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Occasional Paper

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

Qualifications of commuters

Table 9A shows the highest level of educational qualifications for travellers aged 16-74 living in each council area.

21 per cent of travellers aged 16-74 had no educational qualifications with 23 per cent qualified to degree level or equivalent.

Dumfries & Galloway had the highest proportion of residents with no qualifications (28 per cent), with the lowest proportion for those living in East Renfrewshire and City of Edinburgh (13 and 14 per cent respectively).

Chart 1A shows that City of Edinburgh had by far the highest proportion of residents with degree level qualifications (38 per cent).  This was also high, at 33 per cent, in both East Dunbartonshire and East Renfrewshire.  The highest of the other three main city council areas was Aberdeen City (27 per cent).  Workers/students living in West Dunbartonshire and North Lanarkshire were the least likely to be qualified to degree level (15 and 16 per cent respectively).

Table 9B shows the same information as Table 9A, except that people are classified by the council area in which they worked or studied.

People who worked or studied in East Ayrshire were the most likely to have no qualifications (30 per cent).  People working or studying in City of Edinburgh were the least likely to have no qualifications (14 per cent).

The four main city council areas and Stirling had the highest proportion of workers/students with a degree level qualification (Chart 1B).  The proportion ranged from 34 per cent in City of Edinburgh to 24 per cent in Dundee City.  These five areas were the only ones where the proportion qualified to degree level was higher than the Scottish average of 23 per cent, reflecting a large number of people with this level of qualification who commuted to these areas.

In the four main city local authority areas, 27 per cent of the net inflow was accounted for by people with degree equivalent qualifications (Table 9C).  This ranged from 23 per cent in City of Edinburgh to 34 per cent in Dundee City.

Among areas which had net outflows across all levels of qualification, people with degrees accounted for a large proportion of the outflow in Perth & Kinross (58 per cent), East Dunbartonshire and Scottish Borders (each 43 per cent) and East Renfrewshire (40 per cent).  This proportion was very small in West Dunbartonshire (2 per cent), Eilean Siar (9 per cent), Midlothian (11 per cent) and North Lanarkshire (12 per cent).

South Ayrshire and Stirling, which had overall net inflows of people, had outflows for people qualified to degree level.  Inverclyde, despite having a net outflow overall, had a net inflow for those with degree level qualifications.  Renfrewshire, despite an overall net outflow, experienced a net inflow for people with no qualifications.