The CIPR’s State of the Profession report was launched this week and it reveals some interesting stats around the demographics of UK PR.

As with many of these annual reports in 2020, the research was undertaken pre-COVID so we will need to see the 2021 and 2022 State of the Profession reports to assess the impact of the COVID crisis on the size and demographics of UK PR.

Below we’ve included a bit of a chart dump from the report of some of the most interesting stats.

The types of organisations that employ people in UK PR:

Commentary: According to the CIPR, 68% of the UK PR sector works in-house, with only 20% in agencies. 12% of UK PR people are independent practitioners.

The age distribution of the UK PR sector:

Commentary: Only 11% of the UK PR sector are aged above 55!

66% of UK PR professionals are female:

Commentary: Women outnumber men in PR by 2:1

How experienced are UK PR people?

Commentary: The seniority of PR people is broadly spread throughout the age ranges, which is interesting as in most employment markets there are more junior people than senior people.

How the gender profile in PR changes by seniority:

The PR Gender Pay Gap by Seniority:

Commentary: There remains a gender pay gap in PR, even at 0-4 years of experience. The pay gap consistently increases over the course of a professionals career.

The parents of 57% of UK PR people did not go to university:

Commentary: Perhaps surprisingly for a sector that struggles with its diversity, the majority of UK PR people’s parents did not go to university.