The Datum Report

Occupation 2463 · Professional occupations

Clergy

Half of full-time clergy in the UK earn more than £31,183 a year, and half earn less.

Members of the clergy provide spiritual motivation and guidance, conduct worship according to the form of service of a particular faith/denomination and perform related functions associated with religious beliefs and practices.

How people enter it

Entrants typically possess a degree or equivalent qualification. Candidates for the clergy according to the Christian faith must pass a selection procedure and attend theological college where training includes theological instruction and practical pastoral experience. Training can last up to six years depending upon age, experience and denomination. Entry routes for other religious professionals will vary according to the particular faith concerned.

What the work involves

• prepares and delivers sermons and talks and leads congregation in worship
• interprets doctrines and instructs intending clergy members in religious principles and practices
• provides and arranges the provision of religious instruction to congregation members
• performs marriages, funerals, baptisms and other special religious rites
• provides pastoral care to members of the congregation in their homes and in hospitals and counsels those in need of spiritual or moral guidance
• undertakes administration and social duties as required

Also called

Chaplain · Clergyman · Minister of religion · Nun · Pastor · Priest · Vicar

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for clergy, 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. 9 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

Probation officers · Social workers · Welfare professionals n.e.c. · Youth work professionals