United Kingdom · Scotland · Local Authority
Shetland Islands
Local Authority · Scotland · population ~23k
High earnings and a low rent burden, but house prices are a stretch. Shetland Islands offers median weekly pay of £863.60, ranking 4th in Scotland and well above the national median, and advertised rents take a manageable 19.1% of gross pay. However, the mean house price is £201,782, some 4.5 times median annual earnings, placing it among the higher multiples in Scotland. While rents are below the Scottish median at £715 per month, the cost of buying a home here is a significant hurdle. This is a place for those prioritising earning potential and a lower rent burden over outright property ownership, where the cost of housing is the main trade-off.
Written from the indicators on this page, 2026-08 data.
The signature
How Shetland Islands ranks across 361 UK Local Authorities
Pay
£44,907/yr
Very high
Better than 81% of UK LAs
House price
£201,782
Affordable
Better than 79% of UK LAs
Rent
£715/mo
Most affordable
Better than 88% of UK LAs
Council tax
—
no data
Crime
—
no data
Deprivation
—
no data
Schools
—
no data
Colour shows quintile position against 361 UK Local Authorities. Green is the best position for someone moving here; red is the worst. Direction is set per indicator — higher pay, lower rent, less crime, less deprivation are all green.
Schools data
School quality is published by the Education Scotland regulator, which uses a methodology distinct from England's Ofsted. We don't synthesise a Scotland schools list here — for current ratings of schools in Shetland Islands, see the official Education Scotland.
Places with similar signatures
Nearest by quintile position across pay · housing · tax · crime · IMD · schools
What we don't know yet
Commute times · GP appointment availability · broadband speeds · air quality at LA level · green-space proximity · public transport coverage. These matter for a relocation decision. We'll add them when the source data is reliable nationally and consistent across LA boundaries.