How much does the average person in the UK earn? These are the latest official figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), with the date and source of every number.
The Big Numbers
UK median salary: £39,039 for full-time employees who had been in their job for at least a year, in April 2025 (ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, provisional). That is up 4.3% from £37,439 in April 2024. The median is the middle value — half earn more, half earn less — and it is the ONS’s preferred measure of average earnings.
| Median pay, April 2025 | Amount |
|---|---|
| Full-time employees: gross annual pay (same job for at least a year) | £39,039 |
| Full-time employees: gross weekly pay | £766.60 |
| Part-time employees: gross weekly pay | £280.00 |
| Full-time employees: hourly pay, excluding overtime | £19.67 |
| Full-time, public sector: gross weekly pay | £807.67 |
| Full-time, private sector: gross weekly pay | £752.28 |
After Income Tax and National Insurance at 2026/27 rates, a £39,039 salary takes home £31,628 a year, or £2,636 a month (England, Wales and Northern Ireland; no pension contributions or student loan). Full-time means more than 30 paid hours a week (25 or more for teachers).
By Age Group
Median gross annual pay for full-time employees rises to a peak in the 40s. By age group, April 2025 (ONS ASHE Table 6.7a), with take-home after 2026/27 Income Tax and National Insurance:
| Age | Median full-time pay | Take home a month |
|---|---|---|
| 18-21 | £23,596 | £1,709 |
| 22-29 | £32,347 | £2,234 |
| 30-39 | £40,668 | £2,733 |
| 40-49 | £44,244 | £2,948 |
| 50-59 | £41,866 | £2,805 |
| 60+ | £36,467 | £2,481 |
Among Income Tax payers, median total income was highest in the 45-49 age range in 2023-24: £41,200 for men and £31,900 for women (HMRC Survey of Personal Incomes).
See detailed breakdowns: age 25, age 30, age 40, age 50.
By Region
London has the highest median pay and the North East the lowest. Median gross weekly pay for all employee jobs, full-time and part-time, by where employees live (ONS, April 2025, provisional):
| Region or country | Median weekly pay (£) |
|---|---|
| London | 767.4 |
| South East | 678.0 |
| East of England | 670.8 |
| Scotland | 642.9 |
| West Midlands | 619.7 |
| North West | 615.9 |
| South West | 613.6 |
| East Midlands | 605.9 |
| Wales | 601.8 |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | 600.0 |
| Northern Ireland | 594.1 |
| North East | 577.9 |
| United Kingdom | 642.5 |
These are survey estimates, so small differences between regions may not be statistically significant.
HMRC’s figures for taxpayers’ total income show the same pattern: in 2023-24 London had the highest regional median (£35,700) and mean (£61,200), and the North East the lowest (£27,500 and £34,100). See all city salary comparisons.
Income Percentiles
Where does your income rank among taxpayers? HMRC’s figures for total income before tax, 2023-24:
| Total income before tax | Where it sits among taxpayers |
|---|---|
| £15,700 | 10% had less (10th percentile) |
| £20,800 | 25% had less (25th percentile) |
| £29,700 | Middle: half had more, half less (median) |
| £40,800 | 30% had more (70th percentile) |
| £49,900 | 20% had more (80th percentile) |
| £50,000 | 19.8% had more (7.28 million people) |
| £67,400 | 10% had more (90th percentile) |
| £93,600 | 5% had more (95th percentile) |
| £207,000 | 1% had more (99th percentile) |
These cover the 36.7 million people who paid Income Tax in 2023-24, and count income from all sources — employment, self-employment, pensions, property, savings and dividends — before tax. People with no Income Tax to pay, including most of those with income below the £12,570 Personal Allowance, are not included, so the share of all adults above each line is lower. See detailed percentiles: full income percentile breakdown.
For pay from a job rather than total income, the ONS publishes percentiles of gross annual pay (ASHE Table 6.7a, April 2025, employees in the same job for at least a year; all employee jobs include part-time):
| Percentile | Full-time jobs | All employee jobs |
|---|---|---|
| 10th | £23,990 | £11,425 |
| 25th | £29,262 | £22,060 |
| Median | £39,039 | £32,890 |
| 75th | £54,009 | £48,283 |
| 90th | £76,903 | £69,381 |
Gender Pay Gap
The ONS measures the gender pay gap as the difference between men’s and women’s median hourly pay, excluding overtime, as a share of men’s. In April 2025 it was 6.9% for full-time employees (down from 7.1% in 2024) and 12.8% for all employees (down from 13.1%). Full-time men earned a median £20.27 an hour and full-time women £18.87. Among part-time employees the gap was −2.9%: women earned more.
The gap is much higher for full-time employees aged 40 and over than for those under 40, and widest among top earners: 15.2% at the 90th percentile of full-time hourly pay, against 1.8% at the 10th.
| Age | Full-time gender pay gap, April 2025 |
|---|---|
| 18-21 | 1.3% |
| 22-29 | 0.9% |
| 30-39 | 3.9% |
| 40-49 | 9.1% |
| 50-59 | 12.5% |
| 60+ | 12.6% |
HMRC’s taxpayer data show a gap in total income too: in 2023-24 the median was £32,600 for men and £26,700 for women.
Putting UK Incomes in Context
The two headline medians measure different things. The ONS’s £39,039 is the median gross pay of full-time employees in the same job for at least a year. HMRC’s £29,700 is the median total income of everyone who paid Income Tax, including part-time workers, the self-employed and pensioners. To compare a full-time salary, use the ONS figure; to see where your total income ranks, use HMRC’s — or our income percentile calculator.
Means are pulled up by a small number of very high incomes, which is why the median is the better guide: in London, taxpayers’ mean total income was £61,200 in 2023-24 but the median was £35,700 — a gap of £25,500. Income is concentrated at the top. In 2023-24 the top 1% of Income Tax payers received 12.4% of total income and were liable for 27.2% of all Income Tax; the top half received 75.1% (£1.15 trillion of £1.53 trillion), leaving 24.9% for the bottom half. The 19.8% of taxpayers with income over £50,000 received 47.4% of total income.
Full-time and part-time pay differ widely — a median £766.60 a week against £280.00 in April 2025 — so make sure you compare like with like. Our salary breakdown pages show exact take home figures for every income level.
See where your salary ranks
Salary calculator →Sources
- ONS, Employee earnings in the UK: 2025 (Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, provisional), released 23 October 2025 — median annual, weekly and hourly pay; public and private sector.
- ONS, Gender pay gap in the UK: 2025, released 23 October 2025 — headline gaps, hourly pay by sex, and the gap by percentile and by age (Figures 1, 2, 3 and 6).
- ONS, Explore local statistics: gross median weekly pay (ASHE, April 2025, by place of residence; Northern Ireland from NISRA), published 23 October 2025.
- ONS, Earnings and hours worked, age group: ASHE Table 6, Table 6.7a, 2025 provisional edition released 23 October 2025 — gross annual pay by age group, and percentiles of pay for full-time and all employee jobs.
- HMRC, Personal Incomes Statistics 2023 to 2024: Commentary, published 29 April 2026 — percentile points (Table 3.1a), income by age and sex (Table 3.2), incomes over £50,000 (Table 3.3) and income by region.
- HMRC, Percentile points for total income before and after tax (Table 3.1a), 2023 to 2024, published 29 April 2026 — the 25th, 70th, 80th and 95th percentile points.
- HMRC, Income Tax liabilities statistics: tax year 2023 to 2024 to tax year 2026 to 2027 — summary statistics, published 15 July 2026 — number of Income Tax payers and shares of income and tax, 2023 to 2024.
- GOV.UK, Income Tax rates and Personal Allowances and National Insurance: how much you pay (2026/27), used for the take-home figure.