The Datum Report

Occupation 2472 · Professional occupations

Archivists, conservators and curators

Half of full-time archivists, conservators and curators in the UK earn more than £34,237 a year, and half earn less.

Archivists, conservators and curators collect, appraise and preserve collections of recorded and other material of historical interest.

How people enter it

Entrants require a good first degree in order to gain entry to a relevant postgraduate course. Many postgraduate courses also require applicants to have gained relevant practical experience prior to entry. Training is typically received on-the-job.

What the work involves

• examines, appraises and advises on the acquisition of exhibits, historic records, government papers and other material
• classifies material and arranges for its safe keeping and preservation
• maintains indexes, bibliographies and descriptive details of archive material and arranges for reproductions of items where necessary
• examines objects to identify any damage and carries out necessary restoration whilst preserving original characteristics
• makes sure that storage and display conditions protect objects from deterioration and damage
• allows access to original material or material not on display for researchers
• develops and promotes ideas for exhibitions and displays
• negotiates loans of material for specialist displays
• liaises with school and other groups or individuals, publicises exhibits and arranges special displays for general, specialised or educational interest
• answers verbal or written enquiries and gives advice on exhibits or other material

Also called

Archivist · Conservator · Curator · Keeper (art gallery) · Museum officer

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for archivists, conservators and curators, 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

Classified alongside this

Librarians