amounts as they might be understood by people on a day-to-day basis. These adjustments, however, allow consistent comparison over time and across households of different sizes and compositions. HBAI uses variants of CPI inflation when estimating how incomes are changing in real terms over time.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The main data source used in this study is the Family Resources Survey (FRS), a continuous cross-sectional survey. The FRS normally has a sample of 19,000 - 20,000 UK households. The use of survey data means that HBAI estimates are subject to uncertainty, which can affect how changes should be interpreted, especially in the short term. Analysis of geographies below the regional level is not recommended from this data.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Further information and the latest publication can be found on the gov.uk &lt;a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/households-below-average-income-hbai--2"&gt;HBAI&lt;/a&gt; webpage. The HBAI team want to provide user-friendly datasets and clearer documentation, so please contact &lt;a href="mailto:team.hbai@dwp.gov.uk"&gt;team.hbai@dwp.gov.uk&lt;/a&gt; if you have any suggestions or feedback on the new harmonised datasets and documentation.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;An earlier HBAI study, &lt;em&gt;Institute for Fiscal Studies Households Below Average Income Dataset, 1961-1991&lt;/em&gt;, is held under SN 3300.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Latest Edition Information&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For the 19th edition (April 2025), resamples data have been added to the study alongside supporting documentation. Main data back to 1994/95 have been updated to latest-year prices, and the documentation has been updated accordingly.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Using the HBAI files&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Users should note that either &lt;a href="https://www.7-zip.org/index.html"&gt;7-Zip&lt;/a&gt; or a recent version of
&lt;a href="https://www.winzip.com/en/"&gt;WinZip&lt;/a&gt; is needed to unzip the HBAI download zip files, due to their size. The inbuilt Windows compression software will not handle them correctly.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Labelling of variables&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br&gt;Users should note that many variables across the resamples files do not include full variable or value labels. This information can be found easily in the documentation - see the Harmonised Data Variables Guide.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;HBAI versions&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The HBAI datasets are available in two versions at the UKDS:&lt;br&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. End User Licence (EUL) (Anonymised) Datasets:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;These datasets contain no names, addresses, telephone numbers, bank account details, NINOs or any personal details that can be considered disclosive under the terms of the ONS Disclosure Control guidance. Changes made to the datasets are as follows:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;All ages above 80 are instead top-coded to 80 years of age. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;The variable for the amount of Council Tax liability for the household and pensioner flags for the head and spouse have been removed.
&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;All amount variables have been rounded to the nearest £1. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;A very small number of large households (with 10 or more individuals) have been removed from the dataset.
&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. Secure Access Datasets:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Secure Access datasets for HBAI are held under SN 7196&lt;span&gt;&lt;span&gt;. &lt;/span&gt;The Secure Access data are not subject to the same edits as the EUL version and are, therefore, more disclosive and subject to strict access conditions.&lt;/span&gt; They are currently only available &lt;span&gt;to UK HE/FE applicants&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;. Prospective users of the Secure Access version of the HBAI must fulfil additional requirements beyond those associated with the EUL datasets.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;