Salaries · United Kingdom · Northern Ireland
Average salary in Northern Ireland
Full-time employees working in Northern Ireland earn a median of £38,203 a year (ONS ASHE 2026, provisional), 7% below the UK median of £40,911 and the 8th highest of the 12 UK nations and regions. That is up 3.2% on a year earlier. Full-time workers who live in Northern Ireland earn a median of £38,483, about the same as jobs located there pay.
By Dominic Roworth · ONS ASHE 2026 data, checked 31 October 2026
Pay in Northern Ireland: the key figures
Full-time, before tax, year to April 2026.
| Jobs in Northern Ireland | People living in Northern Ireland | United Kingdom | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median pay | £38,203 | £38,483 | £40,911 |
| Average (mean) pay | £44,642 | £45,001 | £52,109 |
| Lowest-paid 10% earn under | £24,985 | £25,000 | £25,288 |
| Lowest-paid 25% earn under | £29,579 | £29,746 | £30,600 |
| Highest-paid 25% earn over | £51,427 | £51,551 | £56,842 |
| Highest-paid 10% earn over | £68,405 | £69,229 | £82,680 |
| Median a week | £754.40 | £760.50 | £811.20 |
| Median an hour | £19.30 | £19.40 | £20.90 |
| Full-time employee jobs (indicative) | 584,000 | 601,000 | 18,184,000 |
ONS counts jobs, not people.
Take-home pay on the median
On £38,203, a full-time employee keeps about £31,026 a year (£2,586 a month) after income tax and National Insurance, with the standard tax code, no student loan and no pension contributions.
What drives pay in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland's full-time median of £38,203 sits about £2,700 below the UK figure, and most of that gap is in the private sector. NISRA's 2026 results put typical public sector pay in Northern Ireland at £840 a week, only 2.6% below the UK, while private sector pay, at £708 a week, is 10.9% behind. Public sector employees here earn 18.6% more than private sector staff, against about 8.5% across the UK, though NISRA notes that part of that reflects the different mix of jobs in each sector.
The industry mix explains much of the private sector gap. Wholesale and retail produce 14.2% of Northern Ireland's economic output, against 9.4% for the UK, and farming 2.2% against 0.7%, while professional, scientific and technical services produce 4.9%, little more than half the UK share (ONS, 2024). Output per hour worked was 12.4% below the UK average in 2023, and Northern Ireland had the highest share of low-paid jobs of the 12 UK regions in 2026, at 4.0%.
Pay is concentrated in Belfast, which holds just over a third of full-time jobs and has the top workplace median in the council table (£40,810). Belfast and Derry City and Strabane are the only councils where jobs pay more than residents earn, a sign of commuting into the two cities. Residents of Lisburn and Castlereagh earn £42,678, well above the £39,926 paid by jobs there. Causeway Coast and Glens is lowest on both measures.
What is changing: private sector real earnings are 12.3% above their 2019 level, against 2.0% in the public sector, and the private sector gap with the UK is the smallest NISRA has recorded. On NISRA's weekly measure, full-time pay rose 6.1% in 2026, ahead of the UK's 5.8%.
Pay by council
Across Northern Ireland's 11 council areas, jobs pay most in Belfast (£40,810) and least in Causeway Coast and Glens (£32,011). Any town or village: local pay lookup.
| Council | Jobs there | People living there | Change on a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Belfast | £40,810 | £38,404 | +1.5% |
| Lisburn and Castlereagh | £39,926 | £42,678 | +4.9% |
| Derry City and Strabane | £37,973 | £36,299 | +4.4% |
| Antrim and Newtownabbey | £37,934 | £39,662 | +1.4% |
| Fermanagh and Omagh | £36,629 | £37,090 | +2.4% |
| Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon | £36,598 | £37,249 | +5.6% |
| Ards and North Down | £36,539 | £38,451 | +16.2% |
| Mid Ulster | £35,955 | £36,728 | +6.0% |
| Mid and East Antrim | £34,916 | £35,569 | +5.5% |
| Newry, Mourne and Down | £34,623 | £36,110 | +3.7% |
| Causeway Coast and Glens | £32,011 | £33,694 | +0.3% |
* Less precise (coefficient of variation over 10%). Council figures from NISRA.
Northern Ireland and its neighbours
| Jobs there | People living there | Change on a year | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Northern Ireland | £38,203 | £38,483 | +3.2% |
| Scotland | £41,466 | £41,591 | +4.5% |
Limits
ASHE covers employee jobs, not the self-employed; the 2026 figures are provisional and ONS revises them a year later. Annual pay is for employees in the same job for at least a year. More in our methodology.
Sources
- ONS, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2026, provisional, Table 7: place of work by local authority
- ONS, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2026, provisional, Table 8: place of residence by local authority
- NISRA, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (Northern Ireland councils)
- Take-home pay: Paygrade's 2026/27 UK tax engine, see the methodology.
- NISRA, Employee earnings in Northern Ireland 2026, key points, 22 October 2026
- ONS, Regional gross value added (balanced) by industry: all ITL regions, Table 1c, 23 September 2026
- ONS, Regional economic activity by gross domestic product, UK: 1998 to 2024, Table 1, 23 September 2026
- ONS, Annual regional labour productivity dataset (1998 to 2023), Table 2, 19 June 2025
Related
- Salaries in the United Kingdom: pay for every career we cover
- Local pay lookup: any UK town or village
- Am I underpaid? Check your pay against the official figures