Distance travelled to work or place of study

The distance between a person’s home address and their main place of work or study (Grouped)

Total number of categories 8

Individual question 42: What address do you travel to for your main job or course of study (including school)? 

• Work mainly at, or from home
• Distance learning, home schooled or equivalent
• No fixed place
• Work on an offshore installation
• The address below, please write in

The address entered above is my place of 

• Work
• Study

Address of place of work or study is used (along with home address) to explore the relationship between where people live and where they work or study. Used in conjunction with information from the method of travel question, the data helps to identify commuter patterns and routes and provide a reliable indicator for the demands placed on public and private transport.

It is used to inform the balance of housing and jobs in particular areas and assess the need for services such as new schools. Information on where people live and work is used by government departments to define “Travel to Work Areas” - these are approximations of self-contained labour markets and are the smallest areas for which unemployment rates are published. Collecting information on both work and study address enables a more accurate count of daytime populations to be obtained, which is particularly useful for areas accommodating universities and businesses. It also allows the differences in travel patterns between these groups to be compared.

This variable is broadly comparable to the version created by ONS for the 2021 census in England & Wales (workplace_travel). The variable for England & Wales does not include those who travel for study as well as work.

This variable is comparable to the version created for Scotland's Census 2011. See the "Known quality issues" section below for detail on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on this variable.

This variable provides information on the straight-line distance between people’s usual residence and their place of work or study. It does not account for the actual distance travelled, for example by road, which is likely to be further. 

Information about the quality of the working from home category is included under the method of travel to place of work or study section in this report as the people in this category for both variables are the same. 

8.3% of people travelling 60km and over to work and 24.9% travelling to study reported that they did so on foot. The number of people reporting these combinations was relatively small (3,000 travelling to place of work and 2,800 travelling to place of study). Some of these people are individuals who temporarily stay away from home during the week (e.g. people from remote communities who stay in school accommodation during the week to attend secondary school) then return to their usual residence at the weekend, so their method of travel is not for their journey from their usual residence to their place of work or study. There may also be some respondent error in either the work or study address provided or in the method of travel. 

For distance travelled to place of work, the other category includes people who work outside of the UK, at an offshore installation and people with no fixed place of work. Of these, those with no fixed place of work is by far the largest category. The growth of the proportion of people in this category since 2011 (increasing from 12.3% in 20211 to 21.4% in 2022) is largely driven by people with no fixed place of work, for example food delivery drivers. 

For distance travelled to place of study, the other category only includes those with no fixed place of study. The proportion of people with no fixed place of study decreased from 1.7% in 2011 to 0.4% in 2022. 

The distance a person travels between their home (enumeration) address and the address they travel to for their main job or course of study (including school).

Total number of categories 11

DTWSPS11 (Derived variable)

POWSPS11 (Derived variable)

TERMIND (Primary variable)

This derived variable provides a measure, in kilometres, of a straight line between the postcode of residence and the postcode of the place of the person's main job or course of study.

Total number of categories 2

Not applicable category (XXXXX) comprises:
All people not working or studying the week before census and those who are working or studying mainly at or from home, with no fixed place of work or study, working on an offshore installation or working or studying outside the UK.