We publish this page because the state of Britain's estate planning is too important to be left to anecdote. Below are the headline numbers on will ownership, intestacy, inheritance tax and probate, each with its source, current as of 2026. Journalists and researchers are welcome to cite them — the page is reviewed and updated annually.
How many UK adults have a will?
- 54–60% of UK adults have no will. Surveys by YouGov, IRN Research and the Will Aid campaign have repeatedly landed in this range over recent years.
- Roughly 1 in 3 people over 55 have no up-to-date will. Marriage, divorce, house moves and new grandchildren quietly outdate older documents (Will Aid surveys).
- Only around 4 in 10 parents with dependent children have a will naming guardians. For the rest, the courts would decide who looks after their children (industry surveys).
- Homemade wills fail far more often than drafted ones. Studies of homemade wills consistently find signing and witnessing errors — which can invalidate the whole document — at far higher rates than in professionally prepared wills.
How does intestacy treat cohabiting couples?
- 3.6 million cohabiting couple families in the UK. The fastest-growing family type, per the Office for National Statistics — and the group with the most to lose from dying intestate.
- £0 — what an unmarried partner inherits under the intestacy rules. No matter how long the relationship, the rules on gov.uk give them nothing; see our plain-English guides to the intestacy rules and to a will for unmarried couples.
- Around 1 in 4 families report a dispute over inheritance. Industry surveys put the figure near a quarter — and unclear or missing wills are the most common fuel.
What are the current inheritance tax figures?
- £8.2 billion — record inheritance tax receipts in 2024/25. The highest annual total HMRC has ever reported (HMRC inheritance tax statistics).
- £325,000 — the nil-rate band, frozen since 2009. Legislation keeps the threshold frozen until at least 2030, quietly pulling more estates into tax each year (gov.uk — inheritance tax).
- 40% — the rate charged above the threshold. Extra allowances apply when a home passes to children or grandchildren, but the headline rate remains one of the highest in the tax system.
How many probate grants are issued each year?
- 250,000–280,000 grants issued each year. The probate registry in England and Wales issues roughly this many grants of representation annually — probate where there is a will, letters of administration where there is not (Ministry of Justice family court statistics).
The pattern behind these numbers is simple: most people intend to make a will, and most have not. The fix is neither expensive nor slow — see what a will costs.
How should you cite these UK will statistics?
Figures are drawn from publicly available sources: ONS family statistics, HMRC tax receipts, Ministry of Justice court statistics, and large-sample surveys by YouGov, IRN Research and Will Aid. Survey wording differs between organisations — "have a will" and "have an up-to-date will" are not the same question — so we give ranges where estimates vary. All figures were the most recent available as of July 2026.
To cite this page: SwiftWill — UK will statistics, swiftwill.co.uk/uk-will-statistics/ (updated when the underlying sources change). Please link rather than copy, so your readers always see the latest figures.