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 24 September 2026.

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

6 months to
24 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 300 546 400
Rank change year-on-year +246 -146 +192
Permanent jobs requiring a Programmer 733 114 458
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.63% 0.23% 0.60%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.67% 0.26% 0.63%
Number of salaries quoted 461 71 253
10th Percentile £32,500 £30,000 £30,000
25th Percentile £39,000 £40,000 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £45,000 £40,000
Median % change year-on-year - +12.50% +14.76%
75th Percentile £50,000 £58,125 £50,000
90th Percentile £60,000 £75,000 £56,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £45,000 £45,000 £40,000
% change year-on-year - +12.50% +42.87%

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 108,916 44,178 72,902
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.10% 89.68% 95.28%
Number of salaries quoted 74,482 25,948 42,900
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,250 £30,250
25th Percentile £40,552 £36,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £59,250 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.73% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £77,500 £75,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £92,769
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 24 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 24 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 +269 693 £45,000 -5.26% 167
UK excluding London +228 693 £45,000 - 136
Midlands +122 283 £42,500 -5.56% 38
West Midlands +93 191 £42,500 -5.56% 31
South East +73 146 £50,000 - 38
North of England +30 110 £45,000 -14.29% 38
South West +3 94 £40,000 - 8
East Midlands +45 92 £42,500 -5.56% 7
Yorkshire +1 45 £40,000 -3.03% 11
North West +3 39 £50,000 -9.09% 22
East of England -17 39 £53,750 +7.50% 11
Work from Home -30 39 £65,000 -5.45% 40
North East - 26 £45,000 - 6
London -49 20 £44,750 -36.07% 40
Scotland +11 9 £40,000 -11.11% 3
Wales -69 8 £40,000 +42.86% 1
Northern Ireland -85 4 £80,000 +185.71%

Programmer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 24 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.

1 111 (15.14%) CAD
2 54 (7.37%) Continuous Improvement
3 45 (6.14%) Problem-Solving
4 29 (3.96%) C++
5 27 (3.68%) Unity (Game Engine)
6 22 (3.00%) Software Engineering
7 20 (2.73%) Fusion 360
8 16 (2.18%) ALPHACAM
8 16 (2.18%) Siemens
9 15 (2.05%) Calypso
9 15 (2.05%) Mathematics
10 14 (1.91%) Fluid Mechanics
10 14 (1.91%) Microsoft
10 14 (1.91%) Motion Control
11 12 (1.64%) Microsoft Office
11 12 (1.64%) Unreal Engine
12 11 (1.50%) 3D Modelling
13 10 (1.36%) HNC
13 10 (1.36%) ISO 9001
14 9 (1.23%) Collaborative Working
14 9 (1.23%) QA
15 8 (1.09%) CATI
15 8 (1.09%) Data Collection
15 8 (1.09%) Market Research
15 8 (1.09%) Mentoring
15 8 (1.09%) Qualitative Research
15 8 (1.09%) Quantitative Research
16 7 (0.95%) Process Improvement
16 7 (0.95%) Workflow
17 6 (0.82%) Matrix Organization

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 (0.41%) SAS
2 1 (0.14%) Apache
2 1 (0.14%) Jupyter
Applications
1 20 (2.73%) Fusion 360
2 16 (2.18%) ALPHACAM
3 12 (1.64%) Microsoft Office
4 5 (0.68%) SOLIDWORKS
5 2 (0.27%) Siemens NX
6 1 (0.14%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.14%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 2 (0.27%) Elite 3E
Cloud Services
1 5 (0.68%) AWS
2 1 (0.14%) Cloud Computing
2 1 (0.14%) Cloud Functions
2 1 (0.14%) Cloud Run
2 1 (0.14%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 4 (0.55%) Broadband
2 2 (0.27%) RS-232
3 1 (0.14%) DNS
3 1 (0.14%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (0.55%) MongoDB
2 3 (0.41%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (0.14%) NoSQL
3 1 (0.14%) SQL Server
3 1 (0.14%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 1 (0.14%) CircleCI
1 1 (0.14%) Cypress.io
1 1 (0.14%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 201 (27.42%) Manufacturing
2 95 (12.96%) Aerospace
3 65 (8.87%) Games
4 55 (7.50%) Automotive
5 43 (5.87%) Social Skills
6 12 (1.64%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 11 (1.50%) Electronics
8 8 (1.09%) Military
9 6 (0.82%) Finance
9 6 (0.82%) Pharmaceutical
10 4 (0.55%) Local Government
10 4 (0.55%) Organisational Skills
11 3 (0.41%) Analytical Skills
11 3 (0.41%) Aviation
11 3 (0.41%) Retail
12 2 (0.27%) Legal
13 1 (0.14%) Advertising
13 1 (0.14%) Agriculture
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 27 (3.68%) Unity (Game Engine)
2 12 (1.64%) Unreal Engine
3 4 (0.55%) HTML
3 4 (0.55%) XML
4 3 (0.41%) RESTful
5 2 (0.27%) EDI
6 1 (0.14%) .NET
6 1 (0.14%) CSS
6 1 (0.14%) HTML5
6 1 (0.14%) Hugging Face
6 1 (0.14%) Leaflet
6 1 (0.14%) Matplotlib
6 1 (0.14%) Node.js
6 1 (0.14%) NumPy
6 1 (0.14%) Pandas
6 1 (0.14%) Playwright
6 1 (0.14%) React
6 1 (0.14%) scikit-learn
6 1 (0.14%) Streamlit
6 1 (0.14%) XSLT
Miscellaneous
1 27 (3.68%) Self-Motivation
1 27 (3.68%) Virtual Reality
2 13 (1.77%) Mobile Games
3 7 (0.95%) Driving Licence
4 6 (0.82%) Robotics
5 4 (0.55%) Smart Home
6 3 (0.41%) AS400
6 3 (0.41%) Cloud Native
6 3 (0.41%) Data Structures
6 3 (0.41%) Distributed Systems
6 3 (0.41%) FMCG
6 3 (0.41%) Low-Code
6 3 (0.41%) Team-Oriented Environment
6 3 (0.41%) Video\Live Streaming
7 2 (0.27%) iSeries
7 2 (0.27%) Video Conferencing
8 1 (0.14%) Algorithms
8 1 (0.14%) Graphic Design
8 1 (0.14%) Hedge funds
8 1 (0.14%) Home Automation
Operating Systems
1 1 (0.14%) Linux
1 1 (0.14%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 111 (15.14%) CAD
2 54 (7.37%) Continuous Improvement
3 45 (6.14%) Problem-Solving
4 22 (3.00%) Software Engineering
5 15 (2.05%) Mathematics
6 14 (1.91%) Fluid Mechanics
6 14 (1.91%) Motion Control
7 11 (1.50%) 3D Modelling
8 9 (1.23%) Collaborative Working
9 8 (1.09%) CATI
9 8 (1.09%) Data Collection
9 8 (1.09%) Market Research
9 8 (1.09%) Mentoring
9 8 (1.09%) Qualitative Research
9 8 (1.09%) Quantitative Research
10 7 (0.95%) Process Improvement
10 7 (0.95%) Workflow
11 6 (0.82%) Matrix Organization
11 6 (0.82%) Validation
12 5 (0.68%) Data Protection
Programming Languages
1 29 (3.96%) C++
2 6 (0.82%) Python
3 5 (0.68%) C#
4 4 (0.55%) JavaScript
4 4 (0.55%) RPG
5 3 (0.41%) Go
5 3 (0.41%) SAS Macro
6 2 (0.27%) R
7 1 (0.14%) C
7 1 (0.14%) Perl
7 1 (0.14%) Shell Script
7 1 (0.14%) SQL
7 1 (0.14%) VB.NET
7 1 (0.14%) XPath
Qualifications
1 10 (1.36%) HNC
2 5 (0.68%) HND
3 4 (0.55%) Degree
4 3 (0.41%) 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 (1.36%) ISO 9001
2 9 (1.23%) QA
3 3 (0.41%) Accessibility
3 3 (0.41%) CDISC
4 1 (0.14%) GDPR
System Software
1 1 (0.14%) Docker
Systems Management
1 1 (0.14%) Podman
Vendors
1 16 (2.18%) Siemens
2 15 (2.05%) Calypso
3 14 (1.91%) Microsoft
4 5 (0.68%) Cincom
5 3 (0.41%) IBM
6 2 (0.27%) Infor
7 1 (0.14%) EXTOL
7 1 (0.14%) Google