HMRC ISA statistics

UK ISA Trends

Follow how UK adults choose Cash versus Stocks & Shares ISAs, how subscriber counts moved since 2014, and how Lifetime ISA uptake has grown since the 2017 launch, all from HMRC published series.

See wrapper mix → Open calculator
S&S 47% vs Cash 46% of new ISA subscriptions (2022)

HMRC ISA statistics show Stocks & Shares leading Cash by 1 percentage point on new subscriptions (47% vs 46% in 2022), while adult subscriber counts sit about 1.8 million below the 2014-15 peak at 12.2M. Funds subscribed in 2022-23 totalled £71.6bn; cumulative Lifetime ISA accounts reached about 600k.

  • Adult subscribers 14.0M (2014-15) → 12.2M (2022-23)
  • Funds subscribed £71.6bn in 2022-23 (Cash £28.4bn · S&S £33.1bn)
  • ~600k cumulative Lifetime ISA accounts

National picture

Stocks & Shares ISAs now lead Cash by 1 percentage point on new subscriptions, while adult subscriber counts sit about 1.8 million below the 2014-15 peak.

46% → 47%
Cash vs S&S new-sub share, 2022
12.2M
Adult ISA subscribers, 2022-23
£71.6bn
Total funds subscribed, 2022-23
600k
Cumulative LISA accounts

Figures from HMRC Individual Savings Account Statistics and Lifetime ISA Statistics. Wrapper mix is share of new subscriptions, not stock of funds.

Last updated: · PlainISA

UK ISA wrapper-mix shift 2010 → 2022

Share of new ISA subscriptions by wrapper type, % of total. Order kept chronological so the Cash decline and S&S rise read as a pair.

Cash ISA (2010)65%Cash ISA (2022)46%S&S ISA (2010)30%S&S ISA (2022)47%

Source: HMRC ISA Statistics

2010 share leader ≠ 2022 share leader

Cash ISA led new-subscription share at 65% in 2010-11 (#1 of the two major wrappers) but fell to 46% by 2022-23 (#2); Stocks & Shares ISA rose from 30% to 47% and now leads new subscriptions.

65% → 46%
Cash ISA share rank flip
30% → 47%
S&S ISA share rise
2010 → 2022
HMRC subscription vintage
1 pp
S&S lead over Cash (2022)

HMRC ISA Statistics — share of new ISA subscriptions by wrapper type, not stock of funds held. Junior and Lifetime ISA flows sit outside this two-wrapper HMRC split.

UK ISA subscriber count 2014 → 2022

Total UK adult ISA subscribers per tax year (millions).

0M 3M 6M 9M 12M 15M 2014-15 2018-19 2022-23 14M 12.5M 12.2M

Source: HMRC ISA Statistics

Funds subscribed by wrapper, 2022-23

Cash £28.4bn vs Stocks & Shares £33.1bn of the £71.6bn total: the value story behind the 46%/47% new-sub share.

S&S ISA£33.1bnCash ISA£28.4bn

Source: HMRC ISA Statistics

Lifetime ISA cumulative accounts 2017 → 2022

Total LISA accounts opened (thousands). Slow but steady adoption since 2017 launch.

2017-18167k2019-20542k2022-23600k

Source: HMRC Lifetime ISA Statistics

Subscription volume over time

HMRC published statistics show approximately 12.2 million UK adults subscribed to ISAs in the 2022-23 tax year (the most recent fully reconciled vintage), down from a peak around 14 million in 2014-15. The decline reflects the introduction of the Personal Savings Allowance in April 2016, which made the basic Cash ISA less attractive to basic-rate taxpayers earning under £1,000 of bank interest annually.

Total funds subscribed across all wrappers reached approximately £71.6 billion in 2022-23, of which £28.4 billion went into Cash ISAs and £33.1 billion into Stocks & Shares ISAs.

Wrapper-mix shift toward S&S ISA

The Stocks & Shares ISA has gradually overtaken the Cash ISA in subscription value. In 2010-11 Cash ISAs received roughly 65% of new subscriptions; by 2022-23 the share had fallen to approximately 46%, with S&S ISAs taking the larger share. The transition reflects both the Personal Savings Allowance changing the appeal of Cash ISAs and the long-running low interest rate environment between 2008-2022.

Cash ISA subscriptions are concentrated in older age groups, savers over 65 hold approximately 38% of total Cash ISA funds while representing under 19% of the UK adult population. S&S ISA subscriptions skew younger and higher-income.

Lifetime ISA uptake

The Lifetime ISA, launched in April 2017, has seen steady growth in subscriber numbers but remains a niche wrapper. HMRC data shows approximately 600,000 LISA accounts opened across the 2017-2023 period, with annual subscriptions averaging around £2,500 per account, meaningfully below the £4,000 cap.

The £450,000 property value cap has constrained LISA adoption in high-cost regions (notably London and the South East). Industry advocacy groups have requested a cap increase or regional differentiation, but no policy change has been announced in Finance Acts since 2017.

Innovative Finance ISA decline

The IFISA peaked around 2018-19 with approximately £400 million of annual subscriptions, but several high-profile P2P platform failures (Lendy 2019, FundingSecure 2019, Collateral 2018) prompted FCA tightening of marketing rules. Annual IFISA subscriptions have since fallen to under £200 million, with the wrapper now representing less than 0.5% of total ISA funds.

Looking ahead: 2024 multiple-ISA rule

The 6 April 2024 rule change permitting multiple ISAs of the same type within a single tax year is expected to drive subscription dispersion across providers, particularly in the Cash ISA segment where rate-shopping is common. HMRC has not yet published 2024-25 reconciled statistics; the full impact will be visible in the 2025-26 publication cycle.

Industry expectation is that headline subscription totals will remain broadly stable, but the average per-account balance will decline as savers split capital across two or more providers per year.

Sources

Related guides

What to do with this

Read the HMRC shift once, then check the wrapper that matches your horizon.

Trend figures are HMRC published statistics: educational context, not personal financial advice.

Data currency: ISA rules and the £20,000 annual allowance reflect the 2026/27 UK tax year; provider rates and figures were last updated May 2026. See our methodology for sources and refresh cadence. Spot a figure that looks wrong? Report a correction.

Download the HMRC ISA wrapper statistics extract cited on this page: hmrc-isa-wrapper-statistics.csv (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This trend page reproduces selected published HMRC Individual Savings Account and Lifetime ISA statistics. Its historical series are not live ISA-rules database values; the chart source lines and methodology name the underlying HMRC publications. Read our editorial standards and corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.

Primary statutory sources: gov.uk’s Individual Savings Accounts guidance and HMRC’s ISA Managers Guidance Notes. Historical context is checked against HMRC’s annual ISA statistics.

PlainISA publishes ISA reference data and projection tools for information only. It is not financial advice and not a personal recommendation, projections are illustrations rather than forecasts, and tax rules and allowances change, so check the current position on gov.uk or with an FCA-authorised adviser before you act. Appropriate use.