Cost of living · ONS · Latest published: 2025
Median annual pay, full-time employees by local authority, ranked
Every area with a published figure, in order of median annual pay, £, highest first, because this layer states that higher is better. Equal figures share a rank and are printed as ties; the order within a tie is alphabetical and means nothing.
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| # | Area | £/year | UK percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Monmouthshire W06000021 | £41,529 | 69 |
| 2 | Torfaen W06000020 | £39,170 | 54 |
| 3 | Vale of Glamorgan W06000014 | £38,656 | 52 |
| 4 | Flintshire W06000005 | £37,505 | 41 |
| 5 | Carmarthenshire W06000010 | £37,405 | 39 |
| 6 | Bridgend W06000013 | £37,002 | 35 |
| 7 | Cardiff W06000015 | £36,946 | 35 |
| 8 | Swansea W06000011 | £36,586 | 32 |
| 9 | Newport W06000022 | £36,533 | 31 |
| 10 | Pembrokeshire W06000009 | £36,438 | 31 |
| 11 | Neath Port Talbot W06000012 | £36,359 | 30 |
| 12 | Powys W06000023 | £35,909 | 26 |
| 13 | Isle of Anglesey W06000001 | £35,709 | 24 |
| 14 | Conwy W06000003 | £35,424 | 23 |
| 15 | Caerphilly W06000018 | £35,367 | 22 |
| 16 | Wrexham W06000006 | £35,246 | 20 |
| 17 | Merthyr Tydfil W06000024 | £35,152 | 19 |
| 18 | Rhondda Cynon Taf W06000016 | £34,837 | 16 |
| 19 | Blaenau Gwent W06000019 | £34,797 | 16 |
| 20 | Ceredigion W06000008 | £33,299 | 6 |
| 21 | Gwynedd W06000002 | £32,868 | 5 |
| 22 | Denbighshire W06000004 | £32,691 | 4 |
How this ranking is made
Median annual pay, £: the published figure for the area, unchanged.. Median gross annual pay of full-time employees by the local authority they live in, from the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (Table 8, place of residence). The middle earner: half of full-time employees living in the area earn more, half less.
Source: ONS: ASHE Table 8.7a: annual gross pay by place of residence · 2025 provisional, released 2025-10-23. Boundaries: 2025-05 BGC v2 LAD_MAY_2025_UK_BGC_V2. Percentiles are calculated across the whole UK, so they do not change when the table is filtered to one nation. A ranking compares areas of very different sizes and populations; the figure is the publisher’s own, and its rank is Civometry’s ordering of those published figures.
Monmouthshire has the highest median annual pay, £ of 22 Wales local authorities with a published figure, at £41,529 (Latest published: 2025). Source: ONS: ASHE Table 8.7a: annual gross pay by place of residence.