Working Life and Prosperity In Essex

How prosperous is Essex? One way to answer is to look at how much people earn in the county, which can be one useful marker of prosperity (although not the only one). Unlike broader statistics which can feel distant and abstract, income-per-person is a figure that brings the focus closer to everyday life. In 2023 the average earnings per person was £26,710 in Essex. That was more than 50% higher than for people in the lowest-income counties such as Leicester and Nottingham. Yet it is not the wealthiest area of England either. There are counties with higher figures such as Buckhinghamshire with £32,856 and Hertfordshire with £30,900. And this all completely ignores areas like the London boroughs which have even higher figures for the same income per person data - for instance in Westminster it is £76,381 and in Kensington and Chelsea a huge £110,651. But as those boroughs of Greater London are not counties they can be ignored for the purposes of this analysis. London simply sits in a category of its own.

Developments over time

Another interesting aspect of this matter is how things have developed over time. A snapshot of just one year might be a bit misleading, but the trends over multiple years may give a more reliable story. So how does that look for Essex in particular? The figures show that the area has seen modest but steady increases in income per person over the years leading up to the year 2023. For example the figure was 19,961 in 2015 and 22,784 in 2019 just before the pandemic hit. However inflation has also been fairly high in recent years, so what look like increases are probably not increases in real terms. Yet relatively speaking, the comparative standard of incomes for Essex dwellers seem fairly good.

Making ends meet

But what does this all mean for individuals? Often people feel as though there has been a decline of living standards in recent years. There is a lot of talk about increasing costs. Yet people in Essex seem more well-positioned than some to weather these storms. The photo below shows a worker in Southend Hospital in the 1980s. Healthcare has in recent years become a major employer particularly in cities and towns.

Its worth reflecting on the fact that the amount of money people receive is not the only measurement of living standards. There are of course many other indicators to look at such as crime, employment status or home ownership. Essex’s figures suggest a region that is neither struggling at the margins nor basking in extreme affluence, but occupying a solid middle ground. It is close enough to London to benefit from its pull, yet distinct in character and cost.

Source: Office for National Statistics (ONS). “Gross Disposable Household Income per head” (2025), licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.