Average house price compared with resident median annual pay.
Isle of Wight Wages, Employment and Property Affordability
Resident earnings, employment, unemployment and affordability context for reading Isle of Wight prices and rents.
Apr 2025-Mar 2026 / ASHE 2026
Isle of Wight wages, employment and affordability
Resident earnings and labour-market context help explain local affordability, rental pressure and housing demand.
Resident population
140,777
ONS 2025
Median resident annual pay
£34,429
Isle of Wight
Median resident weekly pay
£662
Full-time employees
Employment rate
73.6%
Aged 16-64
Unemployment rate
4.9%
Economically active
Average monthly rent compared with estimated monthly earnings.
Labour market rates are from the ONS Annual Population Survey profile shown by Nomis. Where the local APS unemployment value is suppressed, the ONS model-based unemployment estimate is used. Earnings are ONS ASHE resident-analysis median full-time employee earnings. Annual pay is annualised from weekly pay for display context.
Incomes Explain Affordability Pressure
Wage and employment data does not predict house prices by itself. It gives demand-side context: how average prices and rents compare with resident earnings, whether employment conditions support demand, and where affordability pressure may limit the buyer or renter pool.
Isle of Wight’s latest ONS and Nomis labour-market profile shows a resident population of 140,777 in 2025. That scale matters for local housing context because a smaller island economy can have a different earnings and employment mix from the national average, even before any property-market factors are considered.