The UK’s Best Cities for Tech Lovers 

Posted on September 9, 2025 by Louise Howland

Technology continues to transform the way we live, work and interact, and the UK is home to a growing number of cities that are making their mark on the digital landscape.

Research from Deloitte reveals that the UK is a burgeoning hub for high-growth tech companies — with the number of them registered in the UK tripling in the last decade.

With the UK’s tech scene growing, it begs the question — where are the emerging hotspots? ramsac have found the answer.

We’ve conducted a study on the best UK cities for tech lovers scraping various sources. We assessed Google Search Volume around tech jobs and events, the number of tech events, average tech job salaries, the number of technology companies and average broadband speeds across 31 UK cities to reveal the most blossoming locations for tech.

The results highlight not only well-established powerhouses but also rising contenders that are fast becoming magnets for talent, investment, and opportunity — painting a clear picture of where the UK’s digital future is being built.

London is crowned the UK’s best city for technology lovers

As we can see from the data, it’s no surprise that London leads the charge for tech firms in the UK. London boasts a staggering 107,530 companies – more than 20 times the number of tech companies compared to other cities.

Newcastle is second. Despite having nearly 100 times less jobs available than London, what makes Newcastle a competitor is the salary.

According to our data, the average salary for a tech role in Newcastle is £128,927. Not only does this dwarf London’s average of around £47,000, but it shows that there are many high-paying tech positions in Newcastle.

Surprisingly, Coventry is the third best city for UK tech lovers and it goes head-to-head with the capital in more ways than one.

With an average salary of tech roles in Coventry being £40,094 this means jobs here pay only 15% less than in London while being a significantly cheaper area to live.

Interest in tech business is also rising in Coventry. With the number of tech business events held there sitting at 2,800, it dwarfs London’s 1,863 despite having only a fraction of the population.

Birmingham is an outlier. Despite only having one tenth of the population of London, it still harbours an impressive 4,935 tech companies in the city — making it an attractive destination for tech work.

With an average salary of a tech position in Birmingham earning employees £39,917, it competes with London, particularly when you factor in cost of living in the capital.

Derry is the worst UK city for technology lovers

According to our data, the worst city in the UK for tech lovers is Derry.

With only 385 available tech companies to work for, a small volume of 100 tech-related events held there, and the second lowest broadband download speed in the UK (110Mpbs) after Wrexham (104Mbps), it seems like the tech buzz hasn’t yet made it to Derry at first glance.

However, there are some standout data points.

The average salary of a Derry-based tech company employee is around £37,975, which makes it comparable to some of the UK’s biggest cities like Birmingham (£39,917) and Manchester (£39,560).

Dundee occupies second place, with the lowest average annual salary for a tech company employee at only £24,420 — which is almost 50% less than in London and nearly one fifth of the average of Newcastle. Although it also has the 3^rd lowest UK broadband speed (144Mbps) it does have more tech firms based there than Derry (385) with 420.

Third is Inverness. Despite having similar volumes of technology events (100), broadband speed (149Mbps), and search volume for the term “tech jobs” (10) its strength lies in salary.

The average salary in Inverness is £39,115 which also puts it in a highly competitive bracket with Manchester and Birmingham, and 11^th in the UK.

London is crowned the best UK city for technology workers

In terms of where it’s most attractive to work, London comes out on top with the most technology companies (107,530) and the second highest average salary after Newcastle (£47,079).

Second place is Newcastle, which boasts many metrics that may make it a more attractive place to work than even the capital. With an average tech salary for jobs in the area north of £120,000, tech employees can not only earn a substantial salary but also take advantage of the lower cost of living.

Bristol ranks as the 3^rd best tech hub according to our data. Ranked 6^th in cities in the UK with the most tech companies (3,290) and boasting a salary just shy of the London average (£45,381), it’s clear Bristol is making its mark as a burgeoning tech hub in the South-West.

Southampton, ranked 4^th, also has some interesting statistics. It’s high salary of £44,214 is comparable to Bristol (£45,381) and London (£47,079), it also ranks 3^rd in the UK for the volume of technology events available with over 2,220 held in the city.

Interestingly, for remote workers some of the outliers, not in the top ten, may also be attractive places to live and work for tech employees. Derby boasts the fastest broadband speed (300Mbps) while even London lags behind with an average of 219Mbps, leaving it in the middle of the pack.

The Future of Tech in the UK

The UK’s tech map is constantly evolving, with cities like Newcastle, Coventry, Bristol and Southampton proving that innovation is no longer confined to the London area.

As artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automation integrate themselves more deeply into the UK economy these cities are likely to see even sharper growth in tech-related jobs.

According to the UK Government, AI alone could add £79.3 billion by the 2035 with growth having more than doubled year-on-year.

In the future, the rankings we see today could shift rapidly. Smaller cities with the fastest broadband like Derby, affordable living costs like many northern and midlands cities, and strong digital skills pipelines may attract AI start-ups and remote-first tech companies.

The race to be an AI-ready city is already on — and it won’t just be London leading the charge.

How ramsac can Help You Be tech and AI Ready

At ramsac, we have decades of invaluable experience getting bolstering companies IT services and getting them ready for AI adoption for their tech.

Our team also offers AI readiness assessments as well as consulting and training solutions to help your business navigate changing times.

Contact us today to find out how our solutions can protect your organisation from changing AI regulations and help you stay compliant. 

Methodology and Sources

Search Interest in Tech – Using Google Keyword Planner, we measured the average monthly search volume for technology-related keywords between July 2024 and June 2025. This provided an indicator of public interest and engagement with tech jobs and topics in each city.

Volume of Tech Businesses – Data from the Office for National Statistics was used to identify the number of “professional, scientific and technical” businesses in each listed city. This was scraped directly from ONS business count datasets.

ICT Job Availability – Reed.co.uk job listings were analysed by searching for “ICT” roles, filtered to permanent positions posted within the last 7 days and located within a 10-mile radius of each city. This metric helped to gauge the short-term demand for tech professionals.

Broadband Infrastructure – Download speeds for each city were taken from publicly available Local Broadband Information datasets. These figures represent average broadband speeds in megabits per second (Mbps) and indicate the city’s capacity for digital work and connectivity.

Average Tech Salary – Indeed.co.uk listings were filtered by the job title “technology consultant” for each city, with the resulting average salary recorded. This was used as a benchmark for earnings potential in the local tech sector.

STEM Degree Students – Data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) was used to determine the number of engineering and technology degree students enrolled at higher education providers within each city.

Tech Event Volume – EventBrite was searched for “technology” events in each city, with total event counts calculated based on the number of result pages multiplied by the number of events per page.