Methodology

Data source

All salary data comes from the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE). ASHE is based on a 1% sample of employee jobs from HM Revenue & Customs' Pay As You Earn (PAYE) records, making it the most comprehensive source of earnings data in the UK.

Tables used

• Table 14 — National occupation earnings (all employees)
• Table 15 — Occupation by region earnings
• Table 7 — Local authority workplace earnings (all occupations)

How city pages work

ONS does not publish occupation × local authority cross-tabulations. When you view a page like "Nurse salary in Manchester", the occupation salary data covers the North West region (which includes Manchester), while the all-jobs average salary is specific to Manchester. We are transparent about this on every page.

Suppressed data

ONS suppresses values where sample sizes are too small to be reliable. Where data is suppressed, we show "Not available" rather than estimating or interpolating.

Cost of living adjustments

Regional cost-of-living adjustments use ONS Regional Price Parities, which measure price differences between UK regions relative to the UK average (index = 100).