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The United Kingdom is a nation divided by a common economy.

Today, Sky News can paint a picture of a country battling inequality, the financial dominance of London and the South East and huge differences in wealth across regions and ages.

We have discovered fresh insights into how wealth is shared across the United Kingdom using data provided by the Office for National Statistics.

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We analysed data on the way wealth is accumulated through property, pensions, savings and personal possessions and looked at which areas, and which people, had done best - and who had been left behind.

Between us, the nation's 25,961,000 households have £12.78tn of wealth. So that's a rough average of about £491,000 per household.

But behind those statistics are some stark variations.

Our research shows big variations between the different areas.

For a start, English households are, on average, wealthier than those in Wales or Scotland.

In fact, the average level of household wealth in England, at nearly £505,000, is close to £93,000 more than the same figure for Wales.

Compared with Scotland, the difference is £74,000.

But dig a little deeper, and you discover that the picture for England is completely skewed by regional differences.

Our research shows a massive disparity across England, with households in the South East of England - the richest area of the UK - having more than double the wealth of those in the North East.

Although the South East is the wealthiest region, London is not far behind. The capital is also the most economically complex area of the UK, with high levels of both poverty and also great wealth.

The poorest households in Britain are the single-parent families in London and Wales, numbering about 250,000 in total.

But the nation's richest families are also in London, where the top 10% have an average household wealth of £2.5m and hold 82% of the city's financial wealth.

Across London and the South East, more than one in five households has a wealth of more than £1m - a much higher proportion than anywhere else in the country.

Why? Simply put - the soaring value of property in London and the home counties has distorted the economic picture of the UK since the start of the millennium.

These two regions now account for 43% of the value of all properties across the UK, even though they only include around a quarter of the nation's households.

That means that people who own, or partly own, a property in either of those regions are very likely to be richer than counterparts in the rest of the country.

For the first time, our analysis have confirmed that London households now own property worth more than £1tn, and it is that property wealth that has boosted the capital's bank accounts.

Across most of the UK, the biggest slice of wealth is now accounted for by money held in pensions.

In North East and North West of England, for instance, pension holdings account for half of the area's money.

But in London, it is just 29% - by far the lowest proportion in the country. Instead, nearly half of household wealth is tied up in property - a much higher ratio than anywhere else.

Why? Well that's a factor of just how expensive London property has become. For one thing, property wealth is just so big in London that it overwhelms other pots of wealth.

So some people have become very wealthy. Pensioners in London and the South East are the nation's richest households.

But it also means that the AG百家乐在线官网-high cost of housing in those areas has led to a very high cost of living, especially for those renting a home and living on a relatively low income.

Typically, people in their 20s who come to work in London spend a massive amount of their money on housing.

Add transport and utility bills into that and they do not have much money left over for saving.

So while London has the richest people, it also has the highest proportion of poor people.

One in five households has less than £20,000 of household wealth and our research shows that 12% of people in London say that financial debt is "a heavy burden" - the highest level in the UK.

The greatest disparities occur among the richest and poorest in British society.

But we also analysed those households who sit in the middle range between rich and poor - sitting in the middle rank of wealth in each region.

The fundamental question is whether the UK is becoming more or less equal. And there is a way of measuring that - an economic device called the Gini coefficient that analyses inequality.

It goes between 0, which means everyone has exactly the same wealth (total equality), and 1, which means one person has everything (total inequality).

We already knew that Britain's latest overall score was 0.62. Little changed from the previous survey.

We can now use our research to identify London as the most unequal place in the country, with a Gini score of 0.67, while South West England is the most equal, with a score of 0.56, followed by the West Midlands and the East of England on 0.59.

But our research also demonstrates that the greatest inequality is caused by property.

In London, the property market is rated a score of 0.93 - meaning that a huge amount of property wealth is held by a relatively small number of people.

But that's not the worst score.

Instead, the greatest inequality in the UK comes in property ownership in the North East of England, which records a staggering Gini result of 0.97.

So what does all this tell us?

Well, certainly that London's gravitational pull has warped our national wealth. But also, that the UK remains a remarkably complex place, from one region to another, and among society's different strata.

To understand all that, you have to look at a lot more than simple bank balances.

There are places in this country where deprivation has left us with communities bedevilled by poverty, chronic ill health, crime and a litany of social problems.

We also found that defining the word "wealth" was tricky.

In Jaywick, Essex - the single most deprived area in England - a series of people told me that they saw wealth as a factor of health, family and friendship.

In affluent Cheshire, the definition of "wealthy" was described as someone with enough money to buy an Aston Martin.

Neither is right, but then again, neither is wrong. They're simply subjective opinions, both with their own validity.

So the way you look at the meaning of wealth is about attitude, context and outlook, as well as money. It is a result of what you hope for, a barometer of aspiration.

And yet, wealth also tells us the most tangible and fundamental facts of all - that a growing share of the nation's money has become focused upon the South East corner, where inequality is at its worse.

That, on its own, should give us all pause for thought.