UK headline dividends hit £92.1bn in 2024

Aided by one-off payments

UK companies paid £92.1bn in dividends to their shareholders in 2024, marking a 2.3% rise on a headline basis from the previous year and just under the £200m projected for the year by Computershare's UK Dividend Monitor report.

According to the report, the rise in the dividends' headline value was aided by one-off special payments, which stood at £5.6bn last year, or 174% higher than in 2023. However, the underlying total – excluding one-off payments – declined by 0.4% on a constant currency basis to £86.5bn in 2024. European companies forecast to pay out record dividends in 2025 In the final quarter of 2024 alone, headline dividends fell by 0.5%, while underlying payouts slightly rose by 0.1%. A significant contribution to the annual decline in dividends came from mining companies, which reduced their...