The table below summarises how poverty in London compares to five and ten years ago.
London remains the most unequal region in the country so the apparent fall in inequality in
the table may seem surprising. But this compares the most recent data with the period just
before the recession when income inequality reached a peak. Compared with ten years
ago, income inequality remains unchanged. The total wealth of a household towards the
top (the 90th percentile) is £1.1 million, 173 times higher than the wealth of someone at
the bottom. This 90:10 ratio in London is almost three times higher than that for the rest
of England.
Children in poverty by
tenure
London’s Poverty Profile Summary 2015 | 2
For education the picture is universally positive. The 2013 edition of this report noted
that both London pupils receiving and not receiving free school meals were on average
out-performing their peers in the rest of England and the improvements in the capital
have continued.