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Occasional Paper

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

Key Points

• 3,256,000 people resident in Scotland at the time of the Census (64 per cent of the population) worked or studied.  The majority of these (2,867,000) travelled to a place of work or study within the United Kingdom(UK) (including UK offshore installations), while 189,000 worked/studied at home and 192,000 reported having no fixed workplace.  The remaining workers/students (around 7,000) reported that they worked or studied outside the UK.

• Glasgow City had the highest proportion of people who did not work or study (42 per cent) with the Shetland Islands having the lowest (29 per cent).

• A higher proportion of people in Orkney worked or studied at home (9 per cent) than anywhere else.  In the four main city council areas, this proportion was lower than in Scotland as a whole, with the highest in City of Edinburgh (4 per cent).

• Argyll & Bute had the highest proportion of its resident population working or studying abroad (0.6 per cent).  This figure was also high for Moray (0.3 per cent) and the islands council areas.  Among the four main city authority areas, only Aberdeen City had a proportion higher than the Scottish average.

• 2,835,000 people living in Scotland travelled to a non-offshore place of work or study within Scotland.  646,000 of these (23 per cent) travelled to a place of work or study in a different council area from the one they lived in.

• The four main city local authority areas had large net gains in their “daytime population”.  Indeed, 53 per cent of all people in Scotland who worked or studied in a different council area from the one they lived in, worked/studied in these four areas.

• The largest losses in “daytime population” were generally in areas close to the four main city council areas, especially East Dunbartonshire and East Renfrewshire.

• Around 16,200 people travelled from a Scottish home address to a place of work/study in England, Wales or Northern Ireland.  30 per cent of these lived in Dumfries & Galloway and the Scottish Borders.

• In the four main city council areas, more than a quarter of the gain in “daytime” population was accounted for by people aged 35-44.

• While 39 per cent of people travelling between Scottish addresses lived in large urban areas, substantially more (45 per cent) worked or studied in this type of area.

• 44 per cent of people who worked in accessible rural areas also lived there, with a further 40 per cent commuting to these areas from large urban areas or other urban areas.

• 30 per cent of people working or studying in remote small towns commuted there from remote rural areas.

• Manufacturing (15 per cent), wholesale & retail trade / repair of motor vehicles (14 per cent) and health & social work (13 per cent) were the main industries in which people who travelled to a place of work were employed.  People living in Inverclyde were the most likely to work in manufacturing, while those living in Eilean Siar were most likely to work in health & social work.

• The largest gain in “daytime population” for Aberdeen City and Glasgow City was in real estate, renting and business activities while, for City of Edinburgh, it was in financial intermediation and for Dundee City it was in health & social work.

• People living in City of Edinburgh, Glasgow City and Aberdeen City were more likely than for Scottish people as a whole to have professional occupations, while those living in Dundee City were slightly less likely.

• The largest gains in “daytime population” for Aberdeen City and Dundee City were in the associate professional and technical occupations while, for City of Edinburgh and Glasgow City, the largest gain was for administrative and secretarial occupations.

• 23 per cent of those aged 16-74 who travelled to work/study were qualified to degree level or equivalent.  This was highest for those living in City of Edinburgh (38 per cent) and lowest for those resident in West Dunbartonshire (15 per cent).

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

• People were more likely to travel to work/study by train or underground if they lived in and around Glasgow City while those living in City of Edinburgh were the most likely to travel by bus.

• People living in Glasgow City, City of Edinburgh and Dundee City were the least likely to drive to work/study.

• Males living in every council area were more likely than females to go to work or study by car or similar transport and less likely to go by public transport.

• Over 80 per cent of household residents who travelled to work/study lived in households which had access to at least one car.

• Commuters into Edinburgh were more likely to live in Livingston, Musselburgh and Penicuik than any other towns.  More people travelled into Glasgow from East Kilbride, Paisley, Rutherglen and Bearsden than any other localities.