Travel to work by method and distance

​FOI REF: FOI/2023/4763

You asked

Please provide the following statistics for 2 specific years (2018-19 - April 2018 to March 2019) and (2021-22 - April 2021 to March 2022):

Proportion of people in England who travel by the following:

• Car/Van/ Minibus or works van
• Bus
• Cycling
• Rail
• Taxi
• Walk

Average distance (in miles) travelled by an employee to and from work (round trip) during a single day/ single week.

We said

Thank you for your request.

On 8 December we released the Labour market and travel to work: Census 2021 in England and Wales publication, accessible via the following link: https://www.ons.gov.uk/releases/labourmarketandtraveltoworkcensus2021inenglandandwales

More detailed information can be found via the following link, including maps, charts and articles: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/traveltoworkenglandandwales/census2021

Please also see the associated downloads, showing distance travelled to work and method of travel to work for England.

More detailed analysis from the 2021 Census on travel to work is planned for 2023 - https://www.ons.gov.uk/census/aboutcensus/censusproducts/analysis/traveltoworkanalysisplans

The census happens every 10 years and gives us a picture of all the people and households in England and Wales at one time. The last census was on 21 March 2021. We are unable to provide statistics for specific years as we do not collect commuting patterns continuously. All travel to work data is derived from the decennial census.

The Department for Transport (DfT) also produce statistics on this topic, which may be of interest: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-transport/about/statistics

If you have any questions about Census data, please contact census.customerservices@ons.gov.uk.