East Lothian
Economic profile. Data last updated 2026-03-28.
East Lothian supports 32,990 workplace jobs with median earnings broadly in line with the England average. The claimant rate (2.4%) is lower than the England average of 4.1%. Productivity (GVA per job) is ranked 277th of 391 local authorities.
Source: ONS, Nomis, HM Land Registry, 2024-2025·Last updated March 2026
Employment & Labour Market
Monthly claimant count rate over the past 3 years.
Source: Claimant Count via Nomis, BRES, 2020-2026·Last updated March 2026
Industry Structure
Location quotients and shift-share analysis for East Lothian's economy.
The most specialised sectors are Agriculture, forestry & fishing (LQ 7.58) and Electricity, gas & air conditioning (LQ 5.03). Arts, entertainment & recreation shows the strongest local competitive advantage. Human health & social work underperforms its national sectoral trend.
Source: BRES via Nomis, 2020-2024·Last updated March 2026
Economic Output
Estimated Gross Value Added for East Lothian, derived from sector employment and national productivity ratios.
Estimates based on national GVA-per-job ratios applied to local sector employment (BRES). Indicative only. See Methodology for details.
Earnings & Income
Gross annual earnings distribution, 2025.
Median annual earnings of £33,737 are in line with the England median of £33,080.
Source: ASHE via Nomis, 2025·Last updated March 2026
Skills & Qualifications
Census 2021 highest qualification and occupation data.
Source: Census 2021, ONS
Business Environment
Active enterprises in East Lothian from the UK Business Counts dataset.
3,190 active enterprises operate in this area. The business base has grown by 2.6% over three years. 75.2% of enterprises have fewer than 5 employees.
Source: UK Business Counts via Nomis, 2024·Last updated March 2026
Housing & Property Market
Estimated house prices for East Lothian vs England, 2015-2025.
The median house price of £280,972 is in line with the England median of £290,000. The price-to-earnings ratio is 8.3x. Prices have risen 1.8% over the past year.
Source: HM Land Registry, Census 2021, 2015-2025·Last updated March 2026
Place & Deprivation
Deprivation data not available for this area.
IMD data is only available for English local authorities.
The English Indices of Deprivation 2019 cover 317 English local authorities. Scottish and Welsh areas use separate indices (SIMD and WIMD) with different methodologies.
Impact Calculator
Estimate the economic impact of investment or job creation in East Lothian using regional input-output multipliers.
Source: Derived from ONS Supply-Use Tables, regionalized via SLQ, 2019·Last updated March 2026