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Occasional Paper

Scotland's Census 2001 - Statistics on Travel to Work or Study

Commuting distance 

Table 10 shows the average distance which people commuted to their place of work or study.

A person living in Scotland and travelling to a place of work or study in Scotland travelled an average distance of 5.3 miles to get there.

Those who lived and worked/studied in the same council area travelled an average of 2.6 miles between home and place of work/study.  This was lowest in East Renfrewshire (1.1 miles) and highest in Eilean Siar (5.6 miles).  People travelling within each of the 4 largest city authority areas travelled around 2 miles.

People who lived in a different council area to the one they worked or studied in travelled an average of around 14 miles.  This was highest for the small number of people travelling either into or out of the three islands council areas.  It was smallest for people travelling out of East Dunbartonshire and East Renfrewshire.

For people travelling into the four largest city authority areas, those who commuted into Aberdeen City travelled the furthest (22.1 miles) and those who commuted into Glasgow City travelled the least distance (10.6 miles).

For those who commuted out of the 4 city authority areas, those living in Dundee City travelled the furthest (21.3 miles) with those leaving Glasgow City going the shortest distance (10.2 miles).