26 local measures

Is the typical council the average council?

The median council is the one in the middle: half of councils are above it, half below. The mean is every council’s figure added up and divided by the number of councils. They are rarely the same number, and where they differ a lot the distribution has a long tail on one side.

On 22 of these 26 measures the mean sits above the median, which happens when a few councils are far above the middle and pull the average up with them. The widest gap is council spending on services, where the mean is 792% above the median.

Measure	Median council	Mean of councils	Difference	Difference (%)	10th percentile	90th percentile	Period
Council spending on servicesMHCLG · 293 councils	£28.9m	£258m	+229.0	+791.6%	£13.8m	£691.6m	Year ending March 2025the spread over time
Births minus deaths by local authorityONS · 318 councils	-96	62	+157.7	+164.3%	-755	1,091	Year to mid-2025the spread over time
Net international migration by local authorityONS · 318 councils	267	666	+398.7	+149.3%	-91	1,746	Year to mid-2025the spread over time
Asylum seekers supported in each council areaHome Office · 346 councils	111	270	+159.1	+144.0%	7	695	2026 Q2the spread over time
Other population change by local authorityONS · 318 councils	4	-2	−5.6	−139.4%	-71	36	Year to mid-2025the spread over time
Net internal migration by local authorityONS · 318 councils	635	-19	−653.7	−102.9%	-3,497	2,206	Year to mid-2025the spread over time
International migration out of a local authorityONS · 318 councils	954	1,902	+948.0	+99.4%	378	4,935	Year to mid-2025the spread over time
International migration into a local authorityONS · 318 councils	1,292	2,568	+1,276.2	+98.8%	398	6,616	Year to mid-2025the spread over time
Outstanding council borrowingMHCLG · 361 councils	£171.2m	£323.8m	+152.6	+89.1%	£0.9m	£820.9m	2026 Q2the spread over time
Earmarked council reservesMHCLG · 293 councils	£28.9m	£53m	+24.1	+83.3%	£8.7m	£125.4m	Year ending March 2025the spread over time
Council investments heldMHCLG · 361 councils	£42.8m	£76.1m	+33.3	+77.8%	£14.1m	£132.7m	2026 Q2the spread over time
People claiming unemployment-related benefitsONS · 361 councils	2,700	4,684	+1,984.2	+73.5%	1,305	10,230	July 2026the spread over time
Unallocated council reservesMHCLG · 293 councils	£8.1m	£11.4m	+3.4	+41.6%	£1.4m	£25m	Year ending March 2025the spread over time
Births by local authorityONS · 318 councils	1,309	1,849	+540.5	+41.3%	726	3,605	Year to mid-2025the spread over time
Population by local authorityONS · 361 councils	148,448	191,915	+43,467.3	+29.3%	89,753	344,540	Mid-2024the spread over time
Deaths by local authorityONS · 318 councils	1,420	1,787	+367.8	+25.9%	834	3,105	Year to mid-2025the spread over time
Average private rent a monthONS · 316 councils	£1,025	£1,179	+154.1	+15.0%	£724	£1,807	July 2026the spread over time
Average house priceHM Land Registry · 360 councils	£272,210	£308,772	+36,561.7	+13.4%	£175,509	£490,583	June 2026the spread over time
Claimants as a proportion of residents aged 16 to 64ONS · 361 councils	3.1%	3.4%	+0.3	+10.2%	2%	5.4%	July 2026the spread over time
Private rent annual changeONS · 316 councils	3.8%	4.1%	+0.3	+7.6%	1.2%	7.1%	July 2026the spread over time
House price annual changeHM Land Registry · 360 councils	3%	2.8%	−0.2	−5.5%	-1.6%	7.8%	June 2026the spread over time
Median annual pay, full-time employees, by area of residenceONS · 348 councils	£38,490	£39,593	+1,103.1	+2.9%	£34,181	£46,510	2025the spread over time
Median weekly pay, full-time employees, by area of residenceONS · 348 councils	£758	£777	+19.6	+2.6%	£678	£901	2025the spread over time
Mean domestic gas consumption per meterDESNZ · 317 councils	11,117	11,319	+202.1	+1.8%	9,962	12,991	2024the spread over time
Mean domestic electricity consumption per meterDESNZ · 318 councils	3,351	3,404	+53.7	+1.6%	2,901	4,005	2024the spread over time
Band D council tax by billing authorityMHCLG · 296 councils	£2,441	£2,411	−30.5	−1.2%	£2,241	£2,607	Year ending March 2027the spread over time

What the two numbers are, and what neither is

Both are averages of local authorities, not of people or of households. A measure where one council covers 1.1 million residents and another covers 2,200 gives each of them one place in the median and one term in the mean. For a figure per person, the site publishes the measure’s own national series, which the publisher builds from the underlying totals rather than from council averages.

Councils also differ in what they are responsible for. On spending and reserves, a county council, a unitary authority and a district council publish figures for different sets of services, so the spread across councils partly reflects what each one does, not only how much of it they do. The measure’s own page carries that detail, and the difference between the median and the mean is reported here without a conclusion drawn from it.