The Datum Report

Occupation 2240 · Professional occupations

Veterinarians

Half of full-time veterinarians in the UK earn more than £51,058 a year, and half earn less.

Veterinarians diagnose and treat animal injuries, diseases and disorders, and advise on preventative action. They may work in practices, specialising according to their location in either a rural or urban area, or in the public sector or associated industries such as pharmaceuticals, food production or drug regulation.

How people enter it

Entrants will require a university degree in veterinary science and registration as a member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS). Pre-entry experience in a veterinary practice may be required for entry to a university veterinary school.

What the work involves

• examines animals, diagnoses condition and prescribes and administers appropriate drugs, dressings, etc., and arranges or undertakes any necessary x-ray or other tests
• inoculates animals against communicable diseases
• administers local or general anaesthetics and performs surgery
• investigates outbreaks of animal diseases and advises owners on feeding, breeding and general care
• euthanises old, sick, terminally ill and unwanted animals
• performs tasks relating to food safety policy, regulation of veterinary drugs, quality control of veterinary products
• performs ante-mortem inspection of animals destined for the food chain, and animal post-mortem examinations
• carries out expert witness work and undertakes teaching of veterinary students
• maintains records, raises and forwards reports and certificates in compliance with current legislation

Also called

Veterinarian · Veterinary practitioner · Veterinary surgeon

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for veterinarians, 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. 2 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