Average UK Salary
Author
Discussion

Hairspray

Original Poster:

6,225 posts

225 months

Tuesday 28th April 2009
quotequote all
I will start by saying, I didn't know whether to put this in finance or whatever, so I shall post it here and I'm sure it will be moved accordingly smile (And traffic is very slow in finance, and I need this answered).

I'm doing a project on various things like credit card debt etc. and need to know the average UK salary. I have tried googling but nowhere can give me a straight answer! I would've thought it would be a fairly basic question! Anyway, if anyone could give me the figure, I would be very grateful smile Thanks in advance!

AndyAudi

3,565 posts

240 months

Tuesday 28th April 2009
quotequote all
I think it is around the £27½k mark, for the UK as a whole


Edit - Not quite it would seem
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=285

Edited by AndyAudi on Tuesday 28th April 17:02

moosepig

1,306 posts

259 months

Tuesday 28th April 2009
quotequote all
Didn't take long to find this using Google

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=285

Edited by moosepig on Tuesday 28th April 17:49

prand

6,218 posts

214 months

Tuesday 28th April 2009
quotequote all
So natioanl average is £479 a week = £24k a year. Considerably less if you are a lady.

Somethign tells me that has gone down in recent years. I'm sure the average was higher than that.

Stevenj214

4,941 posts

246 months

Tuesday 28th April 2009
quotequote all
Except both of you have linked to median salary figures instead of mean.

trooperiziz

9,457 posts

270 months

Tuesday 28th April 2009
quotequote all
Stevenj214 said:
Except both of you have linked to median salary figures instead of mean.
Being that a salary is individual specific and the higher numbers would skew the average beyond what it meant to the majority of individuals if you used mean, that seems the best way to do it.

Although you could argue that the mode is actually the right average to take. wink

Stevenj214

4,941 posts

246 months

Tuesday 28th April 2009
quotequote all
trooperiziz said:
Stevenj214 said:
Except both of you have linked to median salary figures instead of mean.
Being that a salary is individual specific and the higher numbers would skew the average beyond what it meant to the majority of individuals if you used mean, that seems the best way to do it.

Although you could argue that the mode is actually the right average to take. wink
I don't deny that other measures may be more useful, however the OP asked for the average and got a rolling eyes smilie from someone who provided the wrong information himself.

trooperiziz

9,457 posts

270 months

Tuesday 28th April 2009
quotequote all
Stevenj214 said:
trooperiziz said:
Stevenj214 said:
Except both of you have linked to median salary figures instead of mean.
Being that a salary is individual specific and the higher numbers would skew the average beyond what it meant to the majority of individuals if you used mean, that seems the best way to do it.

Although you could argue that the mode is actually the right average to take. wink
I don't deny that other measures may be more useful, however the OP asked for the average and got a rolling eyes smilie from someone who provided the wrong information himself.
Median is an average.

Stevenj214

4,941 posts

246 months

Tuesday 28th April 2009
quotequote all
trooperiziz said:
Stevenj214 said:
trooperiziz said:
Stevenj214 said:
Except both of you have linked to median salary figures instead of mean.
Being that a salary is individual specific and the higher numbers would skew the average beyond what it meant to the majority of individuals if you used mean, that seems the best way to do it.

Although you could argue that the mode is actually the right average to take. wink
I don't deny that other measures may be more useful, however the OP asked for the average and got a rolling eyes smilie from someone who provided the wrong information himself.
Median is an average.
Median is the value is the middle value in a set of values.

Mean is the average.

Edited by Stevenj214 on Tuesday 28th April 17:19

Stevenj214

4,941 posts

246 months

Tuesday 28th April 2009
quotequote all
Mean is £31,323. Taken from here - http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_labou... (on the Full Time tab).

moosepig

1,306 posts

259 months

Tuesday 28th April 2009
quotequote all
Stevenj214 said:
got a rolling eyes smilie from someone who provided the wrong information himself.
Oops - clicked on the wrong side of the smiley when replying, now fixed.

Dracoro

8,913 posts

263 months

Tuesday 28th April 2009
quotequote all
I think it depends on what you want do with the information, what you really want to know.

Do you want to know the TYPICAL salary, i.e. for most people, what is the average. Should we remove all the very big owners as they squew the figures.

Take 10 people, 9 earning £20k per year and person number 10 earning £200k. What would you say the average salary is? I would say £20k. The mean is £38k and is an "average" but isn't representative of what typical people earn.

Onz

507 posts

224 months

Tuesday 28th April 2009
quotequote all
Stevenj214 said:
trooperiziz said:
Stevenj214 said:
trooperiziz said:
Stevenj214 said:
Except both of you have linked to median salary figures instead of mean.
Being that a salary is individual specific and the higher numbers would skew the average beyond what it meant to the majority of individuals if you used mean, that seems the best way to do it.

Although you could argue that the mode is actually the right average to take. wink
I don't deny that other measures may be more useful, however the OP asked for the average and got a rolling eyes smilie from someone who provided the wrong information himself.
Median is an average.
Median is the value is the middle value in a set of values.

Mean is the average.
Happy to stand corrected but I thought mean, mode and median were all types of average?

Stevenj214

4,941 posts

246 months

Tuesday 28th April 2009
quotequote all
Onz said:
Stevenj214 said:
trooperiziz said:
Stevenj214 said:
trooperiziz said:
Stevenj214 said:
Except both of you have linked to median salary figures instead of mean.
Being that a salary is individual specific and the higher numbers would skew the average beyond what it meant to the majority of individuals if you used mean, that seems the best way to do it.

Although you could argue that the mode is actually the right average to take. wink
I don't deny that other measures may be more useful, however the OP asked for the average and got a rolling eyes smilie from someone who provided the wrong information himself.
Median is an average.
Median is the value is the middle value in a set of values.

Mean is the average.
Happy to stand corrected but I thought mean, mode and median were all types of average?
It seems you're right. My apologies to the other posters.

Bitesize
Wikipedia

So now it depends on which average the OP wants! Teamwork beer

Edited by Stevenj214 on Tuesday 28th April 18:00

Simpo Two

89,713 posts

283 months

Tuesday 28th April 2009
quotequote all
Mean, median, mode. All can be difefrent depending on the data.

BMWBen

4,904 posts

219 months

Tuesday 28th April 2009
quotequote all
And there ends the GCSE stats lesson? wink

T5SOR

2,018 posts

243 months

Tuesday 28th April 2009
quotequote all
I heard the "real average wage" is more like 20k a year. 80% + earn under 25K a year.

paolow

3,256 posts

276 months

Tuesday 28th April 2009
quotequote all
T5SOR said:
I heard the "real average wage" is more like 20k a year. 80% + earn under 25K a year.
I can well believe it. would a useful analysis include disposable income? that would surely be a good indicator of how the uk will weather the storm?

Tadite

560 posts

202 months

Tuesday 28th April 2009
quotequote all
What is the distribution?

What does the top-10% make? How about 1%?


mackie1

8,168 posts

251 months

Tuesday 28th April 2009
quotequote all
Top 10% are more than £946 per week.