The Datum Report

Occupation 2119 · Professional occupations

Natural and social science professionals n.e.c.

Half of full-time natural and social science professionals n.e.c. in the UK earn more than £43,384 a year, and half earn less.

Job holders in this unit group perform a variety of scientific research and related activities not elsewhere classified in minor group 211: Natural and social science professionals.

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. On-the-job training and/or support for postgraduate study may be provided. Professional qualifications are available in some areas of activity.

What the work involves

• plans, directs and undertakes research into natural phenomena
• provides technical advisory and consulting services
• designs tests and experiments to address research objective and find solutions
• applies models and techniques to medical, industrial, agricultural, military and similar applications
• analyses results and writes up results of tests and experiments undertaken
• presents results of scientific research to sponsors, addresses conferences and publishes articles outlining the methodology and results of research undertaken
• designs and develops an appropriate research methodology in order to address the research objective
• compiles and analyses quantitative and qualitative data, prepares reports and presents results to summarise main findings and conclusions
• advises government, private organisations and special interest groups on policy issues
• writes journal articles, books, and addresses conferences, seminars and the media to reveal research findings

Also called

Operational research scientist · Scientific officer · Scientist · Sports scientist · Technical officer (laboratory) · University research fellow (sciences)

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for natural and social science professionals n.e.c., 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. 7 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 · Physical scientists · Social and humanities scientists