Salary Information By UK Geographical Area

There is a popular perception that those in the South of the UK earn more than those in the North, and that this clear North / South divide would therefore be expected to be reflected in our salary data. The question is: is this true, and if so, how profound is the split?

We have analysed the results of the 5,000 most recent pieces of salary data collected (April - May 2009) and here are the results:

East of England - average of £30,280
South East - average of £32,524
South West - average of £28,355
Yorkshire and North East - average of £29,282
London - average of £42,302
Scotland - average of £31,582
Midlands - average of £27,926
North West - average of £31,144
Wales - average of £29,881
Northern Ireland - average of £46,526

As can be seen, interestingly it is Northern Ireland that comes out on top, with an average salary that seems extremely high at £46,526. Is this an anomaly due to the relatively low number results from that region in this cut of the data? (Total of 153 pieces of salary data from Northern Ireland in this results set).

The rest play out pretty much as expected, with London the second highest, followed by the South East. Yorkshire and the North East, Wales and the South West come out lowest on this result set.