The personal income and wealth levels in the United Kingdom Essay

The personal income and wealth levels in the United Kingdom - Essay Example The issue of personal incomes and wealth have gained centre focus especially in the aftermath of the global economic crisis that highlighted unethical practices in use by top business executives. This report will try to explore these claims in light of statistical data so that these claims can be substantiated with a solid background. Monitoring personal income and wealth levels is necessary around the world in order to classify the income disparity between the top and bottom earners in society. This also helps to define the local poverty indices as it provides the amount of people living below the poverty line. The wealth of a country can also be defined using a detailed measure of personal incomes and wealth because such a measure is better than using the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita which is seen as rough measure only. A number of different methods are usually utilised in order to describe personal income and wealth including: Individual incomes before tax; Income distr ibution as per age classifications; Income distribution as per regions; Income distribution as per job types; Post tax household income; Wealth levels; Sources of income. A number of other measures may also be specified such as the disposable income depending on the statistical availability of such data. However, such measures are generally more supported in the North American domain which is unlike current practice in the European domain. Given that this report will be concerned with personal income and wealth levels in the United Kingdom, so data extraction and statistical classification will be limited to its geographic domains. By presenting the statistical objects of personal income and wealth related above, this report will try to classify the level of poverty and income disparity in the United Kingdom. 3. Data Collection Methodology A number of different sources offer information relating to personal income and wealth levels but most of these sources are unreliable. In the Un ited Kingdom, the real sources to extract such information are the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HRMC). These sources derive information from tax collection levels as well as other estimates and measurements which tend to lend them an air of credibility that is unchallengeable. For the purposes of this report the information that has been collected, analysed and displayed has been derived solely from ONS and HRMC. This information is freely available online on the official portals of both official websites. Furthermore, this information is presented in these domains with appropriate noise removal and smoothing which tends to enhance the quality of data being employed. Information relating to personal income and wealth is extensive making it hard to classify and manipulate so data extraction has been limited to the post 1990 period alone. The global economic crisis lies in the wake of the early twenty first century ensuring that th e information extracted is relevant and appropriate. 4. Data Presentation When the United Kingdom is compared to other nations, it becomes clear that the United Kingdom is a wealthy country. Within the United Kingdom there are no people who live on less than four pounds a day worth of income. The global poverty line was used at $1 per day (Sachs, 2005) which was revised in 2008 by the World Bank which raised its level to $1.25 per day (Ravallion et al., 2009). When these figures are compared to each other it becomes