Photo: Kicior99 · CC BY-SA 3.0Newquay has more people on jobless benefits than 92% of UK towns
Jobless benefits go to 4.4% of working-age residents, where the typical UK town’s rate is 2.7%. Set against UK towns, the Jobs & income grade of Newquay is D, #19 of 35 in Cornwall. 4,076 residents leave for work each working day, and 2,802 people travel in.
What Newquay’s work numbers say
Fewer jobs than working residents
9,828 jobs are based in Newquay for 11,862 working residents; the typical UK town has 0.7 jobs per resident in work. Restaurants, cafés and pubs, hotels and holiday accommodation and shops make up 46% of them. Jobs based here ↓
More benefit claims than most towns
The typical UK town: 2.7%; England and Wales: 4% so far in 2026. Benefits over time ↓
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, Newquay grades D
On four measures together, it is better than 13% of UK towns: #19 of 35 in Cornwall.
Its strongest measure is getting to jobs without a car; 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.
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 Newquay’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).
Each working day, more people leave Newquay for work than come in
11,862 residents were in work at the 2021 Census; 10,536 people worked in Newquay.
42% 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.
Newquay’s commuters work from Truro to Bodmin
- Countryside619
- Truro170
- Indian Queens, Fraddon and St Columb Road157
- St Columb Major140
- St Austell110
- Quintrell Downs108
- Bodmin81
- St Newlyn East61
- Camborne59
- Falmouth54
- Countryside824
- Truro703
- Bodmin202
- St Austell176
- St Columb Major169
- Redruth104
- Indian Queens, Fraddon and St Columb Road103
- Quintrell Downs97
- Mawgan Porth95
- Threemilestone85
58% of residents who travel to a workplace work outside Newquay; Truro takes the most (703). Coming the other way, Truro sends the most (170).
The ten places that send the most workers into Newquay, and the ten where its residents most often work (Census 2021, by home and workplace). Line width is the number of people.
9,828 jobs, one in three in hotels, pubs and restaurants
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 (10,536). 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 Newquay (employees and working owners, ONS Business Register and Employment Survey 2024).
Household income in Newquay averages £44,955
Higher than 24% 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).
Incomes inside Newquay run from £42K to £50K
Mean household income before tax in each of the 3 neighbourhoods (MSOAs) mostly inside the town: the highest is 1.2 times the lowest.
Each dot is a neighbourhood (MSOA, about 8,000 people) mostly inside Newquay; names from the House of Commons Library. ONS gives each a 95% range of roughly ±£7K to ±£10K, so neighbourhoods close together on the strip may not really differ.
Car-free commutes: 22% of workers in Newquay
Median journey 6.8 km; typical UK town 8.4 km.
46% of journeys to work are under 5 km (3 miles), against 45% across England’s towns, and 10% are 30 km or more. Newquay 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).
58% of people 16 and over in Newquay are in work
The mix is close to England’s towns’ as a whole.
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.
Newquay is 226th of 256 UK towns of 17,000 to 33,000 for jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Jobs per worker | Work in own town | Claimants | Income | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harpenden Hertfordshire | 30,964 | 0.8 | 30% | 1.5% | £92K | A+ |
| 2 | Knowle and Dorridge West Midlands | 19,323 | 0.6 | 13% | 1.5% | £79K | A+ |
| 3 | Sevenoaks Kent | 26,474 | 1.2 | 34% | 1.6% | £84K | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 122 | Truro Cornwall | 23,060 | 2.7 | 54% | 3% | £53K | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 129 | Falmouth Cornwall | 24,066 | 1 | 41% | 2.7% | £47K | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 214 | St Austell Cornwall | 24,361 | 0.9 | 35% | 3.4% | £44K | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 224 | March Cambridgeshire | 21,345 | 0.6 | 30% | 3.6% | £45K | D |
| 225 | Colwyn Bay Clwyd | 29,273 | 1 | 34% | 4.5% | £45K | D |
| 226 | Newquay Cornwall | 24,543 | 0.8 | 42% | 4.4% | £45K | D |
| 227 | Farnworth Greater Manchester | 28,761 | 1.1 | 22% | 6.4% | £38K | D |
| 228 | Thornaby-on-Tees North Yorkshire | 23,352 | 1.4 | 22% | 5.2% | £40K | D |
| … | |||||||
| 256 | Maesteg Mid Glamorgan | 18,342 | 0.4 | 23% | 3.8% | £37K | 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 Newquay, and others in Cornwall.
Work in the places around Newquay
| Town | People | Jobs | Work in own town | Claimants | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newquay | 24,543 | 9,828 | 42% | 4.4% | D |
| Quintrell Downs | 1,358 | 598 | 3% | 2.9% | C+ |
| St Newlyn East | 1,038 | 231 | 6% | 1.3% | C+ |
| St Columb Major | 3,663 | 1,400 | 15% | 3.3% | D |
| Indian Queens, Fraddon and St Columb Road | 3,888 | 1,699 | 15% | 3.1% | C− |
| Perranporth | 2,752 | 1,248 | 21% | 3.1% | C− |
| St Erme and Trispen | 1,604 | 458 | 6% | 3.4% | C− |
| St Merryn | 1,344 | 466 | 10% | 2.9% | 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. Newquay 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 Newquay’s built-up area, from small areas.
Questions about work in Newquay
Where do people in Newquay work?
At the 2021 Census, 42% of Newquay’s residents who travelled to work worked in the town itself; the most common other places were Truro (703), Bodmin (202) and St Austell (176). 41% 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 Newquay?
2,802 people who lived elsewhere worked in Newquay at the 2021 Census, 27% of its 10,536 workers. The most came from Truro (170), Indian Queens, Fraddon and St Columb Road (157) and St Columb Major (140). 4,076 residents travelled out the other way.
How many jobs are there in Newquay?
About 9,830 jobs (employees and working owners) were based in Newquay 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 restaurants, cafés and pubs (about 1,730), hotels and holiday accommodation (about 1,630) and shops (about 1,290).
Is Newquay a good place to find work?
Newquay earns a D for jobs and income, better than 13% of UK towns on household income, the claimant rate, employment deprivation and access to jobs together. Mean household income £44,955; 4.4% of 16 to 64s claim unemployment benefits.
How do people in Newquay get to work?
74% of commuters go by car or van, 18% walk, 2% cycle and 2% take the bus or train; 46% travel under 5 km. Census 2021, taken during lockdown.
What is the average household income in Newquay?
Mean household income before tax was £44,955 in the year to March 2023 (ONS), against £52,385 in the typical UK town. By neighbourhood it runs from £41,895 in Newquay East to £50,378 in St Columb Minor & Porth.
How does Newquay compare with St Austell for jobs?
Newquay has 0.8 jobs per working resident against St Austell’s 0.9, a 4.4% claimant rate against 3.4%, and mean household income of £44,955 against £43,810.
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.