You are in: Home › Statistics › Publications and Data › Occasional papers › Scotland's Census 2001 Statistics on Travel to Work or Study › People at Work or Study ›

Occasional Paper

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

People at work or study

Table 1 shows all people in Scotland by their status of work or study and where they lived.  In this, and all other relevant tables relating to the 2001 Census, students were counted as living at their term-time address, rather than their home address.

3,256,000 people resident in Scotland at the time of the Census (64 per cent of the population) worked or studied.  2,867,000 people (just under 57 per cent of the population) worked or studied within the UK - this includes 17,000 who worked on offshore installations (anywhere in the world).

65 per cent of those working/studying at a non-offshore UK address were working rather than studying - highest for people living in the Shetland Islands (68 per cent) and lowest for residents of Dundee City (59 per cent).  A further 32 per cent were people who studied but did not work, varying from 37 per cent for residents of Glasgow City, to 29 per cent for those living in Aberdeen City.  The remaining 3 per cent were working students.

Although Glasgow City had by far the largest number of students, it was City of Edinburgh which had more working students than any other council area.

7½ per cent of the population were people who either worked/studied mainly at home (189,000) or had no fixed workplace (192,000).

The remaining population of Scotland consisted of 36 per cent (1,806,000) not working or studying and 0.1 per cent (7,000) working or studying 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).  Of the four main city authority areas, Aberdeen City and City of Edinburgh had the smallest proportions (30 and 31 per cent, respectively).

A higher proportion of people in Orkney than anywhere else worked or studied at home (9 per cent).  The lowest proportion was in Falkirk (3 per cent).  In the four main city council areas, this proportion was also low, 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.