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Occasional Paper

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

Industry of working commuters 

Table 7A shows the industries in which residents of each council area worked.  The most common industries that people worked in were manufacturing (15 per cent), wholesale & retail trade / repair of motor vehicles (14 per cent) and health & social work (13 per cent).

People living in Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire were far more likely than people living anywhere else in Scotland to work in mining & quarrying.  Eight and six per cent of working people living in these areas worked in this industry, compared with only one per cent in Scotland as a whole.  The high numbers in these two areas is not surprising given that the Mining & Quarrying industry includes the sub-category “extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas; service activities incidental to oil and gas extraction excluding surveying”.

It was those living in the three islands council areas who were the most likely to work in the fishing industry (up to 5 per cent of the working population in Eilean Siar).  People living in Dumfries & Galloway, Scottish Borders and the Orkney Islands were the most likely to work in agriculture, hunting and forestry (over 5 per cent in Dumfries & Galloway).

15 per cent of Scotland’s working (non-student) population worked in the manufacturing industry.  This was most common for people living in Inverclyde, North Ayrshire and East Ayrshire (22 per cent).  Among the four main city council areas, only those living in Dundee City (16 per cent) were more likely than in Scotland as a whole to work in manufacturing.

Those working in financial intermediation varied greatly by council area of residence, from 1 per cent in the Shetland Islands to 13 per cent in City of Edinburgh and 10 per cent in Midlothian.

Aberdeen City and City of Edinburgh had the highest proportion of residents working in real estate, renting and business activities (16 per cent).  The figure for Glasgow City was also high (13 per cent).  In Dundee City, 9 per cent of resident workers were employed in this industry, less than in Scotland as a whole (11 per cent).

Those working in public administration & defence and social security were highest among residents of Argyll & Bute (18 per cent) and Moray (17 per cent), as a result of there being major defence establishments in these areas, while for education, it was residents of East Dunbartonshire (12 per cent) and for health & social work it was those living in Eilean Siar (17 per cent).

Table 7B shows the same information as Table 7A, except that people are classified by the council area in which they worked.

Those working in Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire were the most likely to work in the mining & quarrying industry.  However, the difference between the two areas (9 per cent for Aberdeen City and 3 per cent for Aberdeenshire) was greater than the equivalent figures for people living in these areas, because many Aberdeenshire residents travelled to Aberdeen City to work in this industry.

It was people working in West Lothian who were by far the most likely to work in manufacturing (29 per cent).  This was much higher than the proportion of residents of West Lothian who work in this industry because a large number of people commuted to West Lothian to do this type of job.

15 per cent of those working in City of Edinburgh were employed in financial intermediation, slightly higher than the 13 per cent of Edinburgh residents thus employed.  However, while 10 per cent of employed people living in Midlothian worked in financial intermediation, only 2 per cent of employed people who worked in Midlothian worked in this area, because substantial numbers travelled from Midlothian to City of Edinburgh.

The four main city council areas gained “daytime population” across all industry types apart from agriculture, hunting & forestry, fishing and mining & quarrying (Table 7C).  The largest gains for Aberdeen City and Glasgow City were in the real estate, renting and business activities industry while, for City of Edinburgh, it was in financial intermediation and for Dundee City it was in health & social work.

Half of the Scottish local authorities areas which lost “daytime population” lost people in all or all but one of the industry categories.

South Ayrshire and Stirling both gained in overall “daytime population”.  In both areas, there were high gains for wholesale & retail trade / repair of motor vehicles and health & social work.  For South Ayrshire, there was also a substantial gain for those working in manufacturing.

Though they lost “daytime population” overall, there were nonetheless substantial gains for Argyll & Bute in public administration & defence and social security, for Renfrewshire in manufacturing and transport, storage & communication and for West Lothian for manufacturing.