Cranbrook residents are among the highest earners in the county as take-home wages for the East Devon town’s residents rank above the regional average.
Residents of Devon’s newest town are the county’s highest earners according to the latest available data, writes local democracy reporter Bradley Gerrard.
Cranbrook, which is in East Devon and just outside Exeter, now has the highest household income out of any area in Devon, and ranks highly when looking across the South West as a whole.
East Devon District Council’s cabinet heard that for the first time since recent records began, East Devon’s average wage was now above the regional average.
“And Cranbrook now has the highest household income in Devon and one of the highest in the South West,” Tom Winters, East Devon’s economic development manager on Wednesday (May 6) told the council’s cabinet.
“That proves that if you have a good long-term growth programme that you can shift some of those figures that can be driven by global impacts.”
There were queries as to whether pension income had positively skewed the household income data, but Mr Winters said while that might be a possibility, it wouldn’t have impacted the wage data.
“Cranbrook’s proximity to the Science Park and Enterprise Zone has probably helped there,” he added.
Median wages for an East Devon worker in 2024 were £30,606, higher than the £29,539 South West average.
Cranbrook ranked top for net household income of all areas of Devon in 2023 at £52,074 – one of the highest in the region behind Bristol and Bath.
Furthermore, unemployment in East Devon stood at just 2.4 per cent in 2025 against the regional level of 3.2 per cent and national average of 4.5 per cent.
