Can Brits solely rely on their pension?
Only a fifth of Brits believe their pension is enough to finance their retirement. Read more…
Cash ISAs statistics
Where the UK stands with interest-free savings accounts.
Last updated:
With an Individual Savings Account (ISA) offering tax-free interest on your savings, it has been a popular option for people thinking about financing their futures. For the 2019/20 tax year, the tax-free ISA allowance is £20,000 for adults and £4,368 for juniors, with different types of ISAs available based on the purpose of the account.
Here, we run through a comparison of ISA providers and present how cash ISA accounts have performed for both adult and junior savers.
The latest stats
- The average amount of money per subscription for 2017/18 was £6,409, of which cash ISAs made up £5,114 (80%)
- As of December 2018, the average interest rate on cash ISAs was 0.92%
- As of 2017/18, approximately 15% of UK adults had a cash ISA account
Cash ISAs over time
The graphs below plot the number of cash ISA account subscriptions, the overall amount subscribed in cash ISA accounts and the average amount per subscription.
Unsurprisingly, the values for junior cash ISAs is significantly lower than the corresponding adult accounts over the given time frames. However, the trends presented for adult accounts is often different than from junior accounts.
The overwhelming trend among adult accounts is that, up to 2018, the number of accounts has decreased while the overall subscription amount has remained fairly constant. As the final graph supports, there are fewer accounts overall but, of those people that own cash ISA accounts, more money is being transferred in.
| Adult Cash ISA | Junior Cash ISA | |
|---|---|---|
| 2012-13 | 11,682 | 204 |
| 2013-14 | 10,481 | 310 |
| 2014-15 | 10,288 | 365 |
| 2015-16 | 10,118 | 497 |
| 2016-17 | 8,480 | 569 |
| 2017-18 | 7,783 | 636 |
| Adult Cash ISA | Junior Cash ISA | |
|---|---|---|
| 2012-13 | 40,901 | 294 |
| 2013-14 | 38,821 | 431 |
| 2014-15 | 60,951 | 405 |
| 2015-16 | 58,694 | 522 |
| 2016-17 | 39,191 | 525 |
| 2017-18 | 39,801 | 517 |
| Adult Cash ISA | Junior Cash ISA | |
|---|---|---|
| 2012-13 | 3,501 | 1,442 |
| 2013-14 | 3,704 | 1,391 |
| 2014-15 | 5,924 | 1,110 |
| 2015-16 | 5,801 | 1,050 |
| 2016-17 | 4,622 | 923 |
| 2017-18 | 5,114 | 813 |
In 2018, the average amount held in an account was £5,114 for adults and £813 for juniors. During the 2012–2018 period, this was the lowest amount for juniors; in fact, it’s a 44% decrease on the 2012 numbers. In comparison, the 2018 average amount held for adult accounts was greater than the average value over the time period. Therefore, more juniors are deciding to open cash ISA accounts but appear to be able to afford to hold less in them in 2018. Meanwhile, the same accounts are becoming less popular among adults but these adults are saving more in their accounts.
Sources used
Click here for more research. For all media enquiries, please contact:
Matt Mckenna
UK communications manager
T: +44 20 8191 8806
UK communications manager
T: +44 20 8191 8806
Related articles
Mythbusted: The 50/30/20 rule
We did the maths on this well-known budgeting method, and sadly, with current salary and rent prices, the 50/30/20 rule is almost impossible to follow. Read more…
Nationwide’s Start to Save “prize draw” account offers the chance to win £100 every 3 months
The building society says it's encouraging saving habits with the potential reward of a cash prize. Read more…
Leap year 2020
29 February (2020’s leap year day) may fly under the radar for a lot of people, but research from Finder has found that Brits on a full-time salary are losing an average of £151.40 because of it. Read more…
Revolut launches “market-leading” savings account – but what’s the catch?
UK challenger bank Revolut has entered the UK savings market with its Savings Vault account. Read more…
Compound interest for savings accounts
We look at the definition of compound interest, what it concretely means and how you can use it to grow your savings more quickly. Read more…
