Mr Bennet’s annual income in Pride and Prejudice is £2,000.
The money comes from Longbourn, his landed estate in Hertfordshire. In Austen’s world, annual income is a quick measure of a gentleman’s social and financial position, so Mr Bennet’s £2,000 places him among the respectable landed gentry, though well below Mr Darcy’s £10,000 and below Mr Bingley’s reported income.
That income should have supported a comfortable household, but Mr Bennet has five daughters and has failed to save adequately for their futures. Longbourn is also subject to an entail, meaning the estate is expected to pass through the male line to Mr Collins rather than to the Bennet daughters. This makes the family’s financial insecurity central to the plot.
The figure is sometimes confused with other fortunes in the novel: Darcy has £10,000 a year, while £5,000 is associated with money settled on Mrs Bennet and her children. The £2,000 figure refers specifically to Mr Bennet’s annual estate income.