Over the past decade, the number of graduates in the UK has shown a steady increase. Each year, these young professionals are moving from their homes and university towns to vibrant cities to start their careers.
Maintaining a high quality of life while building a career can be tricky. Cities like Manchester promise high employment opportunities, other cities like Edinburgh stand out for promoting a healthy work-life balance. But sometimes smaller cities like Cambridge can get a combination of these factors just right.
Considering all the elements that come into play when decoding this can be overwhelming and confusing, but Market Inspector compared 44 UK cities across 13 key dimensions divided in three categories that focuses on the business ecosystem, quality of life, and leisure and culture.
London is undoubtedly the UK city that offers more career opportunities. The vivid economic, cultural, and social activity of the capital would have helped London to have high score in most of the indicators. The differences between London and the rest of cities are too big to measure under the same conditions. The complexity of the capital hinders the realisation of an equal comparison. Thereby, London has been excluded from the analysis acknowledging that it is the one that offers most opportunities, but under the fact of being the bustling capital of the United Kingdom.
To highlight the best cities to start your career as a fresh graduate (other than London), Market Inspector has conducted a study with a comprehensive scoring system. The elements involved in this study are:
Created by Market Inspector
| Indicator | Ranks | Cities |
| (Image removed) | 1 | Manchester |
| (Image removed) | 2nd and 3rd | Edinburgh and Cambridge |
| (Image removed) | 4th to 12th | Belfast, Milton Keynes, Derby, Reading, Glasgow, Leeds, Birmingham, Southampton, Brighton. |
| (Image removed) | 13th to 20th | Bristol, Liverpool, Aberdeen, Oxford, Sheffield, Blackpool, Dundee, Newcastle upon Tyne. |
Top 20 UK cities to get a job as a fresh graduate other than London
The Market Inspector Score takes into account the the three categories in a different way as explained in the methodology. That score is the factor that indicates the total score in the ranking. The table below shows the top 20 UK cities outside of London that offer a blend of the most important city qualities for millenials. These are ranked by Market Inspector Score, but can be also listed by the different categories' scores.
| Rank | Cities | Market Inspetor Score | Business Ecosystem | Quality of Life | Leisure and Culture |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manchester | 6.180 | 5.80 | 6.80 | 5.57 |
| 2 | Edinburgh | 5.344 | 4.97 | 5.43 | 6.90 |
| 3 | Cambridge | 5.165 | 5.58 | 5.21 | 2.90 |
| 4 | Belfast | 4.487 | 3.62 | 5.94 | 2.97 |
| 5 | Milton Keynes | 4.472 | 3.90 | 5.91 | 1.56 |
| 6 | Derby | 4.390 | 2.69 | 6.92 | 2.77 |
| 7 | Reading | 4.389 | 4.13 | 5.16 | 2.61 |
| 8 | Glasgow | 4.350 | 2.77 | 6.01 | 5.62 |
| 9 | Leeds | 4.220 | 2.90 | 6.12 | 3.23 |
| 10 | Birmingham | 4.073 | 2.83 | 5.53 | 4.46 |
| 11 | Southampton | 4.066 | 2.83 | 5.86 | 3.06 |
| 12 | Brighton | 4.025 | 2.97 | 5.39 | 3.85 |
| 13 | Bristol | 3.947 | 2.78 | 5.22 | 4.69 |
| 14 | Liverpool | 3.791 | 1.53 | 6.13 | 5.71 |
| 15 | Aberdeen | 3.784 | 2.51 | 5.82 | 2.03 |
| 16 | Oxford | 3.777 | 3.57 | 4.26 | 2.88 |
| 17 | Sheffield | 3.708 | 1.35 | 7.02 | 2.26 |
| 18 | Blackpool | 3.643 | 1.2 | 6.69 | 3.64 |
| 19 | Dundee | 3.557 | 1.03 | 6.72 | 3.56 |
| 20 | Newcastle upon Tyne | 3.540 | 1.83 | 5.73 | 3.34 |
1. Manchester
Manchester is the place where graduates have the greatest amount of job opportunities with many possibilities to enjoy a good work-life balance. Finding a graduate job in the city is relatively easy as there are 6.47 jobs per 1,000 inhabitants. This has been key to securing the number one spot in the rankings.
Moreover, Manchester comes in top 5 places with most startups created. In 2017, there were more than ten new businesses created for every 1,000 Mancunians. This led to Manchester being amongst the best three cities within technological innovation.
The indicator of business ecosystem gives deep insights about how the city is evolving and defining itself. Entrepreneurship is a metric indicating hustle and freshness which, together with graduates job openings, establishes an optimistic and thriving environment. However, in order to be an attractive city, this must be combined with the quality of life and the range of social activities one can enjoy during leisure time. In this sense, Manchester has a fairly affordable rent for single furnished rooms, with a monthly average of £317.
Besides that, Manchester has a brimming nightlife and pub culture, with the largest amount of these locals per square mile. Furthermore, it’s also the city with most green spaces which enable graduates to enjoy a wide range of activities after work and on weekends.
2. Edinburgh
Edinburgh occupies the second position in the ranking thanks to its promising job market with booming tech companies and high starting salaries, but also because of its leisure and cultural activities.
The capital of Scotland is becoming an attractive place for young tech entrepreneurs. The technology entrepreneurship scene has been outstanding the last years. Approximately 3,055 startups were created in 2017, which is almost 7 new businesses for every 1,000 inhabitants. Despite Edinburgh is not amongst the top 5 cities with the most entrepreneurs, interestingly enough the city has been able to lead the technological innovation amongst the cities of the ranking, only closely followed by Manchester. Although Edinburgh has the highest rent of all the listed cities with an average of £508 per month, and it does not score highly in terms of number of graduate job openings, the weekly average salary of £598 is one of the five highest on the list. Therefore, due to its very high score in the average salary metric, Edinburgh’s business ecosystem is balanced out and came out as one of the highest ranked cities.
In the area of culture and leisure, Edinburgh does not have any competitors. The Scottish capital leads this category with more museums and sightseeing opportunities. There are almost two museums and four sights and landmarks to visit within 5 km2.
3. Cambridge
Cambridge has traditionally been a student city where famous thinkers from different fields have studied. The university and student life tradition has shaped the city and all it has to offer, transforming it into the third best city for graduates today.
When it comes to job openings at a graduate level, there are 3.2 positions for every 1,000 inhabitants. Cambridge is positioned right after Manchester with a big difference from the third city with more job offers for graduates. The student environment has also driven the city to be one of the main centres of entrepreneurship in the UK. In 2017, Cambridge saw the creation of more startups than Manchester and Edinburgh, with 21.5 new businesses for every 1,000 persons. The city is only exceeded by Belfast, which has the highest score with 38.5 new startups for every 1,000 inhabitants. These figures have rendered Cambridge as a city full of opportunities for graduates looking for a starting point and those who want to begin their career as entrepreneurs.
Besides this, one of the factors that enhances Cambridge’s attractiveness is the high salaries. Cambridge has the third highest weekly salary after Milton Keynes and Reading, with an average of £609. This, coupled with the affordable average rent level of £346 per month, makes Cambridge one of the most financially attractive cities for graduates in the UK.
Moreover, Cambridge is the second most tolerant city in the top ten, with 962 hate crime offences and incidents registered in 2017, which was only exceeded by the city of Derby with 599 incidents. Regarding culture and leisure, Cambridge scores highly and ranks third for the most sightseeing opportunities and landmarks to visit, with 3.7 historical and cultural sites for every 5 km2.
Overall, the balanced score between all the indicators has established Cambridge as the third most attractive city for graduates in terms of business ecosystem, quality of life, and culture and leisure.