Best places for · Young professionals
Best UK cities for young professionals
Cities where 1-bed rent won't swallow the salary, career density is high, transit is fast, and the salary-to-rent ratio signals the place still makes sense financially.
Section 1 / 3
Top 25 cities for young professionals
Score is 0–100, computed by min-max normalising each weighted metric across UK cities. Larger cities (50k+ residents) only — keeps the ranking representative.
- 1.City of LondonLondon70.1 / 100
- 1-bed —
- Salary —
- Jobs 76.55
- 2.CopelandNorth West67.6 / 100
- 1-bed £491/mo
- Salary £33,840
- Jobs 0.48
- 3.AllerdaleNorth West67.2 / 100
- 1-bed £491/mo
- Salary £33,840
- Jobs 0.48
- 4.CarlisleNorth West67.1 / 100
- 1-bed £491/mo
- Salary £33,840
- Jobs 0.48
- 5.East Riding of YorkshireYorkshire and The Humber65.6 / 100
- 1-bed £492/mo
- Salary £31,881
- Jobs 0.38
- 6.FyldeNorth West65.5 / 100
- 1-bed £595/mo
- Salary £36,020
- Jobs 0.54
- 7.WiganNorth West65.5 / 100
- 1-bed £531/mo
- Salary £31,615
- Jobs 0.33
- 8.North LincolnshireYorkshire and The Humber65.4 / 100
- 1-bed £455/mo
- Salary £30,012
- Jobs 0.44
- 9.HartlepoolNorth East65.3 / 100
- 1-bed £409/mo
- Salary £28,830
- Jobs 0.34
- 10.NorthumberlandNorth East65.2 / 100
- 1-bed £472/mo
- Salary £30,456
- Jobs 0.35
- 11.RugbyWest Midlands65.2 / 100
- 1-bed £740/mo
- Salary £41,814
- Jobs 0.47
- 12.North East LincolnshireYorkshire and The Humber65.0 / 100
- 1-bed £433/mo
- Salary £28,898
- Jobs 0.43
- 13.RutlandEast Midlands65.0 / 100
- 1-bed £680/mo
- Salary £39,559
- Jobs 0.39
- 14.CarmarthenshireWales65.0 / 100
- 1-bed £487/mo
- Salary £30,774
- Jobs 0.38
- 15.Neath Port TalbotWales65.0 / 100
- 1-bed £485/mo
- Salary £30,709
- Jobs 0.34
- 16.South LakelandNorth West64.9 / 100
- 1-bed £590/mo
- Salary £33,988
- Jobs 0.48
- 17.Blaenau GwentWales64.9 / 100
- 1-bed £494/mo
- Salary £30,734
- Jobs 0.27
- 18.BurnleyNorth West64.8 / 100
- 1-bed £460/mo
- Salary £29,680
- Jobs 0.40
- 19.Barrow-in-FurnessNorth West64.7 / 100
- 1-bed £590/mo
- Salary £33,988
- Jobs 0.48
- 20.WirralNorth West64.6 / 100
- 1-bed £553/mo
- Salary £32,959
- Jobs 0.32
- 21.DarlingtonNorth East64.5 / 100
- 1-bed £480/mo
- Salary £30,100
- Jobs 0.51
- 22.ChorleyNorth West64.5 / 100
- 1-bed £579/mo
- Salary £33,337
- Jobs 0.35
- 23.South RibbleNorth West64.4 / 100
- 1-bed £549/mo
- Salary £32,740
- Jobs 0.46
- 24.DoncasterYorkshire and The Humber64.4 / 100
- 1-bed £486/mo
- Salary £31,119
- Jobs 0.42
- 25.County DurhamNorth East64.3 / 100
- 1-bed £444/mo
- Salary £29,718
- Jobs 0.36
Section 2 / 3
How the ranking works
Each metric is min-max normalised across the peer set, then combined with the weights below. Lower-is-better metrics (rent, crime, distance to GP) are inverted before combining.
- 1.1-bed rent (convex penalty)
- 2.Job density
- 3.Rail access
- 4.Salary
- 5.Safety baseline
- 6.Broadband · salary efficiency
Source data: ONS PIPR (rent), ONS ASHE (salary), data.police.uk (crime), Ofsted (schools), DfT/NaPTAN (rail), NHS ODS (GP), DEFRA (PM2.5), Ofcom (broadband), ONS access-to-greenspace 2020.
Section 3 / 3
Different life stage?
The ranking changes when the priorities change.