Guest, Sign inJoin
St Mawes Castle CornwallPhoto: Eva K. / Eva K. · CC BY-SA 2.5
–Not graded
Work & commute in St Mawes · ONS, DWP · claims to August 2026

Jobs, pay and the trip to work in St Mawes

Each working day, 171 people come into the village for work. Of the residents who travel to work, 49% go under 3 miles. Jobs and income go ungraded in St Mawes.

What stands out · In brief

The work figures that set St Mawes apart

A local job centre

355 jobs are based in St Mawes for 281 working residents; the typical UK town has 0.7 jobs per resident in work. Hotels and holiday accommodation, restaurants, cafés and pubs and education make up 35% of them. Jobs based here ↓

The village fills up on a working day

171 people come in to work and 66 residents go out, so St Mawes gains about 105 workers a day. Truro sends the most (13). The daily tide ↓

Written from the data on this page: ONS Census 2021 and BRES, DWP claimant counts via Nomis, and ONS household income.

Jobs based here

355 jobs, one in four in hotels, pubs and restaurants

1.3 for every working resident; the typical UK town has 0.7.

The six biggest kinds of work
40Hotels and holiday accommodation13% of jobs · England 1%10.2× England’s share
40Restaurants, cafés and pubs12% of jobs · England 6%1.9× England’s share
30Education10% of jobs · England 9%
30Shops8% of jobs · England 8%
20Motor trade and repair6% of jobs · England 2%3.2× England’s share
20Vets5% of jobs · England 0%21.4× England’s share
Share of jobs by industry England’s towns
Hotels, pubs and restaurants25%
Education10%
Professional, scientific and technical10%
Arts, leisure and other services10%
Health and social care9%
Construction8%
Retail8%
Motor trades6%
Business administration and support4%
Property3%

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 (386). 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 St Mawes (employees and working owners, ONS Business Register and Employment Survey 2024).

The daily tide

On a working day St Mawes gains 37% in workers

281 residents were in work at the 2021 Census; 386 people worked in St Mawes.

Live in St Mawes281 in work
6641174
Work in St Mawes386 people
17141174
Commute in · 171Commute out · 66Live and work here · 41At home or no fixed place · 174

For every resident who leaves St Mawes for work, about 3 people come in. 38% of residents who travel to a workplace stay in the village; 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 village or from home.

On the map

St Mawes’ workers come from Truro to St Austell

Truro: 13 commute inNewquay: 13 commute inSt Austell: 8 commute inFalmouth: 7 commute inPortscatho: 6 commute inTregony: 5 commute inTruroNewquaySt AustellFalmouthTregonyTruro: 10 residents work thereFalmouth: 8 residents work thereTruroFalmouthSt Mawes5 miles
Grey dots: where people live (Census 2021). Places drawn centre to centre; flows under 5 people are listed, not drawn.
Where St Mawes’ workers live
  1. Countryside52
  2. Truro13
  3. Newquay13
  4. St Austell8
  5. Falmouth7
  6. Portscatho6
  7. Tregony5
  8. Saltash4
  9. Penryn3
  10. Perranarworthal3
Where residents work, outside St Mawes
  1. Truro10
  2. Falmouth8
  3. Countryside8
  4. Penzance4
  5. Portscatho3
  6. Plymouth3
  7. Newquay3
  8. Launceston3
  9. Lizard2
  10. Perran Downs2

Truro, 7 miles away, sends 13 people, more than any other town; in all, 44% of the people who work in St Mawes live outside it. Going the other way, Truro is the biggest single destination (10).

The ten places that send the most workers into St Mawes, and the ten where its residents most often work (Census 2021, by home and workplace). Line width is the number of people.

Household income

What households earn in St Mawes: £47,607 a year on average

Higher than 33% of UK towns of 2,500+; the typical town is £52,385. The whole council area of Cornwall averages £45,985.

St Mawes £48KTypical UK town £52K
£40K£45K£50K£55K£60K

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).

Getting to work

St Mawes commutes on foot, by bike or bus for 34% of trips

Median journey 6.2 km; typical UK town 8.4 km.

Drive60%Cornwall 72% · England 64%
Passenger4%Cornwall 6% · England 6%
Walk32%Cornwall 15% · England 11%
Cycle0.5%Cornwall 2% · England 3%
Bus0.5%Cornwall 2% · England 6%
Train0%Cornwall 1% · England 3%
Other3%Cornwall 3% · England 6%
St MawesCornwall’s townsEngland’s towns
How far they travel England’s towns
38%
Under 2 km
11%
2–5 km
4%
5–10 km
18%
10–20 km
9%
20–30 km
11%
30–40 km
0%
40–60 km
9%
60 km +

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).

Benefits over time

Jobless claims in the Cornwall council area are below England and Wales’ rate

0%2%4%6%201520172019202120232025First lockdownCensus dayEngland & Wales 4%Cornwall 3%South West 2.7%
Cornwall (council area)South WestEngland and Wales

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.

Claimant rate
2.6%
of 16 to 64s in the built-up area, January to August 2026
7 people in August 2026 · typical UK town 2.7%
Employment deprivation
8.1%
of 18 to 66s out of work through unemployment, sickness, disability or caring
IoD 2025
Income deprivation
14%
of residents in low-income households on means-tested benefits
In the most deprived tenth
0%
of residents live in England’s most employment-deprived 10% of areas

The chart is the whole council area of Cornwall, which Nomis publishes monthly; the figures above the line are for St Mawes’ 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).

What residents do

37% of adults in St Mawes are retired

St Mawes
47%37%
England’s towns
56%21%
In workStudents in workUnemployedStudentsRetiredLong-term sick or disabledLooking after home or familyOther
Residents in work, by occupation points above or below England’s towns
Managers, directors and senior officials16%+3.2
Professional occupations15%−5.7
Associate professional and technical occupations8%−5.4
Administrative and secretarial occupations5%−3.9
Skilled trades occupations23%+13.3
Caring, leisure and other service occupations9%−0.1
Sales and customer service occupations5%−2.2
Process, plant and machine operatives3%−3.8
Elementary occupations15%+4.7

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.

Neighbours

How the places next to St Mawes compare on work

TownPeopleJobsWork in own townClaimantsGrade
St Mawes64335538%2.6%—
Falmouth24,06610,90941%2.7%C+
Mylor Bridge1,5345077%2.4%C+
Penryn11,1945,54222%3%C+
Carnon Downs and Devoran2,1296555%1.6%B+
Mawnan Smith1,0012072%2%C+
Perranarworthal1,3052984%1.5%B
Truro23,06028,71254%3%C+

Jobs based in each place, commuters who stay in their own town, and the claimant rate.

How to read these numbers

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. St Mawes 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 St Mawes’ built-up area, from small areas.

Questions about work in St Mawes

Where do people in St Mawes work?

At the 2021 Census, 38% of St Mawes’ residents who travelled to work worked in the village itself; the most common other places were Truro (10), Falmouth (8) and Penzance (4). 62% 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 St Mawes?

171 people who lived elsewhere worked in St Mawes at the 2021 Census, 44% of its 386 workers. The most came from Truro (13), Newquay (13) and St Austell (8). 66 residents travelled out the other way.

How many jobs are there in St Mawes?

About 360 jobs (employees and working owners) were based in St Mawes 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 hotels and holiday accommodation (about 40), restaurants, cafés and pubs (about 40) and education (about 30).

How do people in St Mawes get to work?

64% of commuters go by car or van, 32% walk, 1% cycle and 1% take the bus or train; 49% travel under 5 km. Census 2021, taken during lockdown.

What is the average household income in St Mawes?

Mean household income before tax was £47,607 in the year to March 2023 (ONS), against £52,385 in the typical UK town.

How does St Mawes compare with Newquay for jobs?

St Mawes has 1.3 jobs per working resident against Newquay’s 0.8, a 2.6% claimant rate against 4.4%, and mean household income of £47,607 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.