Photo: Llywelyn2000 · CC BY-SA 4.0With 0.4 jobs for each resident in work, most of Ruabon commutes out
Ruabon grades C for jobs and income against UK towns, #14 of 39 in Clwyd. The working day takes 1,062 residents elsewhere, and 407 people come the other way. 2.9% of people of working age are on jobless benefits; the typical UK town’s rate is 2.7%.
What sets Ruabon apart on jobs and income
More people leave for work than arrive
407 people come in to work and 1,062 residents go out, so Ruabon loses about 655 workers a day. Acrefair and Cefn-mawr sends the most (72). The daily tide ↓
Longer journeys to work
Against 41% across Wales’ towns. 5% 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.
Jobs & income in Ruabon: graded C
Better than 27% of UK towns across four measures: #14 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.
For 10% of Ruabon’s commuters, the trip is on foot, by bike, bus or train
Median journey 8.4 km, the same as the typical UK town.
19% of journeys to work are under 5 km (3 miles), against 41% across Wales’ towns, and 6% are 30 km or more. Ruabon 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).
Ruabon is quieter on a working day than at night
1,649 residents were in work at the 2021 Census; 992 people worked in Ruabon.
For every person who comes in to work, about 3 residents travel out. 6% 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.
Ruabon’s commuters work from Wrexham to Rhosllannerchrugog
- Acrefair and Cefn-mawr72
- Wrexham66
- Rhosllannerchrugog64
- Countryside35
- Brynteg16
- Gwersyllt12
- Chester10
- Coedpoeth9
- Chirk8
- Rhostyllen8
- Wrexham311
- Countryside220
- Rhosllannerchrugog71
- Pentre Maelor56
- Chirk33
- Chester29
- Llay28
- Acrefair and Cefn-mawr26
- Broughton20
- Gobowen20
94% of residents who travel to a workplace work outside Ruabon; Wrexham takes the most (311). Coming the other way, Acrefair and Cefn-mawr sends the most (72).
The ten places that send the most workers into Ruabon, and the ten where its residents most often work (Census 2021, by home and workplace). Line width is the number of people.
637 jobs, 18% in hotels, pubs and restaurants
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 (992). 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 Ruabon (employees and working owners, ONS Business Register and Employment Survey 2024).
Before tax, households in Ruabon average £47,048
Higher than 32% 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 Ruabon’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).
59% of people 16 and over in Ruabon are in work
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.
Ruabon is 816th of 1,067 UK towns of 2,000 to 5,000 for jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Jobs per worker | Work in own town | Claimants | Income | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brookmans Park Hertfordshire | 4,033 | 0.9 | 7% | 1.2% | £79K | A+ |
| 2 | Pannal North Yorkshire | 2,530 | 0.8 | 4% | 0.6% | £71K | A+ |
| 3 | Charvil Berkshire | 3,158 | 0.4 | 2% | 1.4% | £83K | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 159 | Gresford Clwyd | 4,948 | 0.7 | 6% | 1.3% | £52K | A |
| … | |||||||
| 219 | Penyffordd Clwyd | 3,822 | 0.3 | 3% | 1.4% | £56K | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 294 | Aston Clwyd | 2,847 | 0.4 | 1% | 1.6% | £56K | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 814 | Hunmanby North Yorkshire | 2,900 | 0.8 | 12% | 1.6% | £35K | C |
| 815 | Norton South Yorkshire | 2,304 | 0.4 | 7% | 1.9% | £42K | C |
| 816 | Ruabon Clwyd | 3,414 | 0.4 | 6% | 2.9% | £47K | C |
| 817 | Linton Derbyshire | 2,145 | 0.2 | 2% | 4% | £54K | C |
| 818 | Tywardreath Cornwall | 2,589 | 0.7 | 10% | 2.4% | £45K | C |
| … | |||||||
| 1067 | Maerdy Mid Glamorgan | 2,843 | 0.4 | 11% | 5.7% | £38K | 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 Ruabon, and others in Clwyd.
Work next door to Ruabon
| Town | People | Jobs | Work in own town | Claimants | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ruabon | 3,414 | 637 | 6% | 2.9% | C |
| Rhosllannerchrugog | 12,789 | 2,270 | 10% | 3.1% | D |
| Acrefair and Cefn-mawr | 6,905 | 800 | 8% | 4.9% | D− |
| Trevor | 1,397 | 148 | 2% | 1.2% | C+ |
| Rhostyllen | 2,760 | 650 | 4% | 2.3% | C+ |
| Chirk | 3,930 | 1,946 | 25% | 2.8% | D |
| Marchwiel | 1,038 | 200 | 2% | 2.5% | C |
| Coedpoeth | 4,738 | 647 | 6% | 2.5% | 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. Ruabon 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 Ruabon’s built-up area, from small areas.
Questions about work in Ruabon
Where do people in Ruabon work?
At the 2021 Census, 6% of Ruabon’s residents who travelled to work worked in the town itself; the most common other places were Wrexham (311), Rhosllannerchrugog (71) and Pentre Maelor (56). 31% 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 Ruabon?
407 people who lived elsewhere worked in Ruabon at the 2021 Census, 41% of its 992 workers. The most came from Acrefair and Cefn-mawr (72), Wrexham (66) and Rhosllannerchrugog (64). 1,062 residents travelled out the other way.
How many jobs are there in Ruabon?
About 640 jobs (employees and working owners) were based in Ruabon in 2024, on ONS’s Business Register and Employment Survey: 0.4 for every resident in work, against 0.7 in the typical UK town. The biggest kinds of work are restaurants, cafés and pubs (about 100), shops (about 80) and education (about 70).
Is Ruabon a good place to find work?
Ruabon earns a C for jobs and income, better than 27% of UK towns on household income, the claimant rate, employment deprivation and access to jobs together. Mean household income £47,048; 2.9% of 16 to 64s claim unemployment benefits.
How do people in Ruabon get to work?
88% of commuters go by car or van, 5% walk, 1% cycle and 4% take the bus or train; 19% travel under 5 km. Census 2021, taken during lockdown.
What is the average household income in Ruabon?
Mean household income before tax was £47,048 in the year to March 2023 (ONS), against £52,385 in the typical UK town.
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.