Photo: Derek Harper · CC BY-SA 2.0Households in Llay have lower incomes than those in 73% of UK towns
3% of working-age residents claim jobless benefits, against 2.7% in the typical UK town. Measured against other UK towns, jobs and pay in Llay rate C−, #18 of 39 in Clwyd. The working day brings 1,762 people in, filling the town.
What stands out about work in Llay
A local job centre
2,555 jobs are based in Llay for 2,072 working residents; the typical UK town has 0.7 jobs per resident in work. Aerospace, rail and ships, social work and home care and public administration and defence make up 21% of them. Jobs based here ↓
Longer journeys to work
Against 41% across Wales’ towns. 6% of commuters walk to work (10% across Wales’ 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.
The Jobs & income grade for Llay: C−
Better than 22% of UK towns on four measures taken together: #18 of 39 in Clwyd.
Its strongest measure is getting to jobs without a car; its weakest, employment deprivation.
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.
2,555 jobs, 37% in manufacturing
1.2 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 (2,494). 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. Wales’ towns: all jobs in its built-up areas.
Jobs at workplaces in Llay (employees and working owners, ONS Business Register and Employment Survey 2024).
In Llay, 10% of commuters leave the car behind
Median journey 7.4 km; typical UK town 8.4 km.
31% of journeys to work are under 5 km (3 miles), against 41% across Wales’ towns, and 7% are 30 km or more. Llay grades C 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).
Workers pour into Llay: 20% more on a working day
2,072 residents were in work at the 2021 Census; 2,494 people worked in Llay.
12% 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.
Llay’s workers come from Wrexham to Rhosllannerchrugog
- Wrexham370
- Countryside280
- Pentre Maelor74
- Chester69
- Broughton57
- Gresford50
- Garden City33
- Gwersyllt30
- Ellesmere Port26
- Hope25
Wrexham, 3 miles away, sends 378 people, more than any other town; in all, 71% of the people who work in Llay live outside it. Going the other way, Wrexham is the biggest single destination (370).
The ten places that send the most workers into Llay, and the ten where its residents most often work (Census 2021, by home and workplace). Line width is the number of people.
Households in Llay average £46,890 a year
Higher than 31% of UK towns of 2,500+; the typical town is £52,385. The whole council area of Wrexham averages £43,934.
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 Wrexham council area are below England and Wales’ rate
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 Wrexham, which Nomis publishes monthly; the figures above the line are for Llay’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 (Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation 2025). The “most deprived tenth” compares areas within Wales 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).
What adults in Llay do: 55% are in work
Compared with Wales’ towns, 5% are long-term sick or disabled (against 6%).
ONS Census 2021, tables TS066 (economic activity) and TS063 (occupation), output areas summed to the built-up area. Wales’ 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.
How Llay ranks: 527th of 686 UK towns of 3,000 to 6,000
| # | 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 | Brookmans Park Hertfordshire | 4,033 | 0.9 | 7% | 1.2% | £79K | A+ |
| 3 | Charvil Berkshire | 3,158 | 0.4 | 2% | 1.4% | £83K | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 106 | Gresford Clwyd | 4,948 | 0.7 | 6% | 1.3% | £52K | A |
| … | |||||||
| 143 | Penyffordd Clwyd | 3,822 | 0.3 | 3% | 1.4% | £56K | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 298 | Mynydd Isa Clwyd | 4,738 | 0.2 | 4% | 1.9% | £48K | B |
| … | |||||||
| 525 | Wadebridge Cornwall | 5,626 | 1 | 25% | 2.8% | £46K | C− |
| 526 | Pilsley and Lower Pilsley Derbyshire | 3,470 | 0.5 | 4% | 2.5% | £44K | C− |
| 527 | Llay Clwyd | 4,666 | 1.2 | 12% | 3% | £47K | C− |
| 528 | Essington Staffordshire | 3,471 | 0.4 | 4% | 4.2% | £45K | C− |
| 529 | Coedpoeth Clwyd | 4,738 | 0.3 | 6% | 2.5% | £44K | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 686 | 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 Llay, and others in Clwyd.
How the places next to Llay compare on work
| Town | People | Jobs | Work in own town | Claimants | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Llay | 4,666 | 2,555 | 12% | 3% | C− |
| Bradley | 1,316 | 124 | 1% | 3.1% | C− |
| Gresford | 4,948 | 1,700 | 6% | 1.3% | A |
| Gwersyllt | 7,112 | 1,148 | 5% | 2.7% | C− |
| Hope | 4,422 | 660 | 5% | 2.3% | C+ |
| Brynteg | 9,229 | 1,073 | 6% | 3% | C− |
| Rossett | 1,977 | 750 | 6% | 1.8% | B+ |
| Wrexham | 44,781 | 27,774 | 40% | 3.6% | C− |
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. Llay 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 Wrexham as a whole; the claimant rate elsewhere on this page is Llay’s built-up area, from small areas.
Questions about work in Llay
Where do people in Llay work?
At the 2021 Census, 12% of Llay’s residents who travelled to work worked in the town itself; the most common other places were Wrexham (370), Pentre Maelor (74) and Chester (69). 27% 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 Llay?
1,762 people who lived elsewhere worked in Llay at the 2021 Census, 71% of its 2,494 workers. The most came from Wrexham (378), Brynteg (104) and Gwersyllt (88). 1,336 residents travelled out the other way.
How many jobs are there in Llay?
About 2,560 jobs (employees and working owners) were based in Llay in 2024, on ONS’s Business Register and Employment Survey: 1.2 for every resident in work, against 0.7 in the typical UK town. The biggest kinds of work are aerospace, rail and ships (about 190), social work and home care (about 150) and public administration and defence (about 150).
Is Llay a good place to find work?
Llay earns a C− for jobs and income, better than 22% of UK towns on household income, the claimant rate, employment deprivation and access to jobs together. Mean household income £46,890; 3% of 16 to 64s claim unemployment benefits.
How do people in Llay get to work?
87% of commuters go by car or van, 6% walk, 1% cycle and 4% take the bus or train; 31% travel under 5 km. Census 2021, taken during lockdown.
What is the average household income in Llay?
Mean household income before tax was £46,890 in the year to March 2023 (ONS), against £52,385 in the typical UK town.
How does Llay compare with Wrexham for jobs?
Llay has 1.2 jobs per working resident against Wrexham’s 1.4, a 3% claimant rate against 3.6%, and mean household income of £46,890 against £41,865.
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) · Welsh Government, Welsh Index of Multiple 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.