Travel to work in the North East in 2021
The 2021 census took place during a national lockdown when government advice was for people to work from home (if possible) and to avoid public transport. Therefore this dataset represents a snapshot of a particular moment in time and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggests that care should be taken when using the data for planning and policy purposes.
In March 2021, at the time of the census, over 26% of workers resident in the North East were working at or from home. This was more than three times the percentage ten years earlier. 50% of workers travelled by car or van and a further 5% travelled as a passenger.
In addition, almost 14% worked in no fixed place; at an offshore installation; or outside of the UK, twice the 2011 percentage.
Among the North East workers who were travelling to a specific workplace in 2021, almost 14% travelled 20km or more, a higher percentage than in 2011. Just over 18% travelled less than 2km, lower than ten years earlier.
Travel to work by mode, 2011 and 2021 Censuses
A dataset of Census travel to work by mode in the 2011 and 2021 Censuses
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Number of Workers travelling to work by mode 2011 and 2021
Census data comparing the number of workers by mode of travel to work in the 2011 and 2021 Censuses
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Distance travelled to work, North East, 2011 and 2021
Sources:
2021 Census topic summary TS058 - Distance travelled to work (ONS via Nomis)
2011 Census quick statistics QS702EW - Distance travelled to work (ONS via Nomis)
Information about the latest data:
The 2021 Census was taken on 21st March 2021.
The distance travelled to work is, in kilometres, the distance between a person's residential postcode and their workplace postcode measured in a straight line. A distance travelled of 0.1km indicates that the workplace postcode is the same as the residential postcode. Distances over 1200km are treated as invalid, and an imputed or estimated value is added.
“Work mainly at or from home” is made up of those that ticked either the 'Mainly work at or from home' box for the address of workplace question, or the “Work mainly at or from home” box for the method of travel to work question. “Other” includes no fixed place of work, working on an offshore installation and working outside of the UK.
It is difficult to compare this variable with the 2011 Census because Census 2021 took place during a national lockdown. The government advice at the time was for people to work from home (if they can) and avoid public transport. Only those who work at a workplace or depot gave their workplace address. This means that the number of people who answered this question is a significantly smaller proportion of the population than normal. People who were on furlough (about 5.6 million), could have given details based on their patterns before or during the pandemic, or what they did during the census taking place, including Census Day.
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Distance travelled to work, % of commuters, North East, 2011 and 2021
Source: 2021 Census topic summary TS058 - Distance travelled to work (ONS via Nomis)
2011 Census quick statistics QS702EW - Distance travelled to work (ONS via Nomis)
Information about the data: The 2021 Census was taken on 21st March 2021.
The distance travelled to work is, in kilometres, the distance between a person's residential postcode and their workplace postcode measured in a straight line. A distance travelled of 0.1km indicates that the workplace postcode is the same as the residential postcode. Distances over 1200km are treated as invalid, and an imputed or estimated value is added.
The percentages exclude those who indicated that they “work mainly at or from home” and those with no fixed place of work, who are working on an offshore installation or who are working outside of the UK.
It is difficult to compare this variable with the 2011 Census because Census 2021 took place during a national lockdown. The government advice at the time was for people to work from home (if they can) and avoid public transport.
People who were on furlough (about 5.6 million), could have given details based on their patterns before or during the pandemic, or what they did during the census taking place, including Census Day.
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Comparisons between different areas
The percentage working at or from home in the North East in 2021 was lower than the equivalents for England and for England excluding London. It was the fourth lowest among the eight core city LEP areas. Among North East local authority areas, workers were most likely to be working from home in 2021 in North Tyneside and least likely to be doing so in Sunderland.
Among workers travelling to a specific workplace, the North East had a higher percentage travelling 10km or more than any other core city LEP area. However, the North East figure was slightly lower than the England excluding London equivalent.
Within the North East, about half of workers in Northumberland and County Durham travelling to a workplace had a journey of 10km or more, compared to about a quarter in the other five local authority areas.
Travel to work by North East Local Authority (2021)
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Distance travelled to work, % of workers, North East, national comparisons, 2021
Source: 2021 Census topic summary TS058 - Distance travelled to work (ONS via Nomis)
Information about the data: The 2021 Census was taken on 21st March 2021.
The distance travelled to work is, in kilometres, the distance between a person's residential postcode and their workplace postcode measured in a straight line. A distance travelled of 0.1km indicates that the workplace postcode is the same as the residential postcode. Distances over 1200km are treated as invalid, and an imputed or estimated value is added.
“Work mainly at or from home” is made up of those that ticked either the 'Mainly work at or from home' box for the address of workplace question, or the “Work mainly at or from home” box for the method of travel to work question. “Other” includes no fixed place of work, working on an offshore installation and working outside of the UK.
It is difficult to compare this variable with the 2011 Census because Census 2021 took place during a national lockdown. The government advice at the time was for people to work from home (if they can) and avoid public transport. Only those who work at a workplace or depot gave their workplace address. This means that the number of people who answered this question is a significantly smaller proportion of the population than normal. People who were on furlough (about 5.6 million), could have given details based on their patterns before or during the pandemic, or what they did during the census taking place, including Census Day.
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Distance travelled to work, % of workers, core city LEP areas, North East local authority areas, 2021
Source: 2021 Census topic summary TS058 - Distance travelled to work (ONS via Nomis)
Information about the data: The 2021 Census was taken on 21st March 2021.
The distance travelled to work is, in kilometres, the distance between a person's residential postcode and their workplace postcode measured in a straight line. A distance travelled of 0.1km indicates that the workplace postcode is the same as the residential postcode. Distances over 1200km are treated as invalid, and an imputed or estimated value is added.
“Work mainly at or from home” is made up of those that ticked either the 'Mainly work at or from home' box for the address of workplace question, or the “Work mainly at or from home” box for the method of travel to work question. “Other” includes no fixed place of work, working on an offshore installation and working outside of the UK.
It is difficult to compare this variable with the 2011 Census because Census 2021 took place during a national lockdown. The government advice at the time was for people to work from home (if they can) and avoid public transport. Only those who work at a workplace or depot gave their workplace address. This means that the number of people who answered this question is a significantly smaller proportion of the population than normal.
People who were on furlough (about 5.6 million), could have given details based on their patterns before or during the pandemic, or what they did during the census taking place, including Census Day.
Core city LEP areas are those that contain the English urban areas with the highest populations outside of London. D2N2 includes Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.
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Distance travelled to work, % of commuters, core city LEP areas, North East local authority areas, 2021
Source: 2021 Census topic summary TS058 - Distance travelled to work (ONS via Nomis)
Information about the data: The 2021 Census was taken on 21st March 2021.
The distance travelled to work is, in kilometres, the distance between a person's residential postcode and their workplace postcode measured in a straight line. A distance travelled of 0.1km indicates that the workplace postcode is the same as the residential postcode. Distances over 1200km are treated as invalid, and an imputed or estimated value is added.
“Work mainly at or from home” is made up of those that ticked either the 'Mainly work at or from home' box for the address of workplace question, or the “Work mainly at or from home” box for the method of travel to work question. “Other” includes no fixed place of work, working on an offshore installation and working outside of the UK.
It is difficult to compare this variable with the 2011 Census because Census 2021 took place during a national lockdown. The government advice at the time was for people to work from home (if they can) and avoid public transport. Only those who work at a workplace or depot gave their workplace address. This means that the number of people who answered this question is a significantly smaller proportion of the population than normal.
People who were on furlough (about 5.6 million), could have given details based on their patterns before or during the pandemic, or what they did during the census taking place, including Census Day.
Core city LEP areas are those that contain the English urban areas with the highest populations outside of London. D2N2 includes Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.
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Mapping Travel to Work Patterns
The census provides data for localities that are smaller than local authority areas or constituencies. Using one such geography provides statistics for 253 named areas (MSOAs) in the North East that have similarly sized populations.
The ONS interactive census map is embedded on this and other Evidence Hub pages. It compares data for local authority areas and, when the zoom function is used, for MSOAs. We have set up the map to initially show the percentage of workers who were working mainly from home in 2021 but the interactive controls allow this to be changed to show patterns for different distances travelled to work. The controls also allow the dataset to be changed to compare patterns in methods of travel of work or in other census datasets.
The map highlights that most MSOAs with high percentages of home workers were in Newcastle, North Tyneside or Northumberland. The majority of the localities with low percentages were in County Durham or Sunderland. It also shows that the MSOAs with the highest percentages of workers travelling less than 2km to their workplace were in towns such as Berwick upon Tweed, Alnwick, Peterlee and Hexham and in areas close to Newcastle and Sunderland city centres. At the other extreme, the areas with the highest percentages of workers travelling 20km or more were all in Northumberland or County Durham.
There is more about the interactive map on the ONS website.
Further census travel to work data
During 2023, travel to work data will be crosstabulated with other variables to allow for the different characteristics of home workers and commuters to be identified. A selection of these crosstabulations will be included on this page. In particular, the additional data will highlight which industries and occupations had high rates of home working and long distance commuting in March 2021.
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