Written question asked by Huw Irranca-Davies (Labour) on Thursday, 22 March 2012, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 26 March 2012. It was answered by David Gauke (Conservative) on Thursday, 26 April 2012 on behalf of the Treasury.

Personal Income: Wales

Question: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many households in (a) Ogmore constituency and (b) Wales earn more than (i) £50,000 and (ii) £60,000 per annum.

Answer: The information required to address this question is available only from the Family Resources Survey, an annual survey of 25,000 private households across the UK. The sample is too small for estimates to be possible for individual parliamentary constituencies, and even for Wales as a whole the estimates are in this case fairly imprecise.The latest available Family Resources Survey data are for 2009-10. All estimates from this source are rounded to the nearest 100,000, given their inevitable imprecision.The estimates of the number of households in Wales earning more than £50,000 and earning more than £60,000 both round to 100,000. (The actual numbers will of course be different but this difference is lost within the rounding.)A household is defined as a single person or group of people living at the same address as their only or main residence, who either share one meal a day together or share the living accommodation (i.e. living room). A household will consist of one or more families.This analysis has been carried out on the basis of gross earnings only (i.e. income from employment or self-employment) rather than income, so it excludes income from investments, state support and other sources.

Secondary information