UK Cities Ranked by Take-Home Pay (2026)
Updated 31 October 2026 · 2026/27 tax rules · ONS 2026 provisional pay data · By the AfterTaxSalary team
The short answer
A full-time median earner living in London takes home £3,280.64 a month, the most of the 39 areas here. In Nottingham it is £2,236.76, a gap of £1,043.88 a month. Across the UK the median is £40,911, which takes home £2,747.96, and 11 of the 39 areas beat that.
The full ranking
| # | Area | Median salary | Take-home a month | Against UK |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | London | £49,789 | £3,280.64 | +£532.68 |
| 2 | Cambridge* | £46,984 | £3,112.34 | +£364.38 |
| 3 | Oxford* | £45,592 | £3,028.82 | +£280.86 |
| 4 | Milton Keynes* | £44,409 | £2,957.84 | +£209.88 |
| 5 | York* | £43,366 | £2,895.26 | +£147.30 |
| 6 | Edinburgh | £43,272 | £2,881.47 | +£133.51 |
| 7 | Aberdeen | £43,092 | £2,870.82 | +£122.86 |
| 8 | Bath* | £42,619 | £2,850.44 | +£102.48 |
| 9 | Chester* | £41,912 | £2,808.02 | +£60.06 |
| 10 | Bristol | £41,565 | £2,787.20 | +£39.24 |
| 11 | Reading* | £41,100 | £2,759.30 | +£11.34 |
| 12 | Brighton | £40,868 | £2,745.38 | -£2.58 |
| 13 | Portsmouth | £39,779 | £2,680.04 | -£67.92 |
| 14 | Glasgow | £39,817 | £2,677.05 | -£70.91 |
| 15 | Cardiff | £39,566 | £2,667.26 | -£80.70 |
| 16 | Sheffield | £39,304 | £2,651.54 | -£96.42 |
| 17 | Leeds | £39,190 | £2,644.70 | -£103.26 |
| 18 | Newcastle | £38,520 | £2,604.50 | -£143.46 |
| 19 | Dundee | £38,424 | £2,594.63 | -£153.33 |
| 20 | Southampton | £38,319 | £2,592.44 | -£155.52 |
| 21 | Liverpool | £38,235 | £2,587.40 | -£160.56 |
| 22 | Ipswich* | £38,228 | £2,586.98 | -£160.98 |
| 23 | Swansea | £37,977 | £2,571.92 | -£176.04 |
| 24 | Coventry | £37,815 | £2,562.20 | -£185.76 |
| 25 | Norwich* | £37,546 | £2,546.06 | -£201.90 |
| 26 | Derby* | £37,540 | £2,545.70 | -£202.26 |
| 27 | Birmingham | £37,484 | £2,542.34 | -£205.62 |
| 28 | Plymouth | £37,376 | £2,535.86 | -£212.10 |
| 29 | Exeter* | £37,350 | £2,534.30 | -£213.66 |
| 30 | Wolverhampton* | £37,038 | £2,515.58 | -£232.38 |
| 31 | Manchester | £36,860 | £2,504.90 | -£243.06 |
| 32 | Peterborough | £36,738 | £2,497.58 | -£250.38 |
| 33 | Middlesbrough* | £35,600 | £2,429.30 | -£318.66 |
| 34 | Stoke on Trent | £34,826 | £2,382.86 | -£365.10 |
| 35 | Luton* | £34,641 | £2,371.76 | -£376.20 |
| 36 | Sunderland | £34,555 | £2,366.60 | -£381.36 |
| 37 | Leicester | £33,607 | £2,309.72 | -£438.24 |
| 38 | Hull | £33,552 | £2,306.42 | -£441.54 |
| 39 | Nottingham | £32,391 | £2,236.76 | -£511.20 |
* A less precise ONS estimate (coefficient of variation of 5% or more), so treat the exact position with care. London is the whole region. Belfast is left out because Northern Ireland isn't in this ONS table. Take-home assumes tax code 1257L, NI category A, no pension and no student loan.
What the numbers show
Scottish tax barely moves the ranking at median pay
Scotland has more tax bands, but at these salaries the effect is small. On the same pay under the rules for England, the 4 Scottish cities here would take home between £4.11 and £8.15 a month more. The bigger difference between UK cities is what people are paid.
Take-home gaps are smaller than salary gaps
The gap in gross pay between London and Nottingham is £17,398 a year, but £12,527 a year after tax and National Insurance. Higher earners lose more of each extra pound.
What this ranking doesn't show
It counts pay, not living costs, and it describes people who live in an area, wherever they work. Council boundaries matter too: a tightly drawn city can look lower than a larger area around it because many higher earners live just outside.
How does your pay compare?
Work out your own figure with the take-home pay calculator, or weigh a move with the job offer comparison, which includes bonus, employer pension and commuting.
How we worked this out
We took the median gross annual pay of full-time employees by place of residence from the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2026, Table 8.7a (place of residence by local authority): median gross annual pay for full-time employee jobs, released 22 October 2026 (provisional, so it can be revised). We then ran each figure through our 2026/27 calculator, using Scottish income tax for the Scottish cities. Anyone may reuse this table with a link to this page. The ONS figures are available under the Open Government Licence.
Sources & references
OfficialThe rates, thresholds and rules on this page are drawn from the official UK government sources below, using the confirmed 2026/27 figures. Each link opens the relevant HMRC or GOV.UK page in a new tab.
- ONS: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, place of residence by local authority (Table 8) www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/placeofresidencebylocalauthorityashetable8
- GOV.UK: Income Tax rates and Personal Allowances www.gov.uk/income-tax-rates
- GOV.UK: Scottish Income Tax www.gov.uk/scottish-income-tax
- GOV.UK: National Insurance rates www.gov.uk/national-insurance/how-much-you-pay
Verified against published UK government guidance for 2026/27.