Photo: Colin Smith · CC BY-SA 2.0Household incomes in Princes Risborough top those of 79% of UK towns
Each working day 1,412 people travel in to work, filling the town. Set against UK towns, the Jobs & income grade of Princes Risborough is A−, #25 of 39 in Buckinghamshire. Short trips are common: 23% of commuters travel less than 3 miles.
The short version on work in Princes Risborough
Fewer jobs than working residents
2,737 jobs are based in Princes Risborough for 3,449 working residents; the typical UK town has 0.7 jobs per resident in work. Shops, furniture making and restaurants, cafés and pubs make up 29% of them. Jobs based here ↓
Longer journeys to work
Against 45% across England’s towns. 12% of commuters walk to work (11% across England’s towns). Getting to work ↓
Written from the data on this page: ONS Census 2021 and BRES, DWP claimant counts via Nomis, and ONS household income.
On jobs and income, Princes Risborough grades A−
Better than 77% of UK towns on four measures taken together: #25 of 39 in Buckinghamshire.
Its strongest measure is household income; its weakest, the claimant rate.
How the grade works
Each input is ranked against every UK town of 1,000 or more (higher income and job access are better; fewer claimants and less employment deprivation are better), the four ranks are averaged, and the average is ranked again. A town needs three of the four.
Princes Risborough commutes on foot, by bike or bus for 20% of trips
Median journey 13.2 km; typical UK town 8.4 km.
Princes Risborough grades A− for walkability: the share of commuters who walk, cycle or take public transport, against UK towns.
ONS Census 2021, TS061 (method of travel) and TS058 (distance, straight line from home to workplace), output areas summed. Census day fell in the third lockdown, so fewer people travelled than usual.
How residents who travel to work get there, and how far they go (Census 2021, not counting those working mainly at home).
On a working day Princes Risborough gains 6% in workers
3,449 residents were in work at the 2021 Census; 3,667 people worked in Princes Risborough.
17% of residents who travel to a workplace stay in the town; in the typical UK town of 2,500+ it’s 14%.
The middle of each bar is the same people: residents who work in the town or from home.
Princes Risborough’s workers come from Aylesbury to High Wycombe
- Aylesbury334
- High Wycombe178
- Countryside105
- Chinnor63
- Thame61
- Hazlemere30
- Prestwood and Great Missenden27
- Longwick25
- Wendover23
- Haddenham19
- High Wycombe187
- Aylesbury163
- Countryside123
- Hillingdon44
- Thame41
- Beaconsfield31
- Prestwood and Great Missenden25
- Slough24
- Oxford23
- Wendover23
Aylesbury, 6 miles away, sends 334 people, more than any other town; in all, 39% of the people who work in Princes Risborough live outside it. Going the other way, High Wycombe is the biggest single destination (187).
The ten places that send the most workers into Princes Risborough, and the ten where its residents most often work (Census 2021, by home and workplace). Line width is the number of people.
2,737 jobs, one in seven in manufacturing
0.8 for every working resident; the typical UK town has 0.7.
BRES counts jobs, not people (a part-time job and a second job count once each), so it runs above the Census count of people working here (3,667). Small areas are shared out to the town by where their Census 2021 workers were based; kinds of work are BRES industry divisions (SIC 2007), rounded. England’s towns: all jobs in its built-up areas.
Jobs at workplaces in Princes Risborough (employees and working owners, ONS Business Register and Employment Survey 2024).
Before tax, households in Princes Risborough average £64,597
Higher than 80% of UK towns of 2,500+; the typical town is £52,385. The whole council area of Buckinghamshire averages £69,712.
The town figure is ONS’s neighbourhood (MSOA) estimates shared out by where the town’s residents live.
Total household income before tax, mean, year to March 2023 (ONS small-area estimates).
Jobless claims in the Buckinghamshire council area have run below England and Wales every month since 2015
Buckinghamshire’s rate was about 1.3% in 2019, peaked at 4.6% in August 2020 and has averaged 3% in 2026, against 4% across England and Wales. Claims everywhere stay higher than before the pandemic, partly because Universal Credit counts more people on low pay as looking for work.
The chart is the whole council area of Buckinghamshire, which Nomis publishes monthly; the figures above the line are for Princes Risborough’s built-up area. Claimant count: people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance, or Universal Credit while required to look for work. Employment deprivation counts people out of work on Jobseeker’s Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance, Incapacity Benefit, Severe Disablement Allowance, Carer’s Allowance or the Universal Credit equivalents (English Indices of Deprivation 2025). The “most deprived tenth” compares areas within England only.
Claimant rate since 2015: people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance or Universal Credit while looking for work, as a share of residents aged 16 to 64 (DWP, via Nomis).
A retired town: 31% of adults in Princes Risborough
ONS Census 2021, tables TS066 (economic activity) and TS063 (occupation), output areas summed to the built-up area. England’s towns: everyone living in its built-up areas.
Everyone 16 and over, by what they were doing the week before the 2021 Census, and the jobs of those in work.
Princes Risborough next to UK towns of 5,000 to 10,000: 113th of 532 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Jobs per worker | Work in own town | Claimants | Income | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Moor Park Hertfordshire | 5,850 | 2.2 | 17% | 1.1% | £86K | A+ |
| 2 | Twyford Berkshire | 8,072 | 0.9 | 11% | 1.5% | £82K | A+ |
| 3 | Esher Surrey | 9,484 | 1.6 | 12% | 1.6% | £91K | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 14 | Gerrards Cross Buckinghamshire | 8,117 | 1 | 8% | 2% | £87K | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 18 | Bourne End Buckinghamshire | 7,166 | 1.3 | 10% | 1.8% | £72K | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 40 | Little Chalfont Buckinghamshire | 6,506 | 0.8 | 6% | 2.2% | £89K | A |
| … | |||||||
| 111 | Redbourn Hertfordshire | 5,188 | 0.6 | 12% | 2.5% | £76K | A− |
| 112 | Liphook Hampshire | 7,128 | 0.7 | 14% | 2.3% | £71K | A− |
| 113 | Princes Risborough Buckinghamshire | 7,528 | 0.8 | 17% | 2.3% | £65K | A− |
| 114 | North Baddesley Hampshire | 6,996 | 0.3 | 6% | 2.3% | £65K | A− |
| 115 | Wallingford Oxfordshire | 8,455 | 1.2 | 26% | 2.2% | £66K | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 532 | Withernsea East Riding of Yorkshire | 5,766 | 0.7 | 35% | 5.4% | £39K | D− |
Jobs & income letters rank against every UK town of 1,000 or more; the order here is context only.
Ordered by Jobs & income Grade: the top three, the towns either side of Princes Risborough, and others in Buckinghamshire.
Neighbouring places to Princes Risborough, compared
| Town | People | Jobs | Work in own town | Claimants | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Princes Risborough | 7,528 | 2,737 | 17% | 2.3% | A− |
| Longwick | 1,528 | 242 | 4% | 2.9% | B+ |
| Lacey Green and Loosley Row | 1,135 | 150 | 3% | 2.1% | A |
| Chinnor | 7,268 | 1,078 | 9% | 1.8% | A− |
| Walter's Ash and Naphill | 3,893 | 1,461 | 31% | 1.5% | A+ |
| Prestwood and Great Missenden | 7,600 | 2,014 | 14% | 1.7% | A |
| Stoke Mandeville | 2,855 | 933 | 3% | 2.3% | A |
| Wendover | 8,729 | 2,196 | 18% | 1.9% | A |
Jobs based in each place, commuters who stay in their own town, and the claimant rate.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- The Census was taken in lockdown. Census day was 21 March 2021, during the third national lockdown: many people were furloughed or working from home, so fewer travelled to work, and journeys were shorter, than before the pandemic or since. The flows on this page show where people worked that spring.
- At home and no fixed place are one figure. In the workplace flows, ONS puts people who mainly worked at home and people with no fixed workplace (drivers, builders, care workers on rounds) at their home address, so the two can’t be told apart there.
- Towns are built-up areas. Princes Risborough here is ONS’s built-up area: the town as built, not its council district. A workplace on an estate or farm outside every built-up area counts as “outside any built-up area”.
- Jobs are counted where they are. BRES counts jobs at each workplace (employees and working owners, rounded by ONS), so a town with a hospital, university or big employer can have more jobs than working residents. Small areas are shared out to towns by where their Census workers were based.
- The benefits chart is the council area. Nomis publishes the claimant count monthly for councils back to 2013, so the line is Buckinghamshire as a whole; the claimant rate elsewhere on this page is Princes Risborough’s built-up area, from small areas.
Questions about work in Princes Risborough
Where do people in Princes Risborough work?
At the 2021 Census, 17% of Princes Risborough’s residents who travelled to work worked in the town itself; the most common other places were High Wycombe (187), Aylesbury (163) and Hillingdon (44). 58% of working residents worked mainly at home or had no fixed workplace; the Census was taken in lockdown, so home working was unusually high.
How many people commute into Princes Risborough?
1,412 people who lived elsewhere worked in Princes Risborough at the 2021 Census, 39% of its 3,667 workers. The most came from Aylesbury (334), High Wycombe (178) and Chinnor (63). 1,190 residents travelled out the other way.
How many jobs are there in Princes Risborough?
About 2,740 jobs (employees and working owners) were based in Princes Risborough in 2024, on ONS’s Business Register and Employment Survey: 0.8 for every resident in work, against 0.7 in the typical UK town. The biggest kinds of work are shops (about 320), furniture making (about 270) and restaurants, cafés and pubs (about 230).
Is Princes Risborough a good place to find work?
Princes Risborough earns an A− for jobs and income, better than 77% of UK towns on household income, the claimant rate, employment deprivation and access to jobs together. Mean household income £64,597; 2.3% of 16 to 64s claim unemployment benefits.
How do people in Princes Risborough get to work?
79% of commuters go by car or van, 12% walk, 1% cycle and 6% take the bus or train; 23% travel under 5 km. Census 2021, taken during lockdown.
What is the average household income in Princes Risborough?
Mean household income before tax was £64,597 in the year to March 2023 (ONS), against £52,385 in the typical UK town.
How does Princes Risborough compare with Milton Keynes for jobs?
Princes Risborough has 0.8 jobs per working resident against Milton Keynes’ 1.5, a 2.3% claimant rate against 4.4%, and mean household income of £64,597 against £63,046.
Sources: ONS Census 2021 origin-destination data, place of work (ODWP01EW), output areas summed to the ONS 2022 built-up area · ONS Census 2021 tables TS058 (distance), TS061 (method of travel), TS063 (occupation) and TS066 (economic activity) · ONS Business Register and Employment Survey via Nomis (open access), by industry division · ONS small-area income estimates (financial year ending 2023); House of Commons Library MSOA names · DWP claimant count via Nomis (towns January to August 2026; councils, regions and England and Wales monthly since January 2015) · MHCLG English Indices of Deprivation 2025 · DfT Transport Connectivity Metric (employment) · TownRatings grades: our own summary of the data, ranked against UK towns only. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.