What does the Tech Nation 2017 report say about the North?

The digital economy is growing twice as fast as the wider economy with an estimated turnover of £170 billion, according to the Tech Nation 2017 report.

The report, which was published today, shows that the UK digital tech sector is one of the country’s economic success stories, growing twice as fast as the wider economy (22% in five years), and creating highly skilled workers and well-paid jobs.

This is the most comprehensive snapshot of the UK’s digital tech sector to date, using data from 2,700 responses from digital businesses across the UK and 220 community partners, and featuring 61 tech startup case studies, 30 UK tech clusters and 1,000 data points.

Read: Tech Nation 2017 report

But what does it say about the North?

The report features 30 city clusters including eight in the North of England. Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield, Hull, Sunderland and Newcastle all return for 2017, and Middlesbrough makes its first Tech Nation appearance. Here are some of the Northern highlights.

Across the North:

• The eight city clusters across the North have a combined GVA of £5.8bn, up from £4bn last year
• There are 168,671 digital tech economy jobs across the eight city clusters in the North
• Year-on-year the number of digital tech economy jobs across the North has increased from 141,465 last year to 161,701 this year (excluding Middlesbrough which was not included in last year’s report)
• 1,973 startups are born each year across the eight city clusters in the North

City findings:

• Manchester has the fourth highest total digital turnover in the UK at £2.9bn (2015)
• Sunderland has the third highest digital turnover growth in the UK at 101% (2011-2015)
• Newcastle is second in the UK for high-growth digital businesses at 22% (2014)
• Hull is 7th in the UK for digital tech business concentration at 0.92
• Leeds and Newcastle are joint 4th in the UK for average digital salary at 50k
• Manchester is 8th in the UK for average digital salary at £47k
• Of the top 10 cities for house price affordability 7 are in the North (Newcastle, Sunderland, Hull, Liverpool, Sheffield, Middlesbrough, Leeds)
• Manchester and Newcastle score highly for digital tech skills
• Manchester and Sheffield score highly for tech meetups by cluster

Commenting on the report’s findings Tech North’s director Richard Gregory said: “While it may come as no surprise to those within the industry, this year’s report provides confirmation that the UK digital tech industry is a growing and productive one. Furthermore, we’re seeing the North play an integral part in that story with strong GVA growth and job creation.”

View the Tech Nation 2017 report

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