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Occasional Paper

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

Travel patterns between local authority areas

Table 16A and Table 16B show, for people travelling between Scottish addresses, the local authority area in which they lived and the area where they worked or studied.

Table 16A provides a percentage breakdown, for each council area, of the people who lived in that area by which council area they worked or studied in.  So, for example, 42 per cent of people living in East Dunbartonshire who travelled to a place of work/study in Scotland, travelled to Glasgow City.

Table 16B provides a similar breakdown for each area, but this time of the people who worked or studied in that council area by which area they lived in.  So, for example, 6.8 per cent of people working or studying in City of Edinburgh travelled there from West Lothian.  Some of the data in the columns for “Dundee City” and “Glasgow City” in this table duplicate information in the earlier Table 15B and Table 15D.  The data in Table 16B for the columns “Aberdeen City” and “City of Edinburgh” will, however, differ from that contained in Tables 15A and Table 15C due to the different definitions used for these cities.

Some of the main points of interest in Tables 16A and Table 16B are:

• Most workers/students (over 75 per cent) lived and worked in the same local authority area – especially, of course, in the three islands areas and Highland, where distances are too long for easy commute.

• 83 per cent of those who lived in Glasgow City and who travelled to work or study, did so in Glasgow City itself (Table 16A).  This figure was the lowest of the four main city authority areas.  Most of the rest (over 14 per cent) travelled to the six council areas which border Glasgow City.

• 94 per cent of workers/students living in Aberdeen City also worked or studied there.  Almost all of the remaining 6 per cent travelled to a place of work/study in Aberdeenshire.

• At the other end of the scale, only 38 per cent of workers/students living in East Renfrewshire worked or studied there.  More people (41 per cent) travelled into Glasgow City.  East Renfrewshire was the only council area in Scotland where more resident workers/students travelled to a single local authority area than travelled to work/study in their home area.

• There were 9 local authority areas where more than 90 per cent of those who worked or studied in those areas also lived there (Table 16B).  These consisted mainly of rural areas where it is less feasible for people to work in another area (e.g. Shetland Islands) and some large areas close to one or more of the main city council areas (e.g. Fife).

• Over a quarter of those who worked/studied in the four main city council areas commuted into these areas.  For Glasgow City, this figure was more than 42 per cent.

• Almost 90 per cent of those who commuted into Aberdeen City from outwith did so from Aberdeenshire.

• Half of the commuters who came into Dundee City came in from Angus while a further 44 per cent travelled in from either Fife or Perth & Kinross.

• For the two largest city council areas, travel patterns were somewhat more dispersed.  More commuters into City of Edinburgh came from West Lothian (23 per cent) and Midlothian (21 per cent) than anywhere else, with substantial numbers also coming in from East Lothian (19 per cent) and Fife (14 per cent).  For Glasgow City, there was even greater dispersion for in-commuters.  83 per cent of commuters coming into Glasgow City travelled in from the six council areas which border it, with the most coming in from South Lanarkshire (19 per cent), North Lanarkshire (16 per cent) and East Dunbartonshire (15 per cent).