The Datum Report

Occupation 2451 · Professional occupations

Architects

Half of full-time architects in the UK earn more than £47,143 a year, and half earn less.

Architects plan and design the construction and development of buildings and land areas with regard to functional and aesthetic requirements.

How people enter it

Entrants require a professional qualification in architecture that will encompass an accredited degree and postgraduate qualification, and at least two years practical experience.

What the work involves

• liaises with client and other professionals to establish building type, style, cost limitations and landscaping requirements
• studies condition and characteristics of site, taking into account drainage, topsoil, trees, rock formations, etc.
• analyses site survey and advises client on development and construction details and ensures that proposed design blends in with the surrounding area
• prepares detailed scale drawings and specifications for design and construction and submits these for planning approval
• monitors construction work in progress to ensure compliance with specifications

Also called

Architect · Chartered architect · Landscape architect

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for architects, 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. 6 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

Chartered architectural technologists, planning officers and consultants · Chartered surveyors · Construction project managers and related professionals · Quantity surveyors