Ever wonder what the average amount inherited is? Or how much inheritance tax people pay? The ClearScore data team breaks down data gathered by HMRC to illustrate typical estate values by gender, age and asset class.

Average Inheritance

The average net estate value was £957,478 in 2023/24, based on HMRC’s Inheritance Tax statistics. This average covers the roughly 68,000 estates that sent an Inheritance Tax account to HMRC: about 30,400 that paid Inheritance Tax and about 38,000 that didn’t. That’s around 1 in 10 of the 644,000 UK deaths that year. Most estates aren’t included, such as those that didn’t need probate and many smaller estates that went through probate but didn’t have to send HMRC a full account. The average for all estates is therefore likely to be lower. See Limitations below.

In the table below, you can see a breakdown of estate value by asset class - e.g. of those with securities, how much securities they have, and so on. The table shows estates with a net value of £300,000 or more. HMRC publishes figures for lower-value estates too, but withholds many of them to protect confidentiality because the numbers are small. The final column shows the average across all estates, including those below £300,000.

You'll notice that the sum of the values in each asset class does not equal the total capital value. This is because not everyone owns every asset class. For example, if someone only owned some cash and securities but no home, their data would contribute to the cash, securities and total net capital figures, but they wouldn't have any data impacting the other asset classes like residential buildings. Only those owning their own home (with or without a mortgage) would contribute data to the UK residential buildings category, and so on.

You can also see the asset class data by total asset value bucket. Each column shows a different bucket size for total value of assets. For example, those with a total net capital value of between £300,000 and £499,999 appear in the first data column. Those with more than £2,000,000 in total appear in the second to last column. So, for instance, of those with a total net capital value of more than £2,000,000, those with any securities have an average of £2,004,717 of securities. Those with a total net capital value in the £300,000 and £499,999 range have around £61,019 of securities on average (if they have any securities).

This data is interesting because it helps you see how people broadly allocate across different asset classes, and the size of debt like loans and mortgages. These figures are not a recommendation for asset allocation, however.

The net estate (or net capital value) is defined as the value of assets less the value of liabilities in the estate of the deceased person.

by gender and marital status

Among estates that paid inheritance tax, men's estates were larger on average than women's. Women's taxpaying estates had an average net capital value of £1,245,161, and men's had £1,375,839 (around 10% more).

For both men and women, taxpaying estates of people who were married or widowed had higher average values than those of people who were single, divorced or whose civil partnership had been dissolved. The highest averages were for people who were married when they died.

by age

Among taxpaying estates, average estate value was higher in older age groups. It rose from £995,595 for people who died aged 45 to 64 to £1,442,308 for those aged 85 and over.

Average Inheritance Tax

The first £325,000 of an estate (the nil-rate band) isn't taxed. Some estates can also use the residence nil-rate band and any unused allowances transferred from a spouse or civil partner. In the 2023/24 data, no tax was due on any estate below £300,000. Above that, not every estate paid tax. For example, of the 7,570 estates between £300,000 and £400,000, 2,300 paid IHT, and those paid £13,800 on average. Among taxpaying estates, the average bill was £52,400 for estates between £500,000 and £600,000, £151,000 for estates between £1 million and £1.5 million, and £1,490,000 for estates between £5 million and £7.5 million.

HMRC's net estate figures include gifts made in the seven years before death, which can use up some of the nil-rate band.

*HMRC withholds these figures to protect confidentiality.

Limitations

There are many limitations to the data in this article, some of which are explained below. But primarily, the issue is that the data only covers estates that sent an Inheritance Tax account to HMRC. For this reason, please use this data for general informational and interest purposes only.

This data reflects the roughly 68,000 estates with a net capital value in 2023/24. HMRC estimates there were around 644,000 deaths in the UK in the 2023/24 tax year. Of these, around 6% were estates notified to HMRC that paid no IHT, and around 5% were estates that paid IHT. The remaining 89% or so aren’t included in these statistics. They include estates that didn’t need a grant of representation (probate), for example because everything passed automatically to a surviving joint owner. They also include “excepted estates”: estates that may need probate but don’t have to send HMRC a full Inheritance Tax account, usually because they’re below the tax threshold or are left to a spouse, civil partner or charity. Since 1 January 2022, HMRC no longer receives valuations for non-taxpaying excepted estates, so they’re left out of these figures.

Depending on how the deceased owned their assets and who they are transferring them to on their death, in many cases a grant of representation isn’t required - and as a result their passing & assets may or may not be included in the data here.

Whether an estate needs a grant of representation depends partly on how the person owned their assets. For example, a couple can own their home as joint tenants, where they own the whole property together. When one dies, the property passes automatically to the survivor. If they own it as tenants in common, each owns a separate share, for example 50% each. When one owner dies, their share passes under their will or, if there’s no valid will, under the intestacy rules, and a grant of representation may be needed to deal with it.

So assets can pass on death without probate, and an estate can go through probate without appearing in these statistics. The figures here describe only estates that sent HMRC an Inheritance Tax account, not every estate or every death.