Software developers and programmers salary in the UK
SOC 2020 code 2134 · full-time employees · reference year 2025Provisional
Median annual pay (gross)
£56,914
Mean annual pay (gross)
£63,810
The median for this occupation is 1.5× the UK median for all employees (£39,039) in the same 2025 release.
Pay range
| 10th percentile | £32,835 |
|---|---|
| 25th percentile | £42,289 |
| Median (50th) | £56,914 |
| 75th percentile | £75,794 |
| 90th percentile | £102,860 |
About this occupation
Programmers and software development professionals write, test and maintain software. SOC 2020 groups developers, software engineers and programmers under this code.
Pay rises steeply with experience and specialism, and the 90th percentile is more than three times the 10th. Location matters: developers in London and the South East generally earn more than the UK-wide figure.
Source and notes
- Office for National Statistics, ASHE Table 14.7a (full-time, gross annual pay), 2025 provisional.
- Gross annual pay for full-time employees on adult rates whose pay was not affected by absence. Figures for 2025 are provisional and are revised by ONS the following year.
- ISCO-08 group 2: Professionals — a broad grouping for loose cross-country orientation only, not an exact match to other countries' job titles.
- Official figures above are gross (before tax). The optional Net view is an estimate: it uses the OECD Taxing Wages model for a single person without children. The percentile range always shows gross pay.
- No official breakdown by experience level exists for this data, so none is shown.
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