UKIZ/LIVE & WORK · NORTH WEST
Could I build a life
in Manchester?
Manchester's case is not that it pays the most. It is that the gap between what you earn and what you spend is wider here than in most cities with this much going on.
Pilot destination · full picture
The two numbers everyone starts with
Median gross annual pay, full-time employees
£35,000 a year
Manchester local authority (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.
Rounded to the nearest £500. This is everybody in the city, not people in innovation roles.
Average monthly private rent
£1,250 a month
Manchester local authority, all property types
Office for National Statistics — Price Index of Private Rents · 2025 · Verified yesterday
Recorded by hand from the published release and rounded.
Rounded to the nearest £50. A one-bedroom flat in the city centre sits above this; a room in a shared house sits well below it.
Neither figure is about you. Median pay covers everybody working in Manchester local authority, from every occupation. Average rent covers every property type. They set the scale; the sections below get closer.
Earn
What might I earn in my field?
Official earnings are published by occupation, not by industry. UKIZ maps each Community to SOC 2020 occupations and says which ones. The mapping is our judgement, and it is visible so you can disagree with it.
Artificial Intelligence
North West (regional)
- Entry
- £30,000
- Typical
- £45,000
- Experienced
- £65,000
Software, data and machine learning roles · SOC 2133, 2134, 2136, 2433, 2137
UKIZ band derived from ASHE percentiles for the software development and data occupations mapped to this Community, read regionally because the local-authority sample is suppressed.
UKIZ analysis of ONS ASHE · 2024 · Verified yesterday · UKIZ analysis · UKIZ's reading, not a measurement.
Advanced Materials
North West (regional)
- Entry
- £27,000
- Typical
- £38,000
- Experienced
- £55,000
Materials, chemical and physical science roles · SOC 2111, 2114, 2127, 3111
UKIZ band derived from ASHE percentiles for chemical and physical science occupations. Academic and commercial roles are blended in the same unit groups.
UKIZ analysis of ONS ASHE · 2024 · Verified yesterday · UKIZ analysis · UKIZ's reading, not a measurement.
Advanced Manufacturing
North West (regional)
- Entry
- £27,000
- Typical
- £40,000
- Experienced
- £55,000
Production, process and manufacturing engineering roles · SOC 2122, 2127, 2129, 3113, 1121
UKIZ band derived from ASHE percentiles for production, process and mechanical engineering occupations.
UKIZ analysis of ONS ASHE · 2024 · Verified yesterday · UKIZ analysis · UKIZ's reading, not a measurement.
Life Sciences
North West (regional)
- Entry
- £26,000
- Typical
- £37,000
- Experienced
- £52,000
Biological science, laboratory and clinical research roles · SOC 2111, 2112, 2113, 3111, 2119
UKIZ band derived from ASHE percentiles for biological science and laboratory occupations. NHS and university pay scales pull the median down relative to commercial biotech.
UKIZ analysis of ONS ASHE · 2024 · Verified yesterday · UKIZ analysis · UKIZ's reading, not a measurement.
Digital Technologies
North West (regional)
- Entry
- £28,000
- Typical
- £42,000
- Experienced
- £60,000
Software, IT and data roles · SOC 2133, 2134, 2135, 2136, 2137
UKIZ band derived from ASHE percentiles for the software, IT and data occupations mapped to this Community.
UKIZ analysis of ONS ASHE · 2024 · Verified yesterday · UKIZ analysis · UKIZ's reading, not a measurement.
Creative Industries
North West (regional)
- Entry
- £24,000
- Typical
- £34,000
- Experienced
- £48,000
Design, media production and creative technology roles · SOC 3416, 3417, 2137, 2136
UKIZ band derived from ASHE percentiles for production, broadcast and design occupations. Employee-only: it misses the large freelance share of this field.
UKIZ analysis of ONS ASHE · 2024 · Verified yesterday · UKIZ analysis · UKIZ's reading, not a measurement.
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.
Cost
What would a month cost me?
One person renting a one-bedroom or shared flat and travelling to work by public transport.
Rent
£1,250 a month
Manchester local authority
Office for National Statistics — Price Index of Private Rents · 2025 · Verified yesterday
Recorded by hand from the published release and rounded.
Council tax (Band A, single person discount)
£105 a month
Manchester City Council
The billing local authority — Council tax charges by band · 2025/26 · Verified yesterday
Recorded by hand from the published release and rounded.
Band A with the 25% single person discount, spread over twelve months.
Energy
£140 a month
Great Britain (cap is national)
Ofgem — Energy price cap · 2026 · Verified yesterday
Recorded by hand from the published release and rounded.
Scaled from the Ofgem typical annual figure for a flat rather than a house.
Public transport
£80 a month
Greater Manchester (Bee Network)
The local transport authority or operator — Published transport fares · 2026 · Verified yesterday
Recorded by hand from the published release and rounded.
Bus and tram travel within the city zones. Many people in central Manchester walk and pay less than this.
Broadband, mobile and water
£85 a month
United Kingdom
Office for National Statistics — Family spending / Living Costs and Food Survey · 2024 · Verified yesterday · UKIZ analysis · UKIZ's reading, not a measurement.
Recorded by hand from the published release and rounded.
A national baseline, not a Manchester measurement.
Food and household
£320 a month
United Kingdom
Office for National Statistics — Family spending / Living Costs and Food Survey · 2024 · Verified yesterday · UKIZ analysis · UKIZ's reading, not a measurement.
Recorded by hand from the published release and rounded.
Derived from national household spending for a single-adult household. Not measured locally.
Baseline total
£1,980
a month, before anything you would actually enjoy
What this baseline leaves out
- · Childcare, which changes the picture more than any other single cost
- · Car ownership, insurance and parking
- · Debt repayments other than student loans
- · Anything discretionary beyond a modest personal allowance
Figures marked as recorded by hand were read from the named publication by UKIZ and rounded. The automated refresh for those sources is specified but not yet running, so treat them as indicative of scale rather than exact.
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
£2,843
£34,120 a year · England, Wales and Northern Ireland tax
- Income tax
- −£6,036
- National Insurance
- −£2,594
- Pension
- −£2,250
About £863 left each month after those costs — 70% 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 Manchester actually like?
Big-city ambition without London being the only answer.
It is a working city, not a picturesque one. Manchester rewards people who want scale and pace over calm.
- Music. A city that has kept exporting bands for fifty years and still has the small venues that make that possible.
- Football. Two Premier League clubs and a football culture that is genuinely part of the civic identity, not a tourist attraction.
- Food. Curry Mile, Chinatown, the northern quarter and Ancoats — the eating is neighbourhood-led rather than centralised.
- Culture. Aviva Studios and Manchester International Festival commission work that premieres here before it travels.
What to know
What UKIZ cannot tell you yet
- · Advertised vacancies and current salary ranges — the Adzuna feed is specified but not yet connected.
- · Graduate salaries by subject from HESA Graduate Outcomes.
- · House prices and deposit context for people looking to buy rather than rent.
- · Neighbourhood-level rent. Official data stops at the local authority boundary.
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.