Programmer
UK

The median Programmer salary in the UK is £45,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 11 September 2026.

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

6 months to
11 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 291 558 401
Rank change year-on-year +267 -157 +217
Permanent jobs requiring a Programmer 718 118 468
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.63% 0.24% 0.60%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.68% 0.26% 0.62%
Number of salaries quoted 461 73 275
10th Percentile £32,500 £30,000 £30,000
25th Percentile £39,250 £40,000 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £50,000 £40,000
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +25.00% +14.29%
75th Percentile £50,000 £60,000 £54,375
90th Percentile £60,000 £75,000 £55,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £45,000 £45,000 £40,000
% change year-on-year - +12.50% +53.85%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
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 106,082 44,571 74,889
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.45% 89.73% 95.26%
Number of salaries quoted 73,120 26,247 45,923
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,250 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £36,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £77,500 £75,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £97,500 £95,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +15.79% -5.00% -4.76%

Programmer
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Programmer job vacancy trend in the UK

Programmer
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for Programmer job vacancies in the UK.

Salary distribution trend for Programmer job vacancies in the UK

Programmer
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Programmer over the 6 months to 11 September 2026.

Salary histogram for Programmer in the UK

Programmer
Top 17 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Programmer within the UK over the 6 months to 11 September 2026. 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 +265 681 £45,000 -5.26% 104
UK excluding London +229 681 £45,000 - 88
Midlands +129 287 £42,500 -5.56% 22
West Midlands +105 196 £42,250 -6.11% 15
South East +81 139 £50,000 - 26
North of England +47 105 £45,000 -14.29% 18
South West +6 93 £40,000 - 10
East Midlands +36 91 £42,500 -5.56% 7
Yorkshire -8 43 £40,000 -3.03% 5
Work from Home -24 40 £65,000 -7.14% 33
North West +3 37 £50,000 -9.09% 9
East of England -16 36 £50,000 - 14
North East - 25 £45,000 - 5
London -48 20 £44,750 -36.07% 23
Wales -59 10 £40,000 +42.86%
Scotland +11 7 £40,000 -46.57% 3
Northern Ireland -76 4 £80,000 +185.71%

Programmer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 11 September 2026, Programmer 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 Programmer in the job title.

1 112 (15.60%) CAD
2 56 (7.80%) Continuous Improvement
3 46 (6.41%) Problem-Solving
4 30 (4.18%) C++
5 27 (3.76%) Unity (Game Engine)
6 23 (3.20%) Software Engineering
7 22 (3.06%) Fusion 360
8 16 (2.23%) ALPHACAM
8 16 (2.23%) Siemens
9 15 (2.09%) Calypso
9 15 (2.09%) Mathematics
10 13 (1.81%) Fluid Mechanics
10 13 (1.81%) Microsoft
10 13 (1.81%) Motion Control
11 12 (1.67%) Microsoft Office
11 12 (1.67%) Unreal Engine
12 11 (1.53%) 3D Modelling
13 10 (1.39%) HNC
13 10 (1.39%) ISO 9001
13 10 (1.39%) QA
14 9 (1.25%) Collaborative Working
15 8 (1.11%) Mentoring
15 8 (1.11%) Python
16 7 (0.97%) AWS
16 7 (0.97%) Process Improvement
16 7 (0.97%) Validation
16 7 (0.97%) Workflow
17 6 (0.84%) Broadband
17 6 (0.84%) C#
17 6 (0.84%) CATI

Programmer 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 3 (0.42%) SAS
2 1 (0.14%) Apache
2 1 (0.14%) Jupyter
Applications
1 22 (3.06%) Fusion 360
2 16 (2.23%) ALPHACAM
3 12 (1.67%) Microsoft Office
4 5 (0.70%) SOLIDWORKS
5 2 (0.28%) Siemens NX
6 1 (0.14%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.14%) Windchill
Cloud Services
1 7 (0.97%) AWS
2 2 (0.28%) Cloud Functions
2 2 (0.28%) Cloud Run
2 2 (0.28%) GCP
3 1 (0.14%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 6 (0.84%) Broadband
2 2 (0.28%) RS-232
3 1 (0.14%) DNS
3 1 (0.14%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (0.84%) MongoDB
2 4 (0.56%) PostgreSQL
3 2 (0.28%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 2 (0.28%) CircleCI
1 2 (0.28%) Cypress.io
2 1 (0.14%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 193 (26.88%) Manufacturing
2 89 (12.40%) Aerospace
3 65 (9.05%) Games
4 57 (7.94%) Automotive
5 44 (6.13%) Social Skills
6 12 (1.67%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 9 (1.25%) Electronics
8 8 (1.11%) Military
9 6 (0.84%) Pharmaceutical
10 4 (0.56%) Finance
10 4 (0.56%) Local Government
10 4 (0.56%) Organisational Skills
11 3 (0.42%) Agriculture
11 3 (0.42%) Analytical Skills
11 3 (0.42%) Aviation
11 3 (0.42%) Retail
12 1 (0.14%) Advertising
12 1 (0.14%) Legal
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 27 (3.76%) Unity (Game Engine)
2 12 (1.67%) Unreal Engine
3 5 (0.70%) HTML
4 3 (0.42%) RESTful
4 3 (0.42%) XML
5 2 (0.28%) EDI
5 2 (0.28%) Leaflet
5 2 (0.28%) Node.js
5 2 (0.28%) Playwright
5 2 (0.28%) React
6 1 (0.14%) CSS
6 1 (0.14%) HTML5
6 1 (0.14%) Hugging Face
6 1 (0.14%) Matplotlib
6 1 (0.14%) NumPy
6 1 (0.14%) Pandas
6 1 (0.14%) REST
6 1 (0.14%) scikit-learn
6 1 (0.14%) Streamlit
Miscellaneous
1 27 (3.76%) Self-Motivation
1 27 (3.76%) Virtual Reality
2 13 (1.81%) Mobile Games
3 8 (1.11%) Driving Licence
4 4 (0.56%) Low-Code
4 4 (0.56%) Robotics
4 4 (0.56%) Smart Home
4 4 (0.56%) Video\Live Streaming
5 3 (0.42%) AS400
5 3 (0.42%) Cloud Native
5 3 (0.42%) Data Structures
5 3 (0.42%) Distributed Systems
5 3 (0.42%) FMCG
5 3 (0.42%) Team-Oriented Environment
6 2 (0.28%) Algorithms
6 2 (0.28%) iSeries
6 2 (0.28%) Video Conferencing
7 1 (0.14%) Graphic Design
7 1 (0.14%) Hedge funds
7 1 (0.14%) Home Automation
Operating Systems
1 1 (0.14%) Linux
1 1 (0.14%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 112 (15.60%) CAD
2 56 (7.80%) Continuous Improvement
3 46 (6.41%) Problem-Solving
4 23 (3.20%) Software Engineering
5 15 (2.09%) Mathematics
6 13 (1.81%) Fluid Mechanics
6 13 (1.81%) Motion Control
7 11 (1.53%) 3D Modelling
8 9 (1.25%) Collaborative Working
9 8 (1.11%) Mentoring
10 7 (0.97%) Process Improvement
10 7 (0.97%) Validation
10 7 (0.97%) Workflow
11 6 (0.84%) CATI
11 6 (0.84%) Data Collection
11 6 (0.84%) Full-Stack Development
11 6 (0.84%) Market Research
11 6 (0.84%) Matrix Organization
11 6 (0.84%) Qualitative Research
11 6 (0.84%) Quantitative Research
Programming Languages
1 30 (4.18%) C++
2 8 (1.11%) Python
3 6 (0.84%) C#
3 6 (0.84%) JavaScript
4 4 (0.56%) Go
4 4 (0.56%) RPG
5 3 (0.42%) SAS Macro
6 2 (0.28%) R
7 1 (0.14%) C
7 1 (0.14%) Perl
7 1 (0.14%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 10 (1.39%) HNC
2 5 (0.70%) HND
3 4 (0.56%) Degree
4 3 (0.42%) Master's Degree
5 1 (0.14%) AWS Certification
5 1 (0.14%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
5 1 (0.14%) City & Guilds
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (1.39%) ISO 9001
1 10 (1.39%) QA
2 3 (0.42%) Accessibility
2 3 (0.42%) CDISC
3 1 (0.14%) GDPR
System Software
1 2 (0.28%) Docker
Systems Management
1 2 (0.28%) Podman
Vendors
1 16 (2.23%) Siemens
2 15 (2.09%) Calypso
3 13 (1.81%) Microsoft
4 4 (0.56%) Cincom
5 3 (0.42%) IBM
6 2 (0.28%) Google
6 2 (0.28%) Infor
7 1 (0.14%) EXTOL