Pick up to four places, set a salary, and see what is left after tax and the cost of living there. UKIZ does not rank places and never will — the figures sit side by side and the judgement is yours.
Set it up
£38,000
Take-home assumes a standard personal allowance, no student loan and no pension contribution. Adjust those on a place page for a closer figure.
Places (up to four)
Side by side
| Manchester | London | Cambridge | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tax regime | England, Wales and Northern Ireland | England, Wales and Northern Ireland | England, Wales and Northern Ireland |
| Median pay (all jobs) | £35,000 | £47,500 | £40,000 |
| Average rent | £1,250/mo | £2,200/mo | £1,600/mo |
| Take-home on this salary | £2,573/mo | £2,573/mo | £2,573/mo |
| Baseline monthly costs | £1,980/mo | Not recorded yet | Not recorded yet |
| Left over | £593/mo | — | — |
Where a baseline is missing, UKIZ has not recorded a sourced cost basket for that place yet. An empty cell is honest; an estimate would not be.
Read it carefully
Official earnings and advertised salaries are different things and are never mixed here. Official pay is measured across everyone doing the work. An advertised range is what one employer chose to publish for one role.
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.
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