Data Scientist Salary UK 2024: What the Numbers Show
UK data scientists earn a median of £57,000, rising to £85,000+ at senior level. ONS ASHE 2024 data broken down by experience, location, and specialisation.
Data science has moved from a niche specialism to a mainstream profession in under a decade. That growth — combined with ongoing skill scarcity — makes it one of the highest-paid analytical roles in the UK labour market.
Here is a breakdown of what UK data scientists earn in 2024, combining ONS ASHE data with labour market benchmarks.
UK Data Scientist Salary: The Headline
The median gross annual pay for data scientists and statisticians (SOC 2425/2136 adjacent) working full-time in the UK was approximately £57,000 in April 2024, based on ONS ASHE 2024 data.
That is 52% above the UK all-occupations median of £37,430, and significantly above the broader IT professional median of £52,500. For the broader pay context, see how this stacks up against the UK average salary 2024.
Percentile Breakdown
| Percentile | Annual gross pay |
|---|---|
| Top 10% | £95,000+ |
| Top 25% | £75,000 |
| Median (50%) | £57,000 |
| Bottom 25% | £43,500 |
| Bottom 10% | £35,000 |
The spread is wide: an entry-level data analyst transitioning into data science can start at £35,000, while a principal data scientist at a financial services firm or tech company regularly earns £90,000–£120,000.
Pay by Experience
| Level | Typical range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Junior / graduate (0–2 yrs) | £32,000–£45,000 | Often titled "data analyst" initially |
| Mid-level (3–5 yrs) | £50,000–£68,000 | First ML deployment experience |
| Senior (6–9 yrs) | £68,000–£88,000 | Owns models end-to-end |
| Principal / lead (10+ yrs) | £85,000–£120,000+ | Technical leadership, architecture |
Progression accelerates when a data scientist moves from descriptive analytics into machine learning deployment — the ability to ship models to production is the most reliable salary lever in the discipline.
Regional Pay
London concentrates the highest-paying data science roles, particularly in finance and tech.
| Region | Approximate median |
|---|---|
| London | £72,000 |
| South East | £60,000 |
| East of England | £58,000 |
| Scotland | £52,000 |
| North West | £50,000 |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | £47,500 |
| East Midlands | £46,000 |
| North East | £44,000 |
A £65,000 salary in Manchester sits comfortably in the top 25% of local data science earners, whereas the same figure in London would be marginally below the regional median. Our London salary guide covers how the capital's pay premium compares against the cost of living.
Pay by Specialisation
Not all data science roles are alike. Specialisations command significant pay premia:
| Specialisation | Approximate median (UK) |
|---|---|
| Machine learning engineer | £68,000–£82,000 |
| NLP / LLM engineer | £72,000–£90,000 |
| Computer vision | £68,000–£85,000 |
| Quantitative analyst (finance) | £75,000–£120,000+ |
| MLOps / platform | £65,000–£80,000 |
| Product data scientist | £60,000–£78,000 |
| Generalist data scientist | £55,000–£70,000 |
| Data analyst (pre-DS transition) | £35,000–£52,000 |
Large language model (LLM) engineering and NLP specialists are currently attracting the highest premia, driven by demand that has significantly outpaced supply since the public release of transformer-based models in 2022–23.
Industry Breakdown
| Industry | Typical data science pay |
|---|---|
| Investment banking / trading | £85,000–£150,000+ (inc. bonus) |
| Fintech | £70,000–£105,000 |
| Tech (product companies) | £68,000–£100,000 |
| Consulting | £60,000–£90,000 |
| Retail / e-commerce | £58,000–£78,000 |
| Healthcare / pharma | £55,000–£75,000 |
| Public sector / research | £42,000–£65,000 |
Investment banking and trading firms pay the highest base salaries, plus performance bonuses that can equal or exceed base pay. Public sector and research roles pay below the commercial market but often offer better work conditions, pension contributions, and — relevant to some — the ability to publish.
Total Compensation: Beyond Base Salary
For data scientists at tech companies and scale-ups, base salary is only part of total compensation:
- Equity (options/RSUs): at growth-stage startups, annual grant values of £20,000–£60,000+ are common; at listed tech companies, RSU awards can be larger
- Bonus: typical 5–20% of base at most commercial employers; higher in finance
- Pension: employer contributions of 3–10% are standard; public sector schemes add more
- Benefits: private medical, learning budget, and remote-work allowances vary by employer
When equity is included, total compensation at senior levels in the best-paying companies regularly exceeds £150,000.
How Demand Has Changed
The UK data science labour market expanded rapidly from 2015 to 2022, then softened in 2023 as tech hiring broadly contracted. 2024 has seen renewed demand driven by:
- Productionisation of AI/ML in large enterprises
- Regulatory requirements around model governance in financial services
- Healthcare and life sciences investment in predictive analytics
Entry-level roles remain more competitive than they were at peak (2021–22), but mid-to-senior roles command strong salaries and have short time-to-hire at well-funded employers. If you are weighing AI exposure, our will my job be replaced by AI? 2026 outlook pairs ONS pay data with named UK exposure studies for analytical and technical roles.
Related Reading
- Software engineer salary UK 2024 — how data science pay compares to software engineering
- Data analyst salaries — the role most data scientists transition from
- Software developer pay — the closest ASHE 2024 SOC group for sense-checking
Use the Salary Scout salary tool to look up ASHE 2024 data for specific analytical and technical occupations by UK region.
Source: ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) 2024, published October 2024. Market benchmarks draw on published salary surveys and job board data for triangulation. Published under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Topics: data scientist salary, data science, machine learning, uk, tech, ons, 2024