The Datum Report

Occupation 2115 · Professional occupations

Social and humanities scientists

Half of full-time social and humanities scientists in the UK earn more than £39,899 a year, and half earn less.

Social and humanities scientists study and analyse human behaviour and the origin, structure and characteristics of language undertake research in areas such as sociology, economics, politics, archaeology, history, philosophy, literature, the arts organise the collection of qualitative and quantitative information and perform subsequent analyses.

How people enter it

Entry is most common with a degree or equivalent qualification but is possible with other academic qualifications and/or relevant experience. Postgraduate qualifications may be required for some jobs.

What the work involves

• studies society and the manner in which people behave and impact upon the world
• undertakes research across the humanities that furthers understanding of human culture and creativity
• traces the evolution of word and language forms, compares grammatical structures and analyses the relationships between ancient, parent and modern languages
• identifies, compiles and analyses economic, demographic, legal, political, social and other data to address research objectives
• administers questionnaires, carries out interviews, organises focus groups and implements other social research tools
• undertakes analyses of data, presents results of research to sponsors, the media and other interested organisations
• addresses conferences and publishes articles detailing the methodology and results of research undertaken

Also called

Anthropologist · Archaeologist · Criminologist · Epidemiologist · Geographer · GIS analyst · Historian · Political researcher · Social scientist

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for social and humanities scientists, full-time employees, 2023 to 2025. Each point is that year's ASHE April snapshot as published — revisions are not backfilled into earlier years, and a year ONS withheld is a gap rather than a joined line.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Year-on-year change

The change from each year to the next, in per cent, computed from the figures in the chart above — so the two cannot disagree.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Pay by region

Median gross annual pay for full-time employees, ranked, against the UK figure. 3 of 11 regions are published: ONS withholds a cell where the survey sample cannot support it, and those are shown as gaps rather than dropped — an absent region is not a region without the work in it.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Period 2025. Table

Every regional figure

ONS does not publish occupational pay below region. Cells the survey could not support are shown as withheld, with its reason — adding a region split to a specific occupation leaves roughly a tenth of cells publishable.

Common questions

Classified alongside this

Biochemists and biomedical scientists · Biological scientists · Chemical scientists · Natural and social science professionals n.e.c. · Physical scientists