The Datum Report

Occupation 2221 · Professional occupations

Physiotherapists

Half of full-time physiotherapists in the UK earn more than £43,532 a year, and half earn less.

Physiotherapists plan and apply massage, promote and encourage movement and exercise, use hydrotherapy, electro-therapy and other technological equipment in the treatment of a wide range of injuries, diseases and disabilities in order to assist rehabilitation by developing and restoring body systems.

How people enter it

Entry is most common with GCSEs/S grades and A levels/H grades followed by up to four years training on an approved degree scheme necessary for state registration as a physiotherapist. Some science and other graduates are eligible for accelerated two year pre-registration MSc degree programmes in Physiotherapy or Rehabilitation Science. Relevant apprenticeships are available.

What the work involves

• examines medical reports and assesses patient to determine the condition of muscles, nerves or joints in need of treatment
• writes up patients’ case notes and reports, maintains their records and manages caseload
• plans and undertakes therapy to improve circulation, restore joint mobility, strengthen muscles and reduce pain
• explains treatment to and instructs patient in posture and other exercises and adapts treatment as necessary
• offers advice and education on how to avoid injury and promote patient’s future health and well-being
• supervises physiotherapy assistants
• monitors patient’s progress and liaises with others concerned with the treatment and rehabilitation of patient, and refers patients requiring other specific medical attention

Also called

Electro-therapist · Physiotherapist · Physiotherapy practitioner

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for physiotherapists, 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. 11 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

Clinical psychologists · Occupational therapists · Other psychologists · Psychotherapists and cognitive behaviour therapists · Speech and language therapists · Therapy professionals n.e.c.