Average salary in Scotland
Residence-based pay from the Office for National Statistics' Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, 2025 provisional.
Median gross annual pay
£33,061
April 2025
Mean gross annual pay
£38,022
April 2025
Como ler este número
How to read this figure
De onde vem o dado
Source: ONS, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), Table 8 (place of residence by local authority), 2025 provisional
Cuidado
What this number does not tell you
O que fazer com isso
What to do with this figure
Pay in Scotland
Median gross annual pay for employees living in Scotland was £33,061 in April 2025; the mean was £38,022. The median is the better figure to quote as "the average salary", because a small number of very high salaries pushes the mean above what most people earn.
These figures count employees who live in this country of the UK, whether or not they work there. Across the UK as a whole the median was £32,890.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Median gross annual pay | £33,061 |
| Mean gross annual pay | £38,022 |
| Median gross weekly pay | £643 a week |
| Median gross hourly pay | £18.48 an hour |
| Median for full-time employees | £39,905 |
| Employee jobs in the survey base (thousands) | 2,204 |
The pay range in this area
Gross annual pay distribution, Scotland
| Percentile | Gross annual pay |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest paid tenth) | £11,946 |
| 25th percentile | £22,657 |
| Median (50th percentile) | £33,061 |
| 75th percentile | £47,780 |
| 90th percentile (highest paid tenth) | £64,825 |
How this compares with similar areas
| Area | Median gross annual pay | Mean gross annual pay |
|---|---|---|
| Scotland | £33,061 | £38,022 |
| England | £33,080 | £41,038 |
| Northern Ireland | £31,252 | £35,789 |
| Wales | £30,732 | £34,595 |
How reliable this figure is
Coefficient of variation 1.1% — ONS considers this estimate precise.
How does average salary in scotland compare with the rest of the United Kingdom?
At £33,061, average salary in scotland is above the £32,890 that average salary in the uk publishes for the United Kingdom as a whole — a difference of 1%. That gap is the first thing worth checking before comparing two job offers.
Why does pay for average salary in scotland vary so much?
A quarter of people in this group are paid below £22,657 and a quarter above £47,780; the median sits at £33,061 and the mean at £38,022. The gap between the two ends is wide, which usually means experience, location or employer size separates the lowest and highest earners by more than the job title alone.
What does "April 2025" mean for average salary in scotland?
The figures for average salary in scotland come from ONS, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), Table 8 (place of residence by local authority), 2025 provisional, with a reference period of April 2025. Pay statistics like this one are not updated in real time: the underlying survey or register takes months to collect and process, so the number reflects pay around that date, not today. Released 2025-10-22, last revised 2025-12-19. Estimates marked by ONS as having a coefficient of variation above 20% are suppressed and shown here as unavailable.
Glossário: os termos desta página
Median vs. mean
The median is the middle value when every salary is lined up from lowest to highest: half earn less, half earn more. The mean is the simple average. A handful of very high salaries pulls the mean up without moving the median, so the median is usually the better guide to what a typical person earns.
Percentile
A percentile splits the distribution into 100 equal parts. The 10th percentile is the value only a tenth of people earn below; the 90th percentile is what only a tenth earn above. Looking at several percentiles shows the full spread, not just one average.
Fonte: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) — Office for National Statistics.
Full-time equivalent
A way of converting part-time hours into the pay a full-time version of the same job would earn, so that a two-day-a-week role can be compared fairly with a five-day one. Figures that mix full-time and part-time workers without adjusting for this tend to understate typical full-time pay.
Coefficient of variation
A measure of how much an estimate could be off, expressed as a percentage of the estimate itself. Statistical agencies use it to flag figures based on too small a sample: a high coefficient of variation means the number should be read as a rough order of magnitude, not an exact figure.
Fonte: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) — Office for National Statistics.
Reference period
The point in time, or the stretch of time, that a published figure actually describes. Pay surveys take months to collect and process, so the reference period is usually well before the date the figures are released, and always before the date you are reading them.
Pay statistics glossary — todos os 10 termos.
Reference period: April 2025
Data collected on: 7 October 2026
Released 2025-10-22, last revised 2025-12-19. Estimates marked by ONS as having a coefficient of variation above 20% are suppressed and shown here as unavailable.
Figures are statistical averages for a whole group of employees. Your own pay depends on your employer, your experience, your hours and where you work.