Salaries · United Kingdom · South West
Average salary in South West
Full-time employees working in the South West earn a median of £39,078 a year (ONS ASHE 2026, provisional), 4% below the UK median of £40,911 and the 5th highest of the 12 UK nations and regions. That is up 5% on a year earlier. Full-time workers who live in the South West earn a median of £39,457, about the same as jobs located there pay.
By Dominic Roworth · ONS ASHE 2026 data, checked 31 October 2026
Pay in South West: the key figures
Full-time, before tax, year to April 2026.
| Jobs in South West | People living in South West | United Kingdom | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median pay | £39,078 | £39,457 | £40,911 |
| Average (mean) pay | £45,682 | £46,681 | £52,109 |
| Lowest-paid 10% earn under | £25,000 | £25,023 | £25,288 |
| Lowest-paid 25% earn under | £30,003 | £30,149 | £30,600 |
| Highest-paid 25% earn over | £52,200 | £53,321 | £56,842 |
| Highest-paid 10% earn over | £73,149 | £74,815 | £82,680 |
| Median a week | £776.20 | £782.60 | £811.20 |
| Median an hour | £19.80 | £20.00 | £20.90 |
| Full-time employee jobs (indicative) | 1,451,000 | 1,485,000 | 18,184,000 |
ONS counts jobs, not people.
Take-home pay on the median
On £39,078, a full-time employee keeps about £31,656 a year (£2,638 a month) after income tax and National Insurance, with the standard tax code, no student loan and no pension contributions.
What drives pay in the South West
Jobs in the South West pay a median of £39,078, 4.5% below the UK, a gap close to its productivity: output per hour worked was 7.5% below the UK average in 2023.
Tourism and farming are a bigger part of working life than anywhere else in England. Accommodation and food services provide 10.2% of the region's jobs, the highest share in Great Britain, against 7.7% nationally, and agriculture 2.6% against 1.4% (ONS, 2024). Defence and public administration are 6.7% of output against 5.0% for the UK, and manufacturing 9.6% against 8.9%.
The Bristol area tops the council table. South Gloucestershire has the highest workplace median (£44,514), with public administration and defence at 10.4% of its jobs, more than twice the British share; the Ministry of Defence's equipment agency, DE&S, which employs about 12,500 people across the UK, is headquartered at MOD Abbey Wood on the Bristol fringe. Bristol follows at £43,382. Cornwall's jobs pay £35,891, and Devon districts sit at the bottom: South Hams, Teignbridge, North Devon and Torbay have the lowest workplace medians.
Where people live matters in places. South Hams residents earn £40,323, far more than the £34,068 local jobs pay, and people living in Cheltenham earn £45,924 against £40,789 for jobs there. Across the region the two medians are within £380 of each other.
What is changing: pay for South West jobs rose 5.0% in 2026, faster than the UK's 4.5%. In Somerset, EDF is building Hinkley Point C, two nuclear reactors it says will power around six million homes, with thousands of workers on site. The economy grew 1.3% in real terms in 2024.
Pay by council
Across the South West's 27 council areas, jobs pay most in South Gloucestershire (£44,514) and least in South Hams (£34,068). Any town or village: local pay lookup.
| Council | Jobs there | People living there | Change on a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| South Gloucestershire | £44,514 | £41,673 | +7.4% |
| Bristol, City of | £43,382 | £41,565 | +3.0% |
| Tewkesbury | £42,269* | £39,566 | +0.5% |
| Bath and North East Somerset | £41,238 | £42,619 | +8.4% |
| Swindon | £40,988 | £41,859 | +1.1% |
| Cheltenham | £40,789 | £45,924 | -2.0% |
| North Somerset | £39,522 | £43,350 | +12.9% |
| Plymouth | £39,306 | £37,376 | +8.0% |
| Wiltshire | £38,975 | £40,776 | +7.6% |
| Exeter | £38,814 | £37,350 | +7.1% |
| Stroud | £38,660 | £40,011 | +3.0% |
| Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole | £37,909 | £38,336 | +1.9% |
| Gloucester | £37,586 | £37,804 | +8.0% |
| East Devon | £37,443 | £38,474 | -5.8% |
| Forest of Dean | £37,364 | £41,522 | +6.1% |
| Torridge | £37,268 | £38,673 | +10.0% |
| West Devon | £37,251* | £39,478* | -7.0% |
| Somerset | £37,171 | £37,497 | +4.5% |
| Dorset | £36,820 | £38,167 | +4.1% |
| Cotswold | £36,255 | £41,098* | +7.9% |
| Mid Devon | £36,134 | £37,951 | +2.1% |
| Cornwall | £35,891 | £36,776 | +6.1% |
| Torbay | £35,591 | £36,849 | +14.0% |
| North Devon | £34,957 | £36,529 | +9.0% |
| Teignbridge | £34,460 | £35,187 | +0.5% |
| South Hams | £34,068 | £40,323 | +8.2% |
| Isles of Scilly | not published | not published |
* Less precise (coefficient of variation over 10%).
The highest-paid jobs in the South West
For jobs located in the South West, where the estimate is precise (coefficient of variation up to 10%).
| Job | Median a year | Change on a year |
|---|---|---|
| Sales accounts and business development managers | £61,362 | +7.3% |
| Business and financial project management professionals | £60,340 | +9.4% |
| Management consultants and business analysts | £55,937 | +7.0% |
| Production managers and directors in manufacturing | £55,247 | +2.0% |
| Engineering technicians | £52,132 | +7.3% |
| Higher education teaching professionals | £51,781 | -2.5% |
| Programmers and software development professionals | £50,819 | -5.5% |
| Police officers (sergeant and below) | £49,848 | +3.3% |
| Engineering professionals (other) | £46,267 | +4.0% |
| Business sales executives | £45,677 | +3.5% |
| Primary education teaching professionals | £45,128 | +7.3% |
| Secondary education teaching professionals | £44,640 | -1.3% |
The most common full-time jobs in the South West
| Job | Jobs (indicative) | Median a year |
|---|---|---|
| Other nursing professionals | 37,000 | £43,947 |
| Production managers and directors in manufacturing | 34,000 | £55,247 |
| Secondary education teaching professionals | 31,000 | £44,640 |
| Care workers and home carers | 30,000 | £29,298 |
| Warehouse operatives | 26,000 | £29,909 |
| Programmers and software development professionals | 25,000 | £50,819 |
| Sales accounts and business development managers | 24,000 | £61,362 |
| Nursing auxiliaries and assistants | 24,000 | £29,692 |
| Other administrative occupations (other) | 24,000 | £28,462 |
| Business and financial project management professionals | 22,000 | £60,340 |
| Managers and directors in retail and wholesale | 22,000 | £37,104 |
| Financial managers and directors | 21,000 | £62,906* |
* Less precise.
South West and its neighbours
| Jobs there | People living there | Change on a year | |
|---|---|---|---|
| South West | £39,078 | £39,457 | +5% |
| South East | £41,664 | £44,010 | +3.9% |
| West Midlands | £38,628 | £38,750 | +4.3% |
| Wales | £37,330 | £37,993 | +4.2% |
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
- ONS, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2026, provisional, Table 15: region by occupation
- Take-home pay: Paygrade's 2026/27 UK tax engine, see the methodology.
- ONS, Annual regional labour productivity dataset (1998 to 2023), Table 2, 19 June 2025
- ONS Business Register and Employment Survey 2024 (provisional), employment by industry, via Nomis, 28 October 2025
- ONS, Regional gross value added (balanced) by industry: all ITL regions, Table 1c, 23 September 2026
- GOV.UK, Defence Equipment and Support: About us; organisation page (contact details), accessed 31 October 2026
- EDF, Hinkley Point C, accessed 31 October 2026 (page shows news dated 1 October 2026)
- ONS, Regional economic activity by gross domestic product, UK: 1998 to 2024 (Tables 1 and 2), 23 September 2026
Related
- Salaries in the United Kingdom: pay for every career we cover
- Local pay lookup: any UK town or village
- NHS pay bands 2026/27
- Am I underpaid? Check your pay against the official figures