Data Scientist Job Trends

Data Scientist
UK

The median Data Scientist salary in the UK is £65,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 10 November 2025.

The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 524 495 516
Rank change year-on-year -29 +21 +4
Permanent jobs requiring a Data Scientist 136 278 221
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.27% 0.41% 0.41%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.30% 0.44% 0.43%
Number of salaries quoted 87 112 153
10th Percentile £42,500 £38,620 £42,500
25th Percentile £52,500 £51,250 £52,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £62,879 £70,000
Median % change year-on-year +3.37% -10.17% +7.69%
75th Percentile £85,000 £75,313 £90,000
90th Percentile £92,000 £93,725 £99,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £62,500 £60,000 £65,000
% change year-on-year +4.17% -7.69% +13.04%

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 46,086 63,874 51,205
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 89.92% 94.86% 95.53%
Number of salaries quoted 28,532 35,882 39,632
10th Percentile £28,250 £31,250 £31,500
25th Percentile £35,000 £42,436 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £57,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.70% -4.17% -
75th Percentile £73,750 £75,000 £80,000
90th Percentile £92,500 £95,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £46,000 £50,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -8.00% -4.76% -

Data Scientist
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring 'Data Scientist' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

Data Scientist job vacancy trend in the UK

Data Scientist
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for Data Scientist job vacancies in the UK.

Salary distribution trend for Data Scientist job vacancies in the UK

Data Scientist
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Data Scientist over the 6 months to 10 November 2025.

Salary histogram for Data Scientist in the UK

Data Scientist
Top 16 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Data Scientist within the UK over the 6 months to 10 November 2025. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England -28 127 £65,000 +3.37% 497
London +24 79 £72,500 +5.53% 314
UK excluding London -15 54 £62,500 +4.17% 319
Work from Home -29 34 £65,000 +3.37% 223
North of England -20 21 £62,500 -0.60% 30
North West +10 16 £55,000 -12.53% 26
Midlands +40 10 £62,500 +4.17% 21
East Midlands +29 7 £62,500 +16.28% 15
South East +19 7 £42,500 -13.96% 230
South West +18 7 £70,000 +27.27% 8
Scotland -11 5 £100,000 - 21
East of England +25 3 £58,750 -21.67% 2
West Midlands +21 3 £59,250 -5.77% 5
Yorkshire -2 3 £62,500 -0.60% 2
North East -3 2 £62,500 +21.66% 2
Northern Ireland 0 1 £40,000 - 6

Data Scientist Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 10 November 2025, Data Scientist job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads featuring Data Scientist in the job title.

1 136 (100.00%) Data Science
2 108 (79.41%) Python
3 98 (72.06%) Machine Learning
4 69 (50.74%) Analytics
5 65 (47.79%) SQL
6 59 (43.38%) AI
7 55 (40.44%) Degree
8 45 (33.09%) Visualisation
9 43 (31.62%) Problem-Solving
10 39 (28.68%) PhD
11 38 (27.94%) Master's Degree
12 37 (27.21%) Mathematics
13 36 (26.47%) Statistics
14 34 (25.00%) AWS
14 34 (25.00%) Azure
14 34 (25.00%) Decision-Making
15 29 (21.32%) MLOps
16 28 (20.59%) Natural Language Processing
16 28 (20.59%) Predictive Modelling
17 24 (17.65%) DevOps
17 24 (17.65%) LLM
18 21 (15.44%) Data Pipeline
18 21 (15.44%) Statistical Analysis
18 21 (15.44%) Statistical Modelling
19 19 (13.97%) GCP
20 18 (13.24%) Pandas
20 18 (13.24%) scikit-learn
21 17 (12.50%) Computer Science
21 17 (12.50%) Mentoring
22 16 (11.76%) CI/CD

Data Scientist Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 12 (8.82%) Apache Spark
2 5 (3.68%) Apache Airflow
3 4 (2.94%) ArcGIS
4 1 (0.74%) Apache
Applications
1 4 (2.94%) Chatbot
2 3 (2.21%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 34 (25.00%) AWS
1 34 (25.00%) Azure
2 19 (13.97%) GCP
3 15 (11.03%) Power Platform
4 6 (4.41%) Snowflake
5 5 (3.68%) Dagster
5 5 (3.68%) dbt
6 3 (2.21%) Amazon SageMaker
6 3 (2.21%) Azure Machine Learning
6 3 (2.21%) GitHub
6 3 (2.21%) Google Analytics
7 2 (1.47%) Prefect
7 2 (1.47%) SaaS
8 1 (0.74%) Adobe Analytics
8 1 (0.74%) Anthropic Claude
8 1 (0.74%) Azure AI
8 1 (0.74%) ChatGPT
8 1 (0.74%) GitHub Copilot
8 1 (0.74%) Microsoft 365
8 1 (0.74%) Vertex AI
Communications & Networking
1 3 (2.21%) Broadband
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (11.03%) Power BI
2 9 (6.62%) Tableau
3 7 (5.15%) Amazon Redshift
4 6 (4.41%) Relational Database
5 5 (3.68%) GIS
6 4 (2.94%) Big Data
6 4 (2.94%) Data Warehouse
6 4 (2.94%) Geospatial Data
6 4 (2.94%) QGIS
6 4 (2.94%) Spatial Data
6 4 (2.94%) SQL Server
7 3 (2.21%) Data Mining
7 3 (2.21%) NoSQL
8 2 (1.47%) Electronic Patient Records
8 2 (1.47%) MongoDB
9 1 (0.74%) ClickHouse
9 1 (0.74%) Mixpanel
9 1 (0.74%) Neo4j
9 1 (0.74%) Pinecone
9 1 (0.74%) TigerGraph
Development Applications
1 11 (8.09%) Git
2 4 (2.94%) MLflow
General
1 40 (29.41%) Social Skills
2 33 (24.26%) Finance
3 27 (19.85%) Analytical Skills
4 16 (11.76%) Marketing
5 14 (10.29%) Games
5 14 (10.29%) Law
6 9 (6.62%) Banking
6 9 (6.62%) Retail
7 7 (5.15%) Financial Institution
7 7 (5.15%) Manufacturing
8 6 (4.41%) Pharmaceutical
9 4 (2.94%) Legal
9 4 (2.94%) Public Sector
10 3 (2.21%) Presentation Skills
11 2 (1.47%) Advertising
12 1 (0.74%) Billing
12 1 (0.74%) Electronics
12 1 (0.74%) Influencing Skills
12 1 (0.74%) Social Housing
12 1 (0.74%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (13.24%) Pandas
1 18 (13.24%) scikit-learn
2 14 (10.29%) PyTorch
2 14 (10.29%) TensorFlow
3 11 (8.09%) PySpark
4 8 (5.88%) NumPy
4 8 (5.88%) SpaCy
4 8 (5.88%) XGBoost
5 6 (4.41%) LangChain
6 4 (2.94%) PostGIS
7 3 (2.21%) Hugging Face
8 2 (1.47%) Django
8 2 (1.47%) Kafka
8 2 (1.47%) LightGBM
8 2 (1.47%) pydantic
8 2 (1.47%) pytest
8 2 (1.47%) Streamlit
9 1 (0.74%) OpenCV
9 1 (0.74%) Regular Expression
9 1 (0.74%) SQLAlchemy
Miscellaneous
1 24 (17.65%) Algorithms
2 7 (5.15%) e-Learning
2 7 (5.15%) Reinsurance
3 4 (2.94%) Cloud Native
3 4 (2.94%) Credit Risk
3 4 (2.94%) Life Science
4 3 (2.21%) AI Agents
4 3 (2.21%) Driving Licence
4 3 (2.21%) Fixed Income
4 3 (2.21%) Greenfield Project
5 2 (1.47%) Analytical Mindset
5 2 (1.47%) Educational Technology
5 2 (1.47%) Legacy Systems
5 2 (1.47%) Self-Motivation
6 1 (0.74%) Biopharmaceutical
6 1 (0.74%) Genomics
6 1 (0.74%) Omics
6 1 (0.74%) Onboarding
6 1 (0.74%) Renewable Energy
6 1 (0.74%) Sports Betting
Operating Systems
1 1 (0.74%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 136 (100.00%) Data Science
2 98 (72.06%) Machine Learning
3 69 (50.74%) Analytics
4 59 (43.38%) AI
5 45 (33.09%) Visualisation
6 43 (31.62%) Problem-Solving
7 37 (27.21%) Mathematics
8 36 (26.47%) Statistics
9 34 (25.00%) Decision-Making
10 29 (21.32%) MLOps
11 28 (20.59%) Natural Language Processing
11 28 (20.59%) Predictive Modelling
12 24 (17.65%) DevOps
12 24 (17.65%) LLM
13 21 (15.44%) Data Pipeline
13 21 (15.44%) Statistical Analysis
13 21 (15.44%) Statistical Modelling
14 17 (12.50%) Computer Science
14 17 (12.50%) Mentoring
15 16 (11.76%) Data Analysis
Programming Languages
1 108 (79.41%) Python
2 65 (47.79%) SQL
3 12 (8.82%) R
4 5 (3.68%) JavaScript
5 3 (2.21%) T-SQL
6 1 (0.74%) C++
6 1 (0.74%) Java
6 1 (0.74%) Julia
Qualifications
1 55 (40.44%) Degree
2 39 (28.68%) PhD
3 38 (27.94%) Master's Degree
4 7 (5.15%) DBS Check
5 6 (4.41%) Computer Science Degree
6 2 (1.47%) Numerate Degree
6 2 (1.47%) Postgraduate
6 2 (1.47%) Security Cleared
7 1 (0.74%) AWS Certification
7 1 (0.74%) DV Cleared
7 1 (0.74%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (9.56%) Data Quality
2 3 (2.21%) Accessibility
3 2 (1.47%) GDPR
3 2 (1.47%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 1 (0.74%) Disclosure Scotland
4 1 (0.74%) ISO 13485
System Software
1 14 (10.29%) Docker
Systems Management
1 4 (2.94%) Kubernetes
2 1 (0.74%) Terraform
Vendors
1 11 (8.09%) Databricks
2 4 (2.94%) Mapinfo
2 4 (2.94%) Microsoft
3 2 (1.47%) Google
3 2 (1.47%) Salesforce
3 2 (1.47%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud
4 1 (0.74%) Adobe
4 1 (0.74%) Alteryx
4 1 (0.74%) Amplitude
4 1 (0.74%) Cognos
4 1 (0.74%) Facebook
4 1 (0.74%) Foundry
4 1 (0.74%) Marketo
4 1 (0.74%) PayPal
4 1 (0.74%) SAP