HMRC projects 2.06 million Income Tax payers with total income of £100,000 or more in 2026/27, out of 40.8 million Income Tax payers in total. That is 5.1%.
The distribution
The six-figure population is far more bottom-heavy than the round number implies. Most of it sits just over the line.
| Total income | Taxpayers | Share of £100k+ |
|---|---|---|
| £100k – £150k | 1,190,000 | 57.7% |
| £150k – £200k | 373,000 | 18.1% |
| £200k – £500k | 395,000 | 19.1% |
| £500k – £1m | 71,000 | 3.4% |
| £1m – £2m | 23,000 | 1.1% |
| £2m and above | 11,000 | 0.5% |
| Total £100,000 and above | 2,063,000 | 100% |
57.7% of everyone above £100,000 is in the first band, between £100,000 and £150,000 — the 1.19 million people closest to the line. The personal allowance taper runs from £100,000 to £125,140, so it bites somewhere inside that band rather than across all of it; HMRC does not publish a £125,140 cut, so 1.19 million is an upper bound on the people in the taper zone rather than a count of them. At the other end, fewer than 110,000 people in the UK have total income above £500,000.
It does not count earnings
This is the part almost every write-up of the figure gets wrong, including several that reached national newspapers. HMRC's table measures total income, which it defines as income before any deductions, allowances or tax credits — and that includes savings interest, dividends, rental income and pensions.
So “2.06 million people earn over £100,000” is not what the number says. A retired person with a large pension and a portfolio counts. Someone paid £90,000 with rental income counts. Someone paid £100,000 with no other income counts once. The figure is a good measure of how many people have six-figure incomes, and a poor measure of how many six-figure jobs exist.
A second common slip is the percentage. The figure is often quoted as “6% of the workforce”, dividing by a 34 million workforce. HMRC's own denominator is 40.8 million Income Tax payers, which gives 5.1%. Both numbers describe something real; only one of them matches the source.
And it is a projection
The 2026/27 figures are projected estimates, built from the 2023–24 Survey of Personal Incomes and consistent with the OBR's March 2026 forecast. HMRC describes the projection years as provisional and expects to revise them. Only the 2023–24 row in that publication is outturn data.
Why the number keeps rising
The £100,000 threshold is not indexed, and neither is the £12,570 personal allowance it interacts with. The allowance has been frozen since April 2021 and, following Budget 2025, is due to stay frozen until April 2031. When wages rise and thresholds do not, more people cross the line each year without any tax rate changing — HMRC's own costing of the extension expects it to bring 700,000 additional people into Income Tax by 2030/31.
How many of them are jobs?
We cannot answer that from HMRC's data, and neither can anyone else — it counts people, not posts. What we can say is what is advertised: this site currently lists 1,898 UK roles at £100,000 a year or more, or £500 a day or more, from the sources we can reach. That is a floor rather than a count, and only a minority of senior adverts state pay at all, so the true number of six-figure vacancies is unknowable from adverts.
Sources
- · HMRC — Income Tax liabilities statistics, Table 2.5 (2026/27 projection; read 19 September 2026)
- · gov.uk — Income Tax: income over £100,000
- · HMRC — maintaining thresholds until April 2031
What is a HENRY? · The £100,000 tax trap · Where the £100,000 jobs are