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Average pay by council area, and the years of pay a home costs

Full time employees in the UK earned a median £40,911 a year before tax in 2026 (provisional), up 4.5% on 2025, with council areas ranging from £31,923 in Pendle to £66,106 in Westminster by where people live (both graded acceptable, the lowest grade the ONS publishes). In England and Wales a median priced home cost 7.56 years of median full time pay in 2025, from 3.86 years in Hyndburn to 21.87 in Kensington and Chelsea.

Council area figures come from a survey of about 1% of jobs, so small areas carry wide margins. A ring marks an estimate the ONS grades acceptable, the lowest of its three published quality grades (coefficient of variation over 10% to 20%).

Every council area on one map

UK median £40,911 in 2026 (provisional); highest council area Westminster at £66,106 and lowest Pendle at £31,923, both graded acceptable, the lowest grade the ONS publishes.

Hover over a hexagon for its figures, or tap or click one to see the area in full below.

Source: ONS, ASHE Table 8, 2026 provisional (published 22 October 2026), full time employees by place of residence; ONS, House price to residence based earnings ratio, 2025 (published 26 March 2026). Hex layout: Open Innovations, CC BY 4.0. Built by Totally.Digital, totally.digital/data

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Average salary on this page means median pay: half of full time employee jobs pay more than the figure and half pay less. The ONS prefers the median to the mean because the mean is pulled up by a small number of very high earners.

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United Kingdom

Median pay compared

What the lowest and highest paid full time employees earn

Years of pay to buy a home

The ten highest and ten lowest council areas

      Source: ONS, Earnings and hours worked, place of residence by local authority: ASHE Table 8, 2026 provisional, Table 8.7a (gross annual pay, full time) with the coefficients of variation in Table 8.7b; ONS, House price to residence based earnings ratio, Tables 1 to 6 (median and lower quartile).

      Edition: ASHE Table 8, 2026 provisional, published 22 October 2026: pay in the tax year to 5 April 2026. House price to residence based earnings ratio, published 26 March 2026: 2025 figures, house prices in the year to September 2025 against ASHE 2025 pay.

      Next release: ASHE Table 8, not yet announced (the ONS page says 'To be announced'; the revised 2026 and provisional 2027 figures normally follow in the autumn). House price to residence based earnings ratio, March 2027.

      Data limits: ASHE is a survey of about 1% of employee jobs, taken from HMRC PAYE records, so council area figures carry wide margins. The ONS grades each estimate by its coefficient of variation (precise up to 5%, reasonably precise over 5% to 10%, acceptable over 10% to 20%) and does not publish estimates above 20%, which it grades unreliable; this page marks the acceptable ones with a ring, and the ONS says the true value is likely to lie within twice the coefficient of variation either side. Figures are by place of residence (where people live, not where they work) and cover full time employees on adult rates who have been in the same job for more than a year; the self employed and part time workers are not included. The 2026 figures are provisional and the ONS revises them the following year; its changes on the year are not adjusted for changes in the mix of jobs. The median is used because the mean is pulled up by the highest earners. ONS Table 8 has no council area figures for Northern Ireland, only the total for the country, and publishes no median for Isles of Scilly, City of London, Orkney Islands and Monmouthshire. The house price ratio covers England and Wales only, so no ratio is published for Scotland or Northern Ireland, and it has no figure for Isles of Scilly and City of London; it uses ONS house price statistics for small areas (Land Registry sales) and pay before tax, and the 2025 pay in it is the ASHE 2025 figure, not the 2026 figure above. Barnsley and Sheffield appear under the newer ONS codes E08000038 and E08000039; the 2023 hex layout uses E08000016 and E08000019. Figures as published on 22 October 2026 (ASHE) and 26 March 2026 (ratio).

      Hex layout: Open Innovations, CC BY 4.0. Built by Totally.Digital