The Datum Report

Occupation 2252 · Professional occupations

Optometrists

Half of full-time optometrists in the UK earn more than £51,030 a year, and half earn less.

Ophthalmic opticians test patients’ vision, diagnose defects and disorders and prescribe glasses or contact lenses as required.

How people enter it

Entrants require a degree in Optometry, must have passed the Professional Qualifying Examination of the General Optical Council, and have completed a pre-registration year. Advanced training in specialised areas is available.

What the work involves

• examines eyes and tests vision of patient, identifies problems, defects, injuries and ill health
• prescribes appropriate spectacle lenses, contact lenses and other aids
• advises patient on proper use of glasses, contact lenses and other aids, and on appropriate lighting conditions for reading and working
• refers patient to a specialist, where necessary
• carries out research with glass and lens manufacturers

Also called

Doctor of optometry · Ophthalmic optician · Optician

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for optometrists, 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. 1 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

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