Portsmouth council area · In 2025 pounds, after allowing for inflation (CPI)
Change dates and range
Shown on this chart: From 2002 to 2025, typical full-time pay in 2025 prices fell by 1.5% in Portsmouth council area and rose by 1.9% in England. Highest £40,083 in 2009 in Portsmouth council area.
Both places compared over 2002 to 2025, using matching published dates.
Compared areas: Portsmouth council area; England.
Actual values
Portsmouth council areaEngland
£0£21.2k£42.4k
Highest £40,083, 2009Lowest £34,509, 2013
20022025
Each line joins consecutive published observations for that place. Missing dates remain gaps.
Hover or tap the chart for a value. Use the date slider with touch or arrow keys. Escape closes the chart label.
Cash pay rose 83% over the same years, but prices rose 86%, so most of the rise was used up. Pay figures are survey estimates with a margin of error, so a change of a few per cent in one year can be noise. The fall from the 2009 high is larger than the typical margin for one year’s estimate (about 4%, ONS coefficient of variation).
2 · What it means
In plain terms
Your pay buys about what it did in 2002. A rise on paper has mostly gone on higher prices.
Homes took the biggest jump. A typical house costs 45% more after inflation, so a deposit or a rent takes more of what you earn.
It is not only Portsmouth. England’s typical pay rose 1.9% after inflation over the same years. In Portsmouth it fell 1.5%.
The averages hide a lot. Renters, families with children, part-time workers and people on benefits can be hit harder than this one figure shows.
This page shows what happened to pay and prices. It does not by itself say why. For one popular claim, see Migration and Portsmouth
3 · Where the money goes
The four squeezes
Each page gives the figures, who is acting and what is still missing.
Keeping warm: energy costs and fuel poverty
Households on low incomes in homes that are expensive to heat cannot afford to keep warm without cutting back elsewhere.
Rent is the largest single cost for many households, and buying a home now takes far more years of pay than it did. When housing takes too much of income, other essentials are squeezed and some households fall behind, cannot save a deposit or lose their home.
Illustration, not a typical household. Four made-up households in Portsmouth, each with the same middle pay. It shows only housing, council tax and energy, as a share of pay before tax.
Renting alone
One person, one full-time earner on the median pay
Before tax, so take-home pay is lower and the real share higher. Energy is the Great Britain average typical bill under the Ofgem price cap for 1 October to 31 December 2026, paid by Direct Debit. Council tax is Portsmouth’s 2026/27 charge. Rent is the city average for September 2026. No discounts or benefits are applied, and food, travel and childcare are left out. Middle pay is £39,779 a year (April 2026).
Show the workings for the worked example
Four households: monthly housing, council tax and energy
Household
Earners
Pay before tax
Housing
Council tax
Energy
Total
Share of pay
Renting alone
1
£3,315
£903
£149
£144
£1,195
36.1%
Family renting
1
£3,315
£1,366
£149
£144
£1,658
50.0%
Buying with a mortgage
2
£6,630
£1,050
£191
£144
£1,385
20.9%
Owning outright
1
£3,315
£0
£191
£144
£335
10.1%
Each monthly figure is the yearly figure divided by twelve. The mortgage is the repayment on a median-priced home bought in 2025 (£260,000), at a quoted rate of 4.19%. Assumptions: Deposit of 25% (the 75% loan-to-value band the quoted rate describes); Repayment mortgage over 25 years.
Limits:
Gross pay before tax and National Insurance, so take-home pay is lower and the true share higher.
Energy is the Great Britain average typical bill under the Ofgem price cap, not a Portsmouth or personal figure; actual use differs.
No single-person council tax discount, Council Tax Support or other help is applied.
Rents are the average for all new and existing private tenancies in the city, not what one tenant pays.
The mortgage is what buying a median-priced home now would cost under stated assumptions, not what current owners pay.
Food, travel, childcare and every other cost are left out.
Pounds at 2025 prices, using the ONS annual Consumer Prices Index (CPI), 2015=100. Real value = cash value × CPI(2025) ÷ CPI(year). Pay is the median gross annual pay of full-time employees living in the area (April). House price is the median for the year ending September. Both come from the same ONS workbook.
Typical pay and house price, Portsmouth
Year
Pay, cash
Pay, 2025 money
England pay, 2025 money
House price, cash
House price, 2025 money
CPI (2015=100)
2002
£19,681
£36,562
£38,527
£96,350
£178,991
74.5
2003
£21,148
£38,767
£39,445
£118,500
£217,224
75.5
2004
£20,349
£36,814
£40,594
£133,000
£240,617
76.5
2005
£21,813
£38,655
£41,313
£138,000
£244,548
78.1
2006
£21,788
£37,740
£41,151
£142,500
£246,834
79.9
2007
£21,595
£36,537
£41,452
£153,478
£259,674
81.8
2008
£22,271
£36,391
£41,762
£157,000
£256,538
84.7
2009
£25,081
£40,083
£41,784
£142,000
£226,938
86.6
2010
£25,448
£39,396
£40,678
£150,000
£232,215
89.4
2011
£24,299
£36,006
£39,268
£149,000
£220,788
93.4
2012
£24,781
£35,689
£38,634
£150,000
£216,025
96.1
2013
£24,560
£34,509
£38,464
£150,000
£210,761
98.5
2014
£26,269
£36,356
£38,060
£162,500
£224,900
100.0
2015
£26,528
£36,715
£38,528
£170,000
£235,280
100.0
2016
£25,861
£35,543
£39,170
£185,000
£254,260
100.7
2017
£26,655
£35,677
£38,930
£200,000
£267,698
103.4
2018
£27,402
£35,811
£39,009
£210,000
£274,448
105.9
2019
£28,569
£36,679
£39,404
£210,000
£269,610
107.8
2020
£27,197
£34,628
£40,463
£218,000
£277,564
108.7
2021
£29,215
£36,231
£38,996
£236,000
£292,674
111.6
2022
£32,343
£36,781
£37,846
£250,000
£284,306
121.7
2023
£32,638
£34,614
£37,325
£259,000
£274,679
130.5
2024
£35,112
£36,292
£38,901
£255,000
£263,570
133.9
2025
£36,022
£36,022
£39,243
£260,000
£260,000
138.4
Limits:
CPI excludes owner-occupier housing costs and council tax, so it can understate what housing took from some households.
Median full-time pay leaves out part-time and self-employed people and is not household take-home income.
The pay figure is a survey estimate with a margin of error (see the ONS coefficient of variation); one year's movement can be noise.
Pay is for April; the house price is for the year ending September; both are shown against the same calendar-year deflator.
A different inflation measure (for example CPIH or RPI) would give different real figures.
The average private rent was £1,368 a month in August 2026; this covers properties of different sizes and includes existing as well as new tenancies. It is a housing cost before energy, food and other bills.
In 2025, the median home sale price was 7.22 times the median gross annual earnings of full-time employees living in Portsmouth. The ratio is not a deposit, mortgage offer or measure of an individual household’s income.
Typical full-time employee pay for Portsmouth residents was £39,779 a year before tax in April 2026, compared with £41,140 across England. These provisional survey estimates exclude people who do not work full-time and are not household take-home income. ONS residence-based earnings ↗
Disposable household income per person includes income after taxes and benefits, averaged across residents. It is not the typical household’s income and the cash series below does not account for inflation or housing costs.
Money available to spend or save per person
1997 to 2024
Portsmouth council area · average per person · Cash prices, before allowing for inflation
Reviewed figures: 1997 to 2024.
Shown on this chart: £9,354 per person in 1997; £21,709 per person in 2024. 132.1% higher between these observations.
£7.9k£15.3k£22.7k
19972024
The line joins consecutive published observations.
Hover or tap the chart for a value. Use the date slider with touch or arrow keys. Escape closes the chart label.
Data table and workings
Published ONS table values from one 1997–2024 release, matched by exact source geography code. Table3 per-person values are retained, not recalculated from rounded totals. Source country/region references are the official published totals, not averages of selected councils.
Amounts are in cash prices for each year and include inflation. A rise does not by itself show an increase in purchasing power.
This is an average per resident, including children and retired people, not the income of a typical household, wages or wealth.
These are official statistics in development, combining administrative and survey inputs. The Annual Population Survey contributes to some components; it is not the sole source.
The 2024 estimates are provisional. Earlier years have been revised within this single release; no release editions are spliced.
The UK index compares each year with the UK average in that same year. It is not an inflation-adjusted income index.
Geography as published in the ONS 19 August 2026 release; exact source code retained. The workbook does not specify a separate local-boundary effective date.
The table retains the full reviewed history when the chart is shortened. Preset ranges end at this measure’s latest published period. Yearly windows count published annual periods; monthly windows count months. Gaps are never filled with estimates.
Money available to spend or save per person — Portsmouth council area · average per person: full reviewed history
Rent reduces what is available for other bills and saving. A high price-to-pay ratio can make a deposit harder to build; rents and purchase prices measure different markets.
In FYE 2025, 31% of children under 16 were in relative low-income families after housing costs. This is a threshold-based estimate, not a count of every family struggling.
In 2024, an estimated 10.9% of households met England’s low-income, low-energy-efficiency definition of fuel poverty. The model does not capture every household finding bills difficult.
Improving home energy efficiency, increasing access to suitable housing and supporting people into secure work can address different parts of the pressure. Check who is responsible, the funding and evidence before judging a proposal.
