UK photonics has grown into a £18.5 billion industry, with like-for-like revenue growth from 2022 to 2024 of over 16%, double the growth seen from 2020-2022. Like-for-like profit growth has been even higher at over 25% over two years, whilst employment in the industry has grown at 8.2% in the same period. 84,800 people are now employed in photonics in the UK. Strong profit growth has means the gross value added (GVA) into the economy per employee has risen from £89,400 to £101,000 per job and the total GVA expanded to £8.6 billion.
The underpinning nature of UK photonics enabling sectors as diverse at AI and quantum to healthcare and defence, means photonics has continued to grow strongly. Photonics now employs more people in the UK than automotive or aerospace manufacturing, and more than double the number employed in pharmaceutical, steel or chemical production when compared to data from the office of national statistics.
Highly focused on innovation, over 40% of UK photonics companies invest over 10% of their turnover into research and development, according to the latest industry survey, and expect to increase investment over the next 2 years. Over 50% report collaborating in a collaborative R&D project in the last 2 years, with the average company participating in six Innovate_UK collaborative projects over the last two decades.
Nine UK regions continue to produce over £1 billion worth of photonics goods and services, based on over 1,600 operational locations across the UK. With regional strengths from the South West to Scotland and Northern Ireland, eleven of the twelve UK regions employee more than 4000 people in photonics. With increased demand across agriculture, health, communications, defence, satellites and manufacturing and with increasing commercialisation of quantum products, the PLG forecast UK photonics revenues will grow to between £19.2 billion and £21.6 billion by 2026 and is on track to reach its vision of being a £50 billion industry by 2035
The UK Photonics 2025: the Hidden Economy report, published in June 2025, profiles the UK photonics landscape, its key characteristics and impact and global position.
Extended analysis, regional breakdown, comparison to other UK manufacturing sectors, trends and opportunities will be included in the PLG’s 2025 presentation “Size of UK Photonics – the 2025 update” to be released shortly.
