Overview
The city benefits from a diverse sector profile, shaped both by the city’s Universities and its century old association with vehicle manufacturing. Oxford is home to 4,580 businesses providing around 113,900 jobs and is part of the UK’s ‘Golden Triangle’. This area is defined by the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, and universities based in London. The universities within the ‘Golden Triangle’ together have a combined annual research income of over £1.4bn. Powered by cutting-edge research and highly qualified labour, Oxford and Oxfordshire has developed biomedical, medical and technology clusters of global significance.
In employment terms, Education accounts for 28.5% of total employment (30,321 jobs) and health for 18.5% (19,715 jobs). Professional, scientific and technical services also account for 7,784 jobs, 7.3% of the total. Finance, IT and business and professional services account for a further 21,835 people which represents an additional 19.7%.
Location Quotients (LQs) are the relative sector concentrations quantified by employment ratio to the national average. In Oxford, the sectors with the highest LQs are education (3.06), information and communication (1.63), and health (1.46).
The following pages provide more detail about Oxford’s notable sectors. Invest in Oxfordshire provides more information about the County’s key growth clusters.
