The Royal Academy of Engineering released the research on National Engineering Day (2 November), which aims to celebrate UK engineering and highlight the importance of the profession and its impact on people’s lives.

Research conducted by Metro Dynamics for a project commissioned by the Royal Academy of Engineering reveals:

• Hotspots of engineering appear all over the UK, not just in major cities: Mid Ulster, West Cumbria, Flintshire and Wrexham, West Lothian, and Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire are the areas where the highest proportion of the local population is employed in engineering.

• More than 8.1 million people – or over a quarter of all UK workers (26 percent) – are part of the nation’s engineering economy.

• In the UK we have 729,000 engineering businesses – equivalent to more than one in 10 (13 percent) of all UK businesses.

• On average, the annual economic output generated from an engineering job is estimated to be 23 percent higher than the average job in the UK.