That’s what we’ve set out to uncover. Check out our results in full to see which UK cities we ranked as the top places to start a trade in below.

How we found the best cities to be a tradesperson

To pinpoint the best locations for trade, we compiled a list of the UK’s cities, before creating a unique index for different types of tradespersons. This gave us five different indexes in total, encompassing the following trades:

• Electrician
• Joiner
• Carpenter
• Plumber
• Plasterer

These indexes contained data on four different factors:

Search Volume – essentially, the demand for the tradesperson per city. The higher the score, the better the city was rated for trade opportunities

Jobs Available – to within 5 miles. Again, the higher the number of jobs, the better

Market Saturation – the number of tradespeople available in the city according to search data. The lower this figure, the better

Average hourly rate for work – the higher the better

Considering and combining these figures provided us with information on where is best for each type of tradesperson to work.

With a total score of 74/100, Bristol is the top city for electricians, offering both the highest demand and the most jobs available than any other place in the country. If you’re looking to spark interest in your business, Bristol could well be your best option.

If money is a major factor for you, then St Albans and Brighton might be your first port of call. Offering an average of £44 p/h and £41 p/h respectively, the two southern cities listed the highest-paying electrician jobs that we came across.

As for jobs, they were most abundant in Manchester, Bristol and Salford, while Bristol, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Liverpool have the highest demand for electricians. If you’re looking to make a name for yourself, however, then Armagh, Derry and Salisbury Birmingham, had the least-saturated markets of the cities we explored.

When it came to the least favoured, Truro, Newry and Lisburn took the bottom three spots, with low demand, very few jobs and poor hourly rates.

The north put in a great showing for joiners, with four of the five top spots spread across the region. But it was Manchester that came in number one as the best city to be a joiner. Scoring a total of 79/100, the northern powerhouse scored highly on a number of jobs and demand. Leeds and Liverpool also scored highly for search demand.

The best-paid cities for joiners, meanwhile, went to Oxford (£33 p/h), Perth (£33 p/h), Glasgow (£32 p/h) and St Albans (£32 p/h). As for cities with the most joinery jobs available, Edinburgh, Salford and Leeds scored highly, with Edinburgh eking out Manchester’s score of 23 by two.

If it’s less competition you’re looking for as a joiner, Armagh and Derry in Northern Ireland and Truro and Salisbury in southwest England have the least amount of Joiners – great for those who want less competition.