Wales vs United Kingdom
£47,569 vs £54,009
£6,440 (11.9%) below United Kingdom.
ONS Table 7 · UK: Table 1 · 2025 provisional, P75.
UK Regional Salary Comparison
What salary puts a full-time job in the top quarter in each UK region? Compare published earnings thresholds, then see how a chosen workplace region differs from the UK.
ONS ASHE 2025 provisional. Tax year ending 5 April 2025. Data checked 17 October 2026. Page checked 18 October 2026.
ONS ASHE 2025 · provisional
Download the Data The Regional Earnings Briefing
12 workplace regions. One consistent full-time employee-job benchmark.
Top quarter (P75) by Workplace Region
The published threshold at the boundary of the highest-earning quarter. Annual gross earnings, GBP.
All bars start at £0 and share one scale. The UK is a separate benchmark, not a 13th region. CV means coefficient of variation; higher values mean greater sampling uncertainty. Exact published points, not interpolated ranks.
Three Published P75 Comparisons
Differences use the second area's threshold as the percentage denominator. They are comparisons of survey estimates, not tests of statistical significance.
North West vs London
£51,167 vs £73,667
£22,500 (30.5%) below London.
ONS Table 7 · 2025 provisional, P75.
North East vs London
£46,220 vs £73,667
£27,447 (37.3%) below London.
ONS Table 7 · 2025 provisional, P75.
No salary input. Region and chart choices stay in this page's public URL fragment. These chart controls use no account, storage or calculation service.
The UK median annual gross earnings benchmark is £39,039. The table below uses 2025 provisional ONS figures for full-time employee jobs and the tax year ending 5 April 2025. Source: ONS ASHE Table 7, place of work.
Regional earnings data
Median is the middle of the distribution. The 75th percentile marks the start of the highest-earning quarter; the 90th percentile marks the highest-earning tenth. These are survey estimates, not exact counts of people. The top-quarter column is the default chart measure. Its CV describes sampling precision, not a confidence interval.
| Workplace region | Median | Top quarter (P75) | P75 CV | 90th percentile | Highest usable percentile |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| North East | £34,403 | £46,220 | 2.7% | £61,420 | 94th (£70,680) |
| North West | £37,361 | £51,167 | 1.6% | £70,142 | 97th (£98,523) |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | £35,682 | £48,430 | 1.7% | £65,286 | 96th (£84,844) |
| East Midlands | £35,600 | £48,196 | 1.9% | £63,883 | 96th (£84,675) |
| West Midlands | £37,064 | £50,611 | 1.8% | £68,285 | 96th (£90,000) |
| East of England | £38,597 | £52,984 | 1.8% | £74,962 | 96th (£101,231) |
| London | £49,692 | £73,667 | 1.5% | £115,775 | 97th (£207,988) |
| South East | £39,983 | £55,000 | 1.4% | £77,370 | 97th (£111,662) |
| South West | £37,195 | £50,000 | 1.7% | £68,482 | 96th (£93,155) |
| Scotland | £39,719 | £52,500 | 1.6% | £71,307 | 96th (£97,299) |
| Wales | £35,796 | £47,569 | 1.8% | £60,628 | 95th (£72,571) |
| Northern Ireland | £37,052 | £50,197 | 2.7% | £67,518 | 94th (£79,803) |
Download the earnings table (CSV). The file includes UK and regional P50, P75 and P90 values, their CVs, the population, reference period, source URLs and licence. Unavailable values are left blank, not recorded as zero.
The last column describes the limit of usable published evidence after quality checks. It is not a maximum salary, a comparison of how rich regions are, or evidence that nobody earns more.
Use this briefing
For an article or careers resource, cite Salary Calculator HQ analysis of ONS ASHE 2025 provisional annual earnings and link to this page and the ONS source tables. Retain the data year and comparison population when reusing the figures. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Editorial enquiries: hello@payfigured.co.uk.
The next ONS employee earnings release is scheduled for 22 October 2026. This briefing still uses the 2025 provisional release. New figures will only replace it after source and comparability checks; no 2026 earnings values are implied here.
How to use this when comparing jobs
- Compare annual gross earnings on a consistent basis. The ONS annual measure can include overtime and bonuses, while an offer's headline salary may exclude them.
- Select the job's workplace region in the dashboard. Check the median, your salary band and the quality limit together.
- Compare take-home cash and employer pension using the tax and pension settings that actually apply. Regional selection does not change those settings.
- Consider your own costs separately. This table does not adjust for housing, travel, working hours or purchasing power.
Compare your salary across the UK
One salary, different comparison groups
A £50,000 annual salary lies in the 60th–70th percentile UK band and the 50th–60th percentile London band. These can both be correct because the underlying employee-job distributions differ. A workplace percentile is not a judgment of whether relocating would leave you better off.
Why there is no reliable top-1% figure for every region
We use an estimate only when its published coefficient of variation (CV) is available and at or below 20%. A higher CV means greater sampling uncertainty. The additional ONS release includes some figures normally suppressed for low precision; those above our CV limit, or without usable quality information, are excluded. Missing observations remain unavailable and can widen a band. No exact rank is calculated above the last usable threshold.
Showing a broader “Top 3%” or “Top 6%” band where finer estimates fail the checks is deliberate. The national top-1% threshold cannot be substituted for an unavailable regional value.
Who this comparison covers
These figures describe full-time employee jobs, all sexes, on adult pay rates and held for more than a year. They are not a ranking of every UK resident, unique individuals, self-employed workers, household income or wealth. Full-time means more than 30 paid hours per week, or at least 25 for teaching professions. Annual observed earnings can include bonuses and overtime; a current base-salary offer is an approximate comparison.
Regional data use workplace location, not home address. England as a whole is not included as an additional peer region, and Northern Ireland is distinct from the Republic of Ireland.
Sources and method
- ONS ASHE Table 1: all employees, 2025 provisional
- ONS ASHE Table 7: place of work, 2025 provisional
- ONS ASHE ad-hoc J76: 90th–99th annual earnings percentiles, 2025 provisional
- ONS guide to interpreting ASHE
The core tables were released 23 October 2025; the additional upper-tail tables were released 4 November 2025. These are 2025 survey benchmarks, not live 2026 earnings. The dashboard's 2026/27 tax calculation is a separate model. Benchmarks are not adjusted for inflation.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Read the licence. Salary Calculator HQ is independent of ONS and is not endorsed by it.
Full calculation, benchmark and quality methodology · Report a correction
Publication and checks
Published by Salary Calculator HQ, operated by ELENOVO HOLDINGS LTD. These pages are generated from the same versioned, source-checked earnings dataset used by the dashboard. Automated checks compare the displayed tables with those data. There is no claim of independent professional certification or expert review.
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