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Occasional Paper

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

Rural and urban commuting

Table 4A shows the 2.83 million people who travelled between Scottish addresses broken down by the urban/rural classification of where they lived and where they worked or studied at Census time.

45 per cent of commuters travelled to a place of work or study in large urban areas, with fewer (39 per cent) actually living in large urban areas.  Remote small towns were the only other area type where more people commuted in than commuted out.

Commuting to and from accessible small towns and accessible rural areas was roughly in balance, with 19 per cent of commuters working in these areas and 24 per cent living there.

77 per cent of people who worked or studied in large urban areas lived in this same type of area, with a further 11 per cent commuting from other urban areas.

Less than half (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.

Table 4B provides the same information as Table 4A, except that it only covers the 1.83 million people travelling between Scottish addresses who were working but were not students.

In all areas, workers were more likely than students to commute between different types of urban/rural areas.  This is not surprising given that most students of school age are likely to attend school in the same area that they live in.

71 per cent of people who worked in large urban areas also lived there, while only 35 per cent of those working in accessible rural areas lived in the same area type.