Photo: Necrothesp at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Callington earn less than those in 89% of UK towns
3% of people of working age are on jobless benefits, where the typical UK town’s rate is 2.7%. Callington grades D for jobs and income against UK towns, #22 of 35 in Cornwall. The working day brings 1,522 people in: the town fills up.
What Callington’s work numbers say
A local job centre
2,569 jobs are based in Callington for 2,052 working residents; the typical UK town has 0.7 jobs per resident in work. Food manufacturing, civil engineering and shops make up 48% of them. Jobs based here ↓
Longer journeys to work
Against 45% across England’s towns. 18% of commuters walk to work, about 1.6 times the share 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.
The Jobs & income grade for Callington: D
On four measures together, it is better than 10% of UK towns: #22 of 35 in Cornwall.
Its strongest measure is getting to jobs without a car; its weakest, household income.
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.
2,569 jobs, 29% in manufacturing
1.3 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 (2,633). 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 Callington (employees and working owners, ONS Business Register and Employment Survey 2024).
Out of the car: 21% of Callington’s commuters
Median journey 12.3 km; typical UK town 8.4 km.
34% of journeys to work are under 5 km (3 miles), against 45% across England’s towns, and 14% are 30 km or more. Callington 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).
A working day adds 28% to the people at work in Callington
2,052 residents were in work at the 2021 Census; 2,633 people worked in Callington.
For every resident who leaves Callington for work, about 2 people come in.
The middle of each bar is the same people: residents who work in the town or from home.
Callington’s workers come from Plymouth to Launceston
- Plymouth338
- Countryside324
- Liskeard89
- Gunnislake and St Ann's Chapel81
- Saltash75
- Launceston75
- Kelly Bray71
- Tavistock35
- Pensilva32
- Bodmin25
- Countryside218
- Plymouth193
- Launceston66
- Liskeard64
- Tavistock42
- Saltash31
- Carkeel29
- Kelly Bray27
- Bodmin24
- Truro19
Plymouth, 11 miles away, sends 338 people, more than any other town; in all, 58% of the people who work in Callington live outside it. Going the other way, Plymouth is the biggest single destination (193).
The ten places that send the most workers into Callington, and the ten where its residents most often work (Census 2021, by home and workplace). Line width is the number of people.
Households in Callington average £41,996 a year
Higher than 13% of UK towns of 2,500+; the typical town is £52,385. The whole council area of Cornwall averages £45,985.
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 Cornwall council area are below England and Wales’ rate
Cornwall’s rate was about 2.2% in 2019, peaked at 6.5% in May 2020 and has averaged 3.1% 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 Cornwall, which Nomis publishes monthly; the figures above the line are for Callington’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).
In Callington, 31% of adults are retired
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.
Callington next to UK towns of 3,000 to 6,000: 584th of 686 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 | Brookmans Park Hertfordshire | 4,033 | 0.9 | 7% | 1.2% | £79K | A+ |
| 3 | Charvil Berkshire | 3,158 | 0.4 | 2% | 1.4% | £83K | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 428 | St Agnes Cornwall | 3,253 | 0.7 | 12% | 2.3% | £54K | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 463 | Carbis Bay Cornwall | 3,967 | 0.9 | 13% | 2.5% | £47K | C |
| … | |||||||
| 525 | Wadebridge Cornwall | 5,626 | 1 | 25% | 2.8% | £46K | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 582 | Heacham Norfolk | 3,978 | 0.7 | 20% | 3% | £42K | D |
| 583 | Queenborough Kent | 3,915 | 1.7 | 19% | 4.8% | £48K | D |
| 584 | Callington Cornwall | 4,665 | 1.3 | 28% | 3% | £42K | D |
| 585 | Bungay Suffolk | 5,012 | 1 | 27% | 3.7% | £49K | D |
| 586 | Rye East Sussex | 4,888 | 1.1 | 38% | 3.3% | £46K | D |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Callington, and others in Cornwall.
The work picture around Callington
| Town | People | Jobs | Work in own town | Claimants | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Callington | 4,665 | 2,569 | 28% | 3% | D |
| Kelly Bray | 1,137 | 435 | 4% | 3.5% | D |
| Gunnislake and St Ann's Chapel | 3,506 | 360 | 7% | 2.3% | C− |
| Pensilva | 1,656 | 611 | 11% | 2% | C− |
| Landrake | 1,104 | 300 | 4% | 2% | C+ |
| Bere Alston | 2,259 | 320 | 13% | 2.7% | C− |
| St Cleer | 1,144 | 94 | 1% | 2.4% | C− |
| Liskeard | 10,901 | 4,475 | 33% | 4.6% | D |
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. Callington 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 Cornwall as a whole; the claimant rate elsewhere on this page is Callington’s built-up area, from small areas.
Questions about work in Callington
Where do people in Callington work?
At the 2021 Census, 28% of Callington’s residents who travelled to work worked in the town itself; the most common other places were Plymouth (193), Launceston (66) and Liskeard (64). 36% 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 Callington?
1,522 people who lived elsewhere worked in Callington at the 2021 Census, 58% of its 2,633 workers. The most came from Plymouth (338), Liskeard (89) and Gunnislake and St Ann's Chapel (81). 929 residents travelled out the other way.
How many jobs are there in Callington?
About 2,570 jobs (employees and working owners) were based in Callington in 2024, on ONS’s Business Register and Employment Survey: 1.3 for every resident in work, against 0.7 in the typical UK town. The biggest kinds of work are food manufacturing (about 650), civil engineering (about 290) and shops (about 290).
Is Callington a good place to find work?
Callington earns a D for jobs and income, better than 10% of UK towns on household income, the claimant rate, employment deprivation and access to jobs together. Mean household income £41,996; 3% of 16 to 64s claim unemployment benefits.
How do people in Callington get to work?
76% of commuters go by car or van, 18% walk, 1% cycle and 2% take the bus or train; 34% travel under 5 km. Census 2021, taken during lockdown.
What is the average household income in Callington?
Mean household income before tax was £41,996 in the year to March 2023 (ONS), against £52,385 in the typical UK town.
How does Callington compare with Newquay for jobs?
Callington has 1.3 jobs per working resident against Newquay’s 0.8, a 3% claimant rate against 4.4%, and mean household income of £41,996 against £44,955.
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.