Global and regional ocean warming deeper than 2000m is investigated using 35years of sustained repeat hydrographic survey data starting in 1981. The global long-term temperature trend below 2000m, representing the time period 1991-2010, is equivalent to a mean heat flux of 0.065 0.040Wm(-2) applied over the Earth's surface area. The strongest warming rates are found in the abyssal layer (4000-6000m), which contributes to one third of the total heat uptake with the largest contribution from the Southern and Pacific Oceans. A similar regional pattern is found in the deep layer (2000-4000m), which explains the remaining two thirds of the total heat uptake yet with larger uncertainties. The global average warming rate did not change within uncertainties pre-2000 versus post-2000, whereas ocean average warming rates decreased in the Pacific and Indian Oceans and increased in the Atlantic and Southern Oceans.