Average (median) gross weekly earnings by UK country - English region and year (£)
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Title
Average earnings data by UK country/English regionLast update
2 February 2024Next update
TBCPublishing organisation
Welsh GovernmentSource 1
Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Office for National StatisticsContact email
LabourMarket.Stats@gov.walesDesignation
National StatisticsLowest level of geographical disaggregation
UK regionsGeographical coverage
UK regionsLanguages covered
English onlyData licensing
You may use and re-use this data free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government License - see http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licenceGeneral description
These data show average gross weekly and hourly earnings in pounds for the UK countries/English regions in April of the years shown. The data relate to full-time employees on adult rates whose pay for the survey period was not affected by absence. Area relates to the location of workplace, not the residence of the employee.Data collection and calculation
The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) is based on a 1% sample of employee jobs taken from HM Revenue and Customs PAYE records. Consequently, individuals with more than one job may appear in the sample more than once. Information on earnings and hours is obtained from employers and treated confidentially. ASHE does not cover the self-employed or employees not paid during the reference period.The median is often presented as the headline measure for average earnings because the distribution of earnings is skewed, with more people earning lower salaries than higher salaries. In a skewed distribution a relatively small number of high values can have a disproportionate influence on the mean, pulling it away from what might be regarded as typical. The median is not affected by extreme values and consequently is considered a better indicator of typical “average” earnings.
Frequency of publication
AnnualData reference periods
1997 to 2023Revisions information
Data for the latest year are provisional and are revised on the release on the next years data.Statistical quality
The figures are taken from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), which is run by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). In 2004, the ASHE replaced the New Earnings Survey (NES) by introducing a new methodology into the calculation of earnings data. This new methodology applies weights to the results to take account of the structure of the population in terms of age, gender, occupation and area of workplace (London and the South East or elsewhere in the UK). The NES data for 1997 to 2003 were reworked to provide a back-series of earnings data using the new methodology.There were further changes to the ASHE methodology in 2005 as a result of the introduction of a new questionnaire. 2004 data were reworked to be comparable with this new methodology, but it was not possible to do this for earlier years. Thus there are discontinuities in the data that must be taken account of when making comparisons over time.
A new automatic coding system for occupations was introduced in 2007. The main impact of this was to move a number of jobs away from the top occupational groups to other occupational groups. This tended to lower the average earnings in the top occupational groups and to lower earnings overall. Partly in response to the change to the sample design, an additional weighting stratum was introduced for those large enterprises which submit electronic returns to the survey (special arrangements). There was no reduction in the sample amongst these enterprises.
In 2007 and 2008, there was a sample reduction of around 20 per cent. The sample reduction was designed to be biggest in those industries where earnings exhibit lower levels of variation. In 2009 the original sample size was re-instated.
For the publication of the 2011 ASHE estimates, the occupational groups were reclassified. Since the occupational classification forms part of the methodology by which ASHE data are weighted to produce estimates for the UK, this release marked the start of a new time series and therefore care should be taken when making comparisons with earlier years.
As the results come from a survey, the results are sample-based estimates and therefore subject to differing degrees of sampling variability, i.e. the true value for any measure lies in a differing range about the estimated value. This range or sampling variability increases as the detail in the data increases, for example regional data are subject to higher variability than the Great Britain or United Kingdom data.
For further information on the quality and methodology of the data please see ONS’ Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings quality and methodology information report: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/methodologies/annualsurveyofhoursandearningslowpayandannualsurveyofhoursandearningspensionresultsqmi
