Household saving ratio falls to 10.9% in Quarter 1 2025

The UK household saving ratio decreased to 10.9% in Quarter 1 (January to March) 2025, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported on 30 June 2025. The fall was driven by a decline in non-pension saving, and the ratio is down from 12.0% in the previous quarter¹.

The household saving ratio estimates the amount of money households have available to save as a percentage of their gross disposable income, plus pension accumulations¹. The ONS said:

"The household saving ratio decreased to 10.9% in Quarter 1 2025, driven by a fall in non-pension saving"

Office for National Statistics, Quarterly sector accounts, UK: January to March 2025¹

Real household disposable income per head decreased by 1.0% in Quarter 1 2025, following growth of 1.8% in Quarter 4 (October to December) 2024¹. Gross disposable household income is the estimate of the total amount of income households have available to spend, save or invest, including wages, social benefits, pensions and net property income, less taxes on income and wealth; adjusting it for inflation gives real household disposable income¹.

Other sectors also saw changes in the quarter. The UK's borrowing position with the rest of the world as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) is estimated to have increased to 3.2% in Quarter 1 2025, compared with 3.1% of GDP in Quarter 4 2024¹. Non-financial corporations' net borrowing decreased to 1.6% of GDP from 1.8% of GDP in the previous quarter, and within that, private non-financial corporations decreased their net borrowing to £12.4 billion from £14.0 billion¹. Financial corporations switched to a net borrowing position of £1.2 billion, following net lending of £5.9 billion in the previous quarter¹. General government decreased its net borrowing to 5.7% of GDP from 6.1% of GDP in Quarter 4 2024¹.

Measure	Quarter 4 2024	Quarter 1 2025
Household saving ratio	12.0%	10.9%
Real household disposable income per head	growth of 1.8%	decrease of 1.0%
UK borrowing with rest of world (% of GDP)	3.1%	3.2%
Non-financial corporations net borrowing (% of GDP)	1.8%	1.6%
General government net borrowing (% of GDP)	6.1%	5.7%

Source: ONS, Quarterly sector accounts, UK: January to March 2025¹

The bulletin includes new data for Quarter 1 2025 with no revisions to previous data¹. The ONS notes that population estimates for 2023 onwards have been updated to use the migration variant projection, in line with a recommendation in its national population projections bulletin published on 28 January 2025¹.

Why it matters for households

The saving ratio is a national aggregate, not a measure of any individual household's finances, so a fall does not mean every household saved less. It reflects how much households across the UK had available to save relative to their income in the quarter¹. The decline to 10.9% came alongside a 1.0% fall in real household disposable income per head, which measures the purchasing power of household income after inflation¹. For households, that combination means the income available to spend or save, in real terms per person, was lower in the quarter than in the previous one, and a smaller share of income was set aside as saving. The figures are published as official statistics and are subject to the ONS's revisions policy¹. Anyone comparing savings products can check how interest and terms are set out in a savings summary box, and the savings section covers accounts and rates more generally.