Photo: Llywelyn2000 · CC BY-SA 4.0Cardigan’s household incomes are lower than in 98% of UK towns
UK towns are the yardstick, and by them Cardigan earns D− on jobs and income. 4.8% of working-age residents claim jobless benefits, next to 2.7% in the typical UK town. The town gains 1,178 commuters on a working day.
Jobs and income in Cardigan: what the figures say
A local job centre
2,028 jobs are based in Cardigan for 1,363 working residents; the typical UK town has 0.7 jobs per resident in work. Shops, hotels and holiday accommodation and education make up 32% of them. Jobs based here ↓
Short journeys to work
Against 41% across Wales’ towns. 25% of commuters walk to work, about 2.4 times the share across Wales’ towns. Getting to work ↓
More benefit claims than most towns
The typical UK town: 2.7%; England and Wales: 4% so far in 2026. Claims across the Ceredigion council area have run below the national rate every month since 2015. Benefits over time ↓
Written from the data on this page: ONS Census 2021 and BRES, DWP claimant counts via Nomis, and ONS household income.
Jobs and income in Cardigan earn D−
On four measures together, it is behind almost every UK town.
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.
2,028 jobs, one in six in hotels, pubs and restaurants
1.5 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 (2,014). 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 Cardigan (employees and working owners, ONS Business Register and Employment Survey 2024).
For 28% of Cardigan’s commuters, the trip is on foot, by bike, bus or train
Median journey 2.2 km; typical UK town 8.4 km.
58% of journeys to work are under 5 km (3 miles), against 41% across Wales’ towns, and 24% are 30 km or more. Cardigan 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).
Jobless claims in the Ceredigion council area have run below England and Wales every month since 2015
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 Ceredigion, which Nomis publishes monthly; the figures above the line are for Cardigan’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).
Cardigan fills up on a working day: 48% more workers
1,363 residents were in work at the 2021 Census; 2,014 people worked in Cardigan.
For every resident who leaves Cardigan for work, about 2 people come in. 40% 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.
Cardigan’s workers come from Cilgerran to Aberystwyth
- Countryside588
- Cilgerran62
- St Dogmaels55
- Llechryd53
- Aberporth46
- Penparc35
- Aberystwyth28
- Newcastle Emlyn27
- Parcllyn23
- Fishguard21
- Countryside229
- Aberystwyth41
- Carmarthen25
- Newcastle Emlyn22
- Haverfordwest15
- Crymych14
- Llechryd14
- Llanbadarn Fawr11
- Aberporth9
- Parcllyn9
Cilgerran, 2 miles away, sends 62 people, more than any other town; in all, 58% of the people who work in Cardigan live outside it. Going the other way, Aberystwyth is the biggest single destination (41).
The ten places that send the most workers into Cardigan, and the ten where its residents most often work (Census 2021, by home and workplace). Line width is the number of people.
£37,886 a year: the mean household income in Cardigan
Higher than 3% of UK towns of 2,500+; the typical town is £52,385. The whole council area of Ceredigion averages £43,546.
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).
Most of Cardigan works: 44% of adults 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.
Cardigan and other UK towns of 3,000 to 5,000
| # | 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 | Charvil Berkshire | 3,158 | 0.4 | 2% | 1.4% | £83K | A+ |
| 3 | Barnt Green Worcestershire | 3,821 | 0.7 | 4% | 1.2% | £77K | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 425 | Llangennech Dyfed | 4,278 | 0.5 | 5% | 2.3% | £47K | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 455 | Tumble Dyfed | 4,040 | 0.4 | 6% | 2.4% | £43K | D |
| … | |||||||
| 476 | Burry Port Dyfed | 4,966 | 0.3 | 5% | 2.9% | £41K | D |
| … | |||||||
| 522 | New Tredegar Gwent | 3,280 | 0.2 | 5% | 4.8% | £33K | D− |
| 523 | Chapel St Leonards Lincolnshire | 3,435 | 1 | 21% | 5.2% | £29K | D− |
| 524 | Cardigan Dyfed | 3,767 | 1.5 | 40% | 4.8% | £38K | D− |
| 525 | Alford Lincolnshire | 3,831 | 0.8 | 31% | 4% | £36K | 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 Cardigan, and others in Dyfed.
Jobs and income in the places around Cardigan
| Town | People | Jobs | Work in own town | Claimants | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cardigan | 3,767 | 2,028 | 40% | 4.8% | D− |
| St Dogmaels | 1,013 | 174 | 8% | 3.4% | D |
| Aberporth | 1,075 | 187 | 11% | 3.4% | D− |
| Newcastle Emlyn | 1,842 | 1,056 | 31% | 2.9% | 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. Cardigan 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 Ceredigion as a whole; the claimant rate elsewhere on this page is Cardigan’s built-up area, from small areas.
Questions about work in Cardigan
Where do people in Cardigan work?
At the 2021 Census, 40% of Cardigan’s residents who travelled to work worked in the town itself; the most common other places were Aberystwyth (41), Carmarthen (25) and Newcastle Emlyn (22). 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 Cardigan?
1,178 people who lived elsewhere worked in Cardigan at the 2021 Census, 58% of its 2,014 workers. The most came from Cilgerran (62), St Dogmaels (55) and Llechryd (53). 520 residents travelled out the other way.
How many jobs are there in Cardigan?
About 2,030 jobs (employees and working owners) were based in Cardigan in 2024, on ONS’s Business Register and Employment Survey: 1.5 for every resident in work, against 0.7 in the typical UK town. The biggest kinds of work are shops (about 250), hotels and holiday accommodation (about 180) and education (about 150).
Is Cardigan a good place to find work?
Cardigan earns a D− for jobs and income, behind almost every UK town on household income, the claimant rate, employment deprivation and access to jobs together. Mean household income £37,886; 4.8% of 16 to 64s claim unemployment benefits.
How do people in Cardigan get to work?
70% of commuters go by car or van, 25% walk, 1% cycle and 2% take the bus or train; 58% travel under 5 km. Census 2021, taken during lockdown.
What is the average household income in Cardigan?
Mean household income before tax was £37,886 in the year to March 2023 (ONS), against £52,385 in the typical UK town.
How does Cardigan compare with Llanelli for jobs?
Cardigan has 1.5 jobs per working resident against Llanelli’s 1, a 4.8% claimant rate against 3.8%, and mean household income of £37,886 against £41,218.
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.