Latest Data: 2020
This section reviews data provided by individuals and by employing organisations on where archaeologists are located.
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There were two sources of data for the location of archaeologists – those provided by employers (including some self-employed archaeologists) and individuals responding to the survey. The employer data represents a larger sample of archaeologists, but both have very similar results. Organisations data is full-time equivalent, will individuals is by person.
In terms of location of employment, the pattern of archaeological employment (Table 2.1.1) maps closely to the distribution of the UK population – an exception being south-west England which is relatively over-represented which can be attributed to several large employers having their home offices in the region. These data are for full-time equivalents (positions) and not for individuals, as they are data reported by organisations.
Table 2.1.1: Geographical distribution of archaeological workforce, 1997-98 to 2019-20 and UK population distribution (ONS). 1997-98 & 2002-03 reports do not give sample numbers but all other years include that information.
| Location | 1997-98 | 2002-03 | 2007-08 | 2012-13 | 2019-20 | 2019-20 Individuals | UK Population Mid-2019 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % | % | Count | % | Count | % | Count | % | Count | % | % | |
| East of England | 6% | 6% | 138 | 5% | 295 | 12% | 255 | 10% | 99 | 10% | 9% |
| East Midlands | 5% | 6% | 261 | 10% | 81 | 3% | 199 | 7% | 67 | 7% | 7% |
| London | 20% | 14% | 347 | 13% | 311 | 12% | 301 | 11% | 68 | 7% | 13% |
| North East England | 5% | 6% | 97 | 4% | 129 | 5% | 140 | 5% | 28 | 3% | 4% |
| North West England | 5% | 5% | 111 | 4% | 200 | 8% | 126 | 5% | 48 | 5% | 11% |
| South East England | 15% | 17% | 430 | 16% | 423 | 17% | 427 | 16% | 142 | 14% | 14% |
| South West England | 16% | 16% | 425 | 16% | 253 | 10% | 415 | 16% | 151 | 15% | 8% |
| West Midlands | 6% | 4% | 189 | 7% | 178 | 7% | 122 | 5% | 63 | 6% | 9% |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | 8% | 9% | 137 | 5% | 202 | 8% | 182 | 7% | 106 | 11% | 8% |
| Scotland | 8% | 8% | 325 | 12% | 335 | 13% | 275 | 10% | 139 | 14% | 8% |
| Wales | 5% | 7% | 125 | 5% | 145 | 6% | 74 | 3% | 47 | 5% | 5% |
| Northern Ireland | 1% | 1% | 66 | 2% | 8 | 0% | 13 | 0% | 14 | 1% | 3% |
| Republic of Ireland | 118 | 4% | 5 | 1% | 0% | ||||||
| Outside the UK and Republic of Ireland | 1% | 1% | 7 | 0% | 0% | 15 | 1% | 18 | 2% | 0% | |
| Total (n=) | 2651 | 2560 | 2662.31 | 995 | |||||||
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Data have been collected for the State of the Archaeological Market series and its predecessors for development-led archaeology (Contracting and Consulting). Again, the results largely match the distribution of the general UK population. Moving forward, tracking the location of archaeologists may not yield any new insights and might be considered to be dropped from future iterations of the survey.
Table 2.1.2: Geographical distribution of archaeological workforce in the State of the Archaeological Market Series.
| Region | Oct-11 | Apr-12 | Dec-12 | Mar-14 | Mar-15 | Mar-16 | Mar-17 | Mar-18 | Mar-19 | High | Low | Average | UK Population Mid-2019 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| East of England | 12% | 9% | 7% | 7% | 10% | 12% | 11% | 8% | 5% | 12% | 5% | 9% | 9% |
| East Midlands | 9% | 7% | 7% | 8% | 7% | 8% | 8% | 9% | 12% | 12% | 7% | 8% | 7% |
| Greater London | 7% | 6% | 7% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 6% | 4% | 5% | 11% | 4% | 7% | 13% |
| North East England | 4% | 5% | 6% | 3% | 6% | 5% | 3% | 5% | 5% | 6% | 3% | 5% | 4% |
| North West England | 11% | 6% | 6% | 5% | 6% | 8% | 8% | 10% | 9% | 11% | 5% | 8% | 11% |
| South East England | 16% | 14% | 13% | 12% | 13% | 10% | 14% | 15% | 12% | 16% | 10% | 13% | 14% |
| South West England | 11% | 13% | 15% | 12% | 13% | 11% | 13% | 12% | 13% | 15% | 11% | 13% | 8% |
| West Midlands | 10% | 12% | 9% | 10% | 7% | 9% | 4% | 9% | 5% | 12% | 4% | 8% | 9% |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | 5% | 7% | 8% | 5% | 9% | 8% | 11% | 8% | 11% | 11% | 5% | 8% | 8% |
| Scotland | 9% | 12% | 11% | 14% | 10% | 12% | 14% | 9% | 11% | 14% | 9% | 11% | 8% |
| Wales | 3% | 7% | 6% | 10% | 4% | 5% | 6% | 5% | 3% | 10% | 3% | 5% | 5% |
| Northern Ireland | 0% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 2% | 1% | 1% | 2% | % | 2% | 0% | 1% | 3% |
| Outside the UK | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 3% | 3% | 4% | 4% | % | 4% | 0% | 2% | 0% |
| Republic of Ireland | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 5% | 5% | 0% | 1% | 0% |
| Outside the UK and Republic of Ireland | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 3% | 3% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
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Note on Interpreting these data: As with all sampling surveys, these data should not be interpreted as exact e.g. on March 31st 2020, exactly 9.58% of all archaeologists worked in the East of England, but are indicative of the numbers with a minor range e.g. 9-10% work in the East of England. This variability and relatively stable responses for over 20 years makes it hard to determine if certain geographical areas are seeing growth/loss or if it is just the variability in responses from year to year.
Notes on methodology: In previous Profiling the Profession surveys location data were collected differently. For the 1997-98 and 2002-03 versions the primary office was used to estimate geographic distribution i.e. if an organisation had 100 staff and their main office was in London it was assumed all 100 were based there. In 2012-13, staff were evenly split between offices i.e. 100 staff but offices in London and Scotland then estimated 50 in London and 50 in Scotland. All numbers are FTE. In Profiling the Profession 2020 respondents were asked for the FTE of staff working in each location. Remarkably, with three different methods the results have been fairly similar (Table 2.1.1). For 2019-20, figures for people working in the Republic of Ireland have been collected separately, previously this information was collected and reported within the broader categorey of ‘outside the UK’.
Image Credit
Geophysical survey, Long Meg & Her Daughters by Andrew Curtis. From geography CC BY SA
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CREDITS
Title: Profiling the Profession
2020 Authors: Kenneth Aitchison, Poppy German and Doug Rocks-Macqueen
Published by: Landward Research Ltd
Version Date: 2021
ISBN: 978-0-9572452-8-0
DOI: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.14333387
License: CC BY SA 4.0 for all text and figures. Header images are from different sources check image credits for their specific licensing.
2020 funders: Historic England, with support from Historic Environment Scotland, CIfA and FAME.
Questions about Profiling the Profession: enquiries@landward.eu