UKIZ/LIVE & WORK · SOUTH WEST
Could I build a life
in Bristol?
What the work pays in Bristol, what living there costs, and what is left at the end of the month.
Reference figures only · the full picture is not built for this place yet
The two numbers everyone starts with
Median gross annual pay, full-time employees
£38,000 a year
Bristol, City of (workplace-based)
Office for National Statistics — Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) · 2024 · Verified yesterday
Recorded by hand from the published release and rounded.
Average monthly private rent
£1,650 a month
Bristol, City of, all property types
Office for National Statistics — Price Index of Private Rents · 2025 · Verified yesterday
Recorded by hand from the published release and rounded.
Neither figure is about you. Median pay covers everybody working in Bristol, City of, from every occupation. Average rent covers every property type. They set the scale; the sections below get closer.
Cost
Not stated: A full cost basket for Bristol — Council tax, energy, transport and household costs have not been recorded against named sources for this place. Manchester currently carries the complete basket.
Take-home
What would my life look like on that salary?
Move the salary and the costs to match your own situation. Tax is calculated under England, Wales and Northern Ireland rules, from thresholds published by HMRC.
Take-home each month
£2,447
£29,360 a year · England, Wales and Northern Ireland tax
- Income tax
- −£4,706
- National Insurance
- −£2,034
- Pension
- −£1,900
About £797 left each month after those costs — 67% of your take-home goes on the baseline.
An estimate for one employee on PAYE with a standard tax code, no benefits in kind and no other income. It is not advice and it is not a payslip. Thresholds come from HMRC, the Scottish Government and the Student Loans Company.
Live
And what is Bristol actually like?
Engineering meets creativity, in a city that refuses to be corporate.
Housing costs are the highest of the pilot destinations outside the South East, and traffic in and out of the city is a known frustration.
- Harbourside. The water is in the middle of the city, and in summer the whole place reorganises itself around it.
- Music. Sound-system culture, small venues and a bass inheritance that shaped a generation of British music.
- Street art. A city that treats walls as a public medium rather than a problem to be scrubbed.
- Food. Independent, neighbourhood-led, and stubbornly resistant to chains.
What to know
What UKIZ cannot tell you yet
- · Cost basket, occupation bands and vacancies are not built for this place yet.
UKIZ does not rank places. These figures are put side by side so you can weigh them yourself against what you want from a life.