The national balance sheet and capital stocks, preliminary estimates, UK: 2024

• The UK’s net worth, presented as the national balance sheet, is estimated to be £12.0 trillion in 2023; this is down from £12.6 trillion in 2022, and is now broadly similar to the level recorded in 2021.

• The UK’s financial net worth position is estimated to be negative £825 billion in 2023, down from negative £358 billion in 2022; this was driven by falls in the net value of loans, equity and investment fund shares, and debt securities.

• The household sector’s net worth is estimated to be £11.5 trillion in 2023, down from £11.6 trillion in 2022.

• The UK’s net capital stock grew 1.5% to £5.1 trillion in 2023 in chained volume measures, compared with 1.6% in 2022.

• Dwellings grew 1.3% in 2023, compared with 1.7% in 2022, accounting for 33.8% of total growth in net capital stock.

The UK’s net worth is estimated to be £12.0 trillion in 2023, down from £12.6 trillion in 2022. The UK’s net worth is now broadly similar to the level recorded in 2021.

Non-produced assets accounted for negative 3.6 percentage points in the growth of the UK’s net worth. The main driver was a fall of 6.3% in the value of land – the first time that growth was negative since 2011. This was largely attributed to land underlying dwellings decreasing in value by 4.4%, caused by the annual change in average house prices being negative 1.4% in 2023, as shown in HM Land Registry's UK House Price Index data downloads: January 2024.

Produced assets grew by 5.4% in 2023 to £6.1 trillion, and contributed 2.4 percentage points of growth to net worth. This was because of increases in the value of fixed assets, specifically dwellings, other buildings and structures, and machinery and equipment.

Financial net worth is explained in detail in Section 3: Financial net worth.

The UK's financial net worth position is estimated to be negative £825 billion in 2023. This was a decrease of £467 billion when compared with 2022.

The fall in the net positions of loans, equity and investment fund shares, and debt securities, were the main drivers of the 2023 year-on-year fall. In comparison, there were smaller increases in the net positions of monetary gold and special drawing rights, and insurance, pension and standardised guarantee schemes.

The 2022 estimate for financial net worth has been revised down from previously published estimates of negative £244 billion to negative £358 billion. This downwards revision is caused in part by net loans and net debt securities. The 2022 figure included positive net positions for loans, other accounts receivable, and monetary gold and special drawing rights. However, this was offset by negative net positions in all other financial assets.

The financial data is sourced from our GDP quarterly national accounts, UK: October to December 2023 bulletin.

The net worth of the household sector is currently estimated to be £11.5 trillion and saw a slight fall in growth of 0.8% in 2023, an increase on the previous year’s growth rate of negative 2.8%.

Household financial net worth grew by 1.4%. This was attributed to 1.8% growth in both insurance, pension and standardised guarantee schemes, and currency and deposits, and 1.2% growth in equity and investment fund shares.

Household non-financial assets grew by 9.1% to £7.1 trillion in 2022, to the highest on record. Household non-financial assets net worth fell by 2.2% in 2023 to £6.9 trillion. However, this is the second highest figure in the series. The fall in the level of non-financial assets in 2023 was caused by a 5.0% decrease in land within non-produced assets, which was somewhat offset by a 5.3% increase in produced assets.

UK net capital stock by asset

The UK’s net capital stock grew 1.5% to an estimated £5.1 trillion between 2022 and 2023. This is slightly lower growth compared with 1.6% the previous year, and remains just below the pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic growth rate of 1.7% in 2019. Other buildings and structures, dwellings, and machinery, equipment and weapons systems contributed the most to growth in 2023 at 0.6, 0.5 and 0.3 percentage points, respectively.

Dwellings, which accounts for approximately 39.5% of the UK’s net capital stock, grew 1.3% in 2023 to an estimated £2.0 trillion. However, this compares with 1.7% growth for the asset the previous year.

Other buildings and structures, which accounts for approximately 40.0% of the UK’s net capital stock, grew by 1.4% in 2023. This is down slightly from 1.5% the previous year.

Machinery, equipment and weapons systems recorded a growth rate of 2.5%, increasing from 1.8% the previous year. Transport accounted for nearly all of total growth in this asset. The asset is now valued at an estimated £654 billion, and represents 12.8% of the UK’s net capital stock.

UK net capital stock by sector

Private non-financial corporations, central government and the households sector were the largest contributors to the UK’s net capital stock growth rate of 1.5% at 0.8, 0.5 and 0.3 percentage points, respectively.

Net capital stock for the households sector, which represents approximately 34.7% of the UK’s net capital stock, grew by 0.7% in 2023, compared with 1.2% the previous year.

Private non-financial corporations grew by 1.8%, with broadly similar growth to the previous year. Financial corporations recorded negative growth of 3.7%, decreasing by an estimated £4 billion. This was the third consecutive year of negative growth in this sector.

Dwellings

The UK’s net capital stock of dwellings in constant prices grew at a slower rate in 2023 than 2022, which was caused by declining growth in non-financial corporations and households. This represents a return to 2021 levels and is closer to the 20-year average.

Investment rose at a lower rate than capital consumption during 2023, decreasing the value of net capital stocks.

Net worth

The value of assets owned, less the value of all outstanding liabilities.

Net capital stocks

The stock of assets surviving from past investment after accounting for consumption of fixed capital.

Chained volume measure (CVM)

These time series have the effects of inflation removed by considering changes in quantity between consecutive periods, which holds prices from previous periods constant.

Gross capital stocks

The stock of assets surviving from past investment and revalued at the purchasers’ prices of new capital goods of a reference period.

Gross fixed capital formation

Measures the value of a producer’s acquisitions of fixed assets and certain expenditure on services for non-produced assets, minus disposals of fixed assets.

Capital consumption

The decline in the stock of fixed assets over a period of time as a result of physical deterioration, normal obsolescence, or normal accidental damage.

Fixed assets

Produced assets that are repeatedly used in the production process for more than one year.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is publishing more data and analysis than ever before. We are constantly reviewing our publications based on your feedback to make sure that we continue to meet the needs of our users. As a result, future editions of this publication may focus more strongly on headline indicators and main messages. Thank you for your continued support.

National balance sheet

The national balance sheet is a measure of the wealth, or total net worth, of the UK. It shows the estimated market value of financial assets (for example, loans) and non-financial assets (for example, dwellings). The data are used to monitor economic performance, to inform monetary and fiscal policy decisions, and for international comparisons.

The components of net worth can be roughly categorised as produced assets, non-produced assets, and net financial assets. Non-produced assets are land. Produced assets fit under either inventories, or net-capital stocks in current prices, under which sits:

• dwellings
• other buildings and structures
• machinery, equipment and weapons
• intellectual property products
• cultivated assets

Net financial assets are made up of:

• monetary gold and special drawing rights
• currency and deposits
• debt securities
• loans
• equity and investment shares
• insurance, pension and standardised guarantee schemes
• financial derivatives and employee stock options
• other accounts receivable/ payable

All data referring to net worth in this bulletin are annual estimates at current prices and include changes in prices, as well as in the volume of assets. These data use market value, which is an estimate of how much these assets would sell for on the market today. If all these assets were sold simultaneously, prices would be affected, but this effect is put to one side.

Annual growth rates are calculated using compound annual growth.

As part of this release, we use data from across the national accounts.

Financial data, including financial assets, liabilities and institutionalised sectors including financial data - because of recent technical challenges in processing data from the ONS foreign direct investment (FDI) survey, we have temporarily paused processing of these data. This pause will allow us to address the underlying challenges and safeguard timely and quality data in the future.

As a result of the pause, foreign direct investment-related estimates for Quarters 3 (July to Sept) and 4 (Oct to Dec) 2023 are subject to more uncertainty than usual, with the elements that are drawn from the ONS FDI survey being based on Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2023 data. As a result, users should be cautious when interpreting recent FDI data that are part of the UK sector accounts and UK balance of payments (BoP) statistics; users should also note that we have not yet included annual benchmark data for 2022 estimates.

We expect to resume processing of the FDI survey data later in 2024. For further information please contact bop@ons.gov.uk.

Please note the estimates of household wealth in the national balance sheet and those produced in our Household total wealth in Great Britain: April 2018 to March 2020 bulletin are not directly comparable. This is because of differences in the concepts, data sources and methods reflecting the different purposes for which the two sources are designed.

Estimates in the national balance sheet from 1995 to 2023 are consistent with those published in our UK national balance sheet estimates: 2023 dataset.

Capital stocks

The capital stocks estimates are an important variable within the accumulation accounts. They show how the value of assets within an economy changes over time. Net capital stocks estimates of produced assets are identical to the market value of these assets presented in the National balance sheet, which measures the net worth of the UK.

Annual growth rates are calculated using compound annual growth.

Quality

More quality and methodology information (QMI) on strengths, limitations, appropriate uses, and how the data were created, is available in our UK national balance sheet estimates QMI and our Capital stocks and fixed capital consumption QMI.

This bulletin presents preliminary estimates of net worth and capital stocks in the UK. Previously, the national balance sheet and capital stocks and fixed capital publications have been compiled approximately 11 months after the latest year in their data time series and have been consistent with the Blue Book estimates. They have been compiled using annual data sources that primarily focus on collecting information on levels and informing structural industry analysis, in conjunction with the annual supply use balancing exercise. Typically, annual statistical production processes provide a better quality of structural industry analysis, however, they take longer to compile.

The gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) data inputs for 2023 are Accredited official statistics and are consistent with those published in our Business investment in the UK: January to March 2024 provisional results bulletin.

Estimates of net capital stocks are consistent with the values of produced assets in the national balance sheet. Estimates of the financial assets and liabilities for the latest year were derived using quarterly national statistics data from our Quarterly sector accounts, UK: October to December 2023 bulletin. Estimates of land for 2023 have been produced using the house price index, administrative data, available company accounts, and modelling.

This process has enabled us to publish more timely annual estimates of net worth and capital stocks six months earlier than our main publication.

Data for 2023 are preliminary as they have not had the opportunity to go through the annual supply use balancing exercise. Quarterly data sources are designed to capture short-term growth patterns, rather than structural industry analysis. The 2023 data in this publication are preliminary and are likely to be revised in Blue Book 2024.