Key takeaways
2,729,900 people worked in skilled trades occupations in the UK in the year to March 2026.
This is the Standard Occupational Classification major group 5, the closest official measure of "tradespeople" that exists.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 2026886,100 of them were in skilled construction and building trades.
This is the narrower group most people mean by the word: bricklayers through to painters, excluding metal and electrical trades.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 2026956,700 skilled trades workers were self-employed, 35% of the total.
Self-employment is the defining feature of the sector and the reason most employment statistics understate it.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 2026In construction and building trades, the self-employed (502,900) outnumber employees (380,500).
No other major occupational group in the UK is structured this way.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 2026193,000 people worked as electricians and electrical fitters.
The single largest identifiable trade in the UK.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 2026153,700 people worked as plumbers and heating and ventilating installers.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 2026An average of 41,200 extra construction workers are needed each year between 2026 and 2030.
This is CITB's replacement-and-growth requirement, not a count of vacancies.
CITB, June 2026Median full-time pay for skilled trades employees was £36,093 a year in April 2025.
Read this as employee pay only. ASHE excludes the self-employed, who are most of the trade.
ONS, ASHE Table 14.7a, December 2025Construction had the lowest apprenticeship achievement rate of any sector subject area, at 58.3%.
More than four in ten construction apprentices do not complete.
Department for Education, July 202635 workers were killed in construction in 2024/25.
Construction remains the industry with the highest number of worker fatalities in Great Britain.
HSE, November 2025Citizens Advice received 36,534 complaints about home maintenance and improvements in a year.
That is more than 700 a week, and one of the largest complaint categories the service handles.
Citizens Advice, August 20254.8 million homeowners hit a problem with home repairs in an 18-month period.
Those who paid extra to put earlier work right lost £750 on average.
Citizens Advice, July 2026
How many tradespeople are there in the UK?
There is no official statistic called "number of tradespeople". Two different measures get used interchangeably and they count different populations: the ONS occupational classification counts people doing trade work in any industry, while CITB counts people working in the construction industry in any role. Both are given below. Conflating them is the most common error in published figures on this subject.
2,729,900 people worked in skilled trades occupations across the UK.
This is SOC 2020 major group 5 and includes agricultural, metal, electrical, construction, food and textile trades.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 2026934,400 worked in skilled metal, electrical and electronic trades.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 2026886,100 worked in skilled construction and building trades.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 2026672,400 of those were in construction and building trades proper.
The remainder of the 886,100 sit in building finishing trades and supervisory roles.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 202653,100 worked as construction and building trades supervisors.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 2026The UK construction workforce stood at 2,606,380 in 2025 on CITB's industry measure.
This counts everyone working in construction, including managers, professionals and administrators, so it is not comparable with the occupational figures above.
CITB, June 2026CITB forecasts the construction workforce reaching 2,681,800 by 2030.
CITB, June 2026England accounted for 2,228,540 construction workers in 2025.
CITB, June 2026227,200 people worked in skilled trades occupations in London.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 202697,300 London workers were in skilled construction and building trades.
London holds roughly one in nine of the UK's construction tradespeople.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 2026
How many electricians, plumbers and builders are there in the UK?
These are ONS unit-group estimates from the Annual Population Survey for the year to March 2026. They count people whose main job is that trade, whether employed or self-employed. Confidence intervals widen considerably for the smaller trades.
193,000 people worked as electricians and electrical fitters.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 2026215,600 worked in construction and building trades not elsewhere classified.
This is where general builders fall, which is why no clean figure for "number of builders" exists.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 2026175,400 worked as carpenters and joiners.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 2026153,700 worked as plumbers and heating and ventilating installers and repairers.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 202686,200 worked as painters and decorators.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 202649,300 worked as bricklayers.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 202643,300 worked as electrical service and maintenance mechanics and repairers.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 202638,800 worked as plasterers.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 202635,600 worked as floorers and wall tilers.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 202633,400 worked as glaziers, window fabricators and fitters.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 202626,900 worked as roofers, roof tilers and slaters.
The smallest of the main construction trades, and the one that attracts the most consumer complaints.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 202676,630 gas businesses were on the Gas Safe Register as at 31 March 2024.
Registration is a legal requirement for gas work, so this is close to a census rather than a survey estimate.
Gas Safe Register, 2024150,729 gas engineers were registered as at 31 March 2024.
Gas Safe Register, 202475,617 of the registered gas businesses were in Great Britain.
The remainder are in Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.
Gas Safe Register, 20245,056 new gas businesses were accepted onto the Register in 2023–24.
Gas Safe Register, 202415,200 plumbers and heating installers worked in London.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 202610,000 electricians and electrical fitters worked in London.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 2026
Is there a shortage of tradespeople in the UK?
CITB's Construction Workforce Outlook, produced with Oxford Economics, is the forecast the industry and government both use. Its headline number is an annual requirement, covering both growth and people leaving. It is not a count of unfilled jobs.
An average of 41,200 extra construction workers will be needed each year between 2026 and 2030.
CITB, June 2026That amounts to around 206,000 additional workers over the five-year period.
CITB, June 2026The annual requirement equals 1.6% of the 2025 workforce.
Expressed this way the gap is a recruitment problem rather than a crisis of scale.
CITB, June 2026Construction output is forecast to fall 0.2% in 2026.
Demand for labour is expected to be weakest in the first year of the forecast.
CITB, June 2026Output growth is forecast to recover to 1.8% in 2027.
CITB, June 2026Growth is forecast to peak at 2.8% in 2028.
CITB, June 2026Growth eases to 2.1% by 2030.
CITB, June 2026Public new housing is the fastest-growing sector at 3.6% a year on average.
CITB, June 2026Infrastructure is forecast to grow 2.5% a year on average.
CITB, June 2026
How much do tradespeople earn in the UK?
Every figure in this section is median gross annual pay for full-time employees only, from the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, April 2025, provisional. The caveat matters more here than anywhere else on this page: ASHE surveys employee jobs through PAYE, so it excludes the self-employed. ASHE counts 91,000 full-time employee electrician jobs against 193,000 electricians in the labour force. These medians describe the employed minority of each trade.
Median full-time pay across all skilled trades was £36,093.
Based on 1,287,000 employee jobs.
ONS, ASHE Table 14.7a, December 2025Construction and building trades supervisors were the best paid at £45,021.
Supervision, not any particular trade, is the clearest route to higher employee pay.
ONS, ASHE Table 14.7a, December 2025Electricians and electrical fitters had median full-time pay of £39,647.
The best-paid of the main hands-on trades.
ONS, ASHE Table 14.7a, December 2025Plumbers and heating installers had median full-time pay of £37,881.
ONS, ASHE Table 14.7a, December 2025Plasterers had median full-time pay of £34,016.
Based on a small sample of 6,000 employee jobs, so treat the precision with caution.
ONS, ASHE Table 14.7a, December 2025Carpenters and joiners had median full-time pay of £34,014.
ONS, ASHE Table 14.7a, December 2025Bricklayers had median full-time pay of £33,030.
ONS, ASHE Table 14.7a, December 2025Floorers and wall tilers had median full-time pay of £32,861.
ONS, ASHE Table 14.7a, December 2025Painters and decorators had median full-time pay of £32,763.
ONS, ASHE Table 14.7a, December 2025Roofers had median full-time pay of £31,906.
ONS, ASHE Table 14.7a, December 2025Glaziers were the lowest paid construction trade at £29,436.
ONS, ASHE Table 14.7a, December 2025Roofers saw the largest annual pay rise of any construction trade at 10.9%.
Rising pay in the smallest trade is consistent with a recruitment squeeze there.
ONS, ASHE Table 14.7a, December 2025Median gross annual pay for all UK full-time employees was £39,039.
Every hands-on trade above sits below the national median.
ONS, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, October 2025Median weekly earnings for all full-time employees were £766.60.
ONS, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, October 2025
How many tradespeople are self-employed?
This is the structural fact that makes the sector hard to measure. Payroll data, vacancy series and earnings surveys all under-cover the trades because so much of the workforce sits outside PAYE.
956,700 skilled trades workers were self-employed.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 20261,762,300 skilled trades workers were employees.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 2026502,900 skilled construction and building trades workers were self-employed.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 2026380,500 skilled construction and building trades workers were employees.
Self-employment is the majority arrangement in construction trades, not the exception.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 2026109,300 carpenters and joiners were self-employed.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 202666,100 carpenters and joiners were employees.
Nearly two in three carpenters work for themselves.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 202672,500 plumbers and heating installers were self-employed.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 202661,000 electricians and electrical fitters were self-employed.
A smaller share than most trades, reflecting how much electrical work sits inside contracting firms.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 2026141,900 skilled metal, electrical and electronic trades workers were self-employed.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 2026
How many people are training to enter the trades?
Apprenticeship figures cover England only and are published by the Department for Education. Three different numbers get quoted as though they were one: starts, participation and achievements. They are given separately here.
23,900 apprenticeships started in Construction, Planning and the Built Environment.
Covers August 2025 to April 2026, provisional.
Department for Education, July 2026Construction apprenticeship starts rose 5.0% year on year.
Department for Education, July 2026Construction had the lowest apprenticeship achievement rate of any sector subject area at 58.3%.
Achievement rate measures the share of those who reached the end of their programme and passed.
Department for Education, July 2026Education and Training had the highest achievement rate at 74.8%.
The 16-point gap is the clearest measure of construction's retention problem.
Department for Education, July 2026Construction apprenticeship starts reached 24,500 in the full 2024/25 year.
Department for Education, July 2026Construction apprenticeship starts peaked at 26,500 in 2021/22.
Department for Education, July 2026Construction apprenticeship starts fell to a low of 20,200 in 2020/21.
The pandemic trough, from which starts recovered but have not exceeded.
Department for Education, July 2026308,770 apprenticeships were started across all sectors in England.
Construction accounts for under 8% of all apprenticeship starts.
Department for Education, July 2026735,500 learners were participating in an apprenticeship.
Department for Education, July 2026146,210 apprenticeships were achieved across all sectors.
Department for Education, July 2026
Who works in the trades, by gender and age?
The construction trades are the least gender-diverse major occupational group in the UK labour market. Several unit-group estimates for women are suppressed by ONS because the sample is too small to publish, which is itself a finding.
319,900 women worked in skilled trades occupations.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 2026Only 20,700 women worked in skilled construction and building trades.
That is 2.3% of the 886,100 total, the lowest female share of any sub-major occupational group.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 202631,400 women worked in skilled metal, electrical and electronic trades.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 20268,300 women worked in construction and building trades not elsewhere classified.
The largest single concentration of women in the construction trades.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 20264,900 of the UK's electricians and electrical fitters were women.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 20264,800 painters and decorators were women.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 20262,800 of the UK's plumbers and heating installers were women.
ONS suppresses the equivalent estimates for bricklayers, roofers and plasterers because the samples are zero or disclosive.
ONS, Annual Population Survey, August 202663,530 apprenticeship starts were by learners under 19.
Across all sectors, 20.6% of starts.
Department for Education, July 2026
How big is the UK construction and home improvement market?
For anyone looking at the domestic trades specifically, the number that matters is repair, maintenance and improvement, the homeowner-facing half of the industry, rather than total output.
UK construction output was valued at £230 billion in 2025.
CITB, June 2026Around 41 percent of construction output was repair and maintenance.
This is the portion of the industry a homeowner actually buys from.
CITB, June 2026Total construction output fell 0.5% in the three months to July 2026.
This followed four consecutive quarterly increases.
ONS, September 2026Private housing repair and maintenance fell 1.7% over the three months.
The largest single negative contribution to the quarterly fall.
ONS, September 2026Six out of the nine construction sectors fell over the three months.
ONS, September 2026Monthly construction output grew 0.1% in July 2026.
ONS, September 2026Repair and maintenance grew 0.8% in the month, the sole source of that growth.
New work fell over the same month.
ONS, September 2026Private housing new work fell 4.9% in July 2026.
The largest contributor to the fall in new work.
ONS, September 2026
How safe is trade work in the UK?
All figures are Great Britain, published by the Health and Safety Executive in November 2025. Fatal injury data comes from RIDDOR reports; ill health and non-fatal injury figures are three-year averages from the Labour Force Survey, because single-year estimates are too volatile to use.
35 workers were killed in construction in 2024/25.
Provisional RIDDOR figure.
HSE, November 2025The five-year annual average is 40 construction fatalities.
Covering 2020/21 to 2024/25.
HSE, November 20254 members of the public were killed as a result of construction work in 2024/25.
HSE, November 2025Falls from a height caused 53% of construction fatal injuries.
Averaged over 2020/21 to 2024/25, and by a wide margin the leading cause.
HSE, November 2025Contact with electricity or electrical discharge caused 7% of construction fatal injuries.
HSE, November 202579,000 construction workers suffered work-related ill health.
Three-year average, new and long-standing cases combined.
HSE, November 2025Musculoskeletal disorders accounted for 53% of construction work-related ill health.
Stress, depression or anxiety accounted for a further 19%.
HSE, November 202550,000 construction workers sustained non-fatal injuries at work.
Three-year average from the Labour Force Survey.
HSE, November 2025Slips, trips or falls on the same level caused 25% of non-fatal injuries.
The ranking of causes differs sharply between fatal and non-fatal injury.
HSE, November 2025Around 2.2 million working days were lost in construction each year.
HSE, November 2025Work-related illness accounted for 82% of those working days lost.
Injury accounted for the remaining 18%, so the sector loses far more time to illness than to accidents.
HSE, November 2025The economic cost of construction injury and ill health was £1.4 billion in 2023/24.
Six per cent of the total cost of all work-related ill health and injury in Great Britain.
HSE, November 2025
What goes wrong when homeowners hire a tradesperson?
Citizens Advice runs the statutory consumer helpline for England and Wales, so its complaint counts are among the few national measures of consumer detriment in this market. Gas Safe Register data covers the one domestic trade where working without registration is a criminal offence.
36,534 complaints about home maintenance and improvements were made to the Citizens Advice Consumer Service in a year.
More than 700 a week.
Citizens Advice, August 202519,281 of those complaints concerned low-quality services.
More than half of all complaints in the category.
Citizens Advice, August 2025Roofing, roof sealing and chimney repairs drew 8,126 complaints.
At 22.2% of the category, the most complained-about work by a wide margin, and roofing is also the smallest of the main trades.
Citizens Advice, August 2025Major renovations including lofts, conversions and extensions drew 4,365 complaints.
11.9% of the category.
Citizens Advice, August 2025Window frames and doors drew 3,856 complaints.
10.6% of the category.
Citizens Advice, August 2025Plumbers and plumbing drew 2,629 complaints.
7.2% of the category.
Citizens Advice, August 20255,230 complaints involved scams or rogue traders.
Around one in seven.
Citizens Advice, August 20254.8 million homeowners faced a problem with home repairs over 18 months.
Separate research published a year after the complaint figures above.
Citizens Advice, July 2026Around 1.7 million homeowners had to pay more to fix earlier work or were overcharged.
Citizens Advice, July 2026Those who paid extra lost £750 on average.
Citizens Advice, July 202682% of homeowners who took action faced barriers trying to resolve the problem.
Citizens Advice, July 202628% of homeowners did the work themselves because they could not find a trustworthy trader.
Citizens Advice, July 202626% delayed or avoided repairs altogether for the same reason.
Distrust removes demand from the market rather than redirecting it.
Citizens Advice, July 202636% of people who used a trader found them through someone they know.
Informal recommendation remains the dominant discovery route.
Citizens Advice, July 20267,116 defects found on gas work were classed At Risk or Immediately Dangerous in 2023–24.
Gas Safe Register, 2024924 of those defects were attributed to unregistered fitters.
Gas Safe Register, 20241,048 reports were received about unregistered gas fitters.
Gas Safe Register, 202460,174 Gas Safe inspections were carried out in 2023–24.
Gas Safe Register, 2024
Methodology
How sources were selected. Only organisations that produce the data qualify: government departments and statistical agencies, regulators, statutory registers, and industry bodies that publish their own methodology. No statistics roundup, aggregator, press summary or AI output is cited anywhere on this page. Where a secondary source surfaced a figure, the chain was followed to the publisher and the publisher is what appears in the citation.
What was excluded and why.A paywalled aggregator series on construction self-employment was dropped because the free ONS equivalent is citable by anyone. A widely repeated claim of “2.1 million skilled tradespeople”, attributed loosely to ONS, was not used: the Annual Population Survey puts skilled trades occupations at 2,729,900. A 2023 figure of 166,000 shortfall from commissioned retail research was dropped as superseded by CITB’s 2026 to 2030 outlook.
Verification. All 115 figures were checked on 12 September 2026. 83 were verified automatically by fetching the source URL and requiring an exact string match on the figure. 32 were verified by reading the source document directly: the ONS ASHE Table 14.7a workbook, the HSE construction statistics PDF, and the Gas Safe Register annual report PDF, none of which expose their figures in page HTML. The ASHE extraction was validated by confirming that the workbook’s all-employee median returned £39,039, matching the figure ONS publishes in the accompanying bulletin.
Two cautions carried throughout. ASHE pay figures cover employees only and therefore exclude most of the trade, since self-employment is the majority arrangement in construction trades. And occupational counts (ONS, SOC 2020) and industry counts (CITB) measure different populations, so they should never be compared directly.
Collection dates. Workforce and self-employment figures cover April 2025 to March 2026. Pay figures were collected in April 2025, published in December 2025, and remain provisional. Safety figures run to March 2025. Gas Safe register counts are as at 31 March 2024. Complaint figures cover the twelve months to August 2025; the homeowner research covers the 18 months to mid-2026.
Review cadence. Every source is re-checked quarterly and the page is updated in place, on the same URL. Next review: .
Cite this page
Free to quote with attribution. Every section has its own anchor, so you can link the exact figure you are citing.
South London Trades (2026). 115 UK Tradespeople Statistics for 2026. https://www.southlondontrades.co.uk/uk-tradespeople-statisticsLooking for a tradesperson?
This page is a reference for anyone who needs a sourced figure on the UK trades. If you need the work done instead, our electricians and plumbers listings cover South London, area by area, and trades can list their business.