Photo: Ruth Sharville · CC BY-SA 2.0Chepstow’s household incomes are lower than in 68% of UK towns
2.9% of people of working age are on jobless benefits, against 2.7% in the typical UK town. UK towns are the yardstick, and by them Chepstow earns C on jobs and income, #7 of 38 in Gwent. 35% of residents who travel to work go less than 3 miles.
Where Chepstow stands out on work
More jobs than the typical town
5,950 jobs are based in Chepstow for 5,810 working residents; the typical UK town has 0.7 jobs per resident in work. Warehousing and logistics, shops and wholesale make up 33% of them. Jobs based here ↓
As many come in to work as leave
2,623 people come in to work and 2,376 residents go out, so Chepstow gains about 247 workers a day. Newport sends the most (396). The daily tide ↓
Written from the data on this page: ONS Census 2021 and BRES, DWP claimant counts via Nomis, and ONS household income.
Chepstow earns C for jobs and income
Better than 29% of UK towns on four measures taken together: #7 of 38 in Gwent.
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.
5,950 jobs, one in seven in transport and storage
1 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 (6,043). 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 Chepstow (employees and working owners, ONS Business Register and Employment Survey 2024).
The commute in and out of Chepstow balances out
5,810 residents were in work at the 2021 Census; 6,043 people worked in Chepstow.
27% 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.
Chepstow’s workers come from Newport to Lydney
Newport, 14 miles away, sends 396 people, more than any other town; in all, 43% of the people who work in Chepstow live outside it. Going the other way, Bristol is the biggest single destination (252).
The ten places that send the most workers into Chepstow, and the ten where its residents most often work (Census 2021, by home and workplace). Line width is the number of people.
Before tax, households in Chepstow average £48,459
Higher than 36% of UK towns of 2,500+; the typical town is £52,385. The whole council area of Monmouthshire averages £49,882.
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).
In Chepstow, 16% of commuters leave the car behind
Median journey 12.4 km; typical UK town 8.4 km.
Chepstow grades B 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 Monmouthshire council area have run below England and Wales every month since 2015
Monmouthshire’s rate was about 1.7% in 2019, peaked at 4.4% in May 2020 and has averaged 2.3% 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 Monmouthshire, which Nomis publishes monthly; the figures above the line are for Chepstow’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 Chepstow’s adults have a job
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.
How Chepstow ranks: 270th of 430 UK towns of 8,000 to 16,000
| # | Town | People | Jobs per worker | Work in own town | Claimants | Income | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Twyford Berkshire | 8,072 | 0.9 | 11% | 1.5% | £82K | A+ |
| 2 | Ashtead Surrey | 14,830 | 0.7 | 16% | 1.2% | £80K | A+ |
| 3 | Esher Surrey | 9,484 | 1.6 | 12% | 1.6% | £91K | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 268 | Norton Canes Staffordshire | 8,155 | 1.4 | 12% | 3.4% | £50K | C |
| 269 | West Moors Dorset | 10,432 | 0.5 | 11% | 2.7% | £48K | C |
| 270 | Chepstow Gwent | 11,939 | 1 | 27% | 2.9% | £48K | C |
| 271 | Whittlesey Cambridgeshire | 13,833 | 0.4 | 15% | 3% | £52K | C |
| 272 | Mossley Greater Manchester | 11,416 | 0.3 | 9% | 4% | £47K | C |
| … | |||||||
| 301 | Ystrad Mynach Gwent | 11,856 | 1.7 | 18% | 2.9% | £44K | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 304 | Caldicot Gwent | 9,813 | 0.6 | 17% | 2.8% | £45K | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 321 | Blackwood Gwent | 12,621 | 0.6 | 14% | 2.8% | £43K | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 430 | Holyhead Gwynedd | 11,753 | 0.7 | 40% | 5.8% | £40K | 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 Chepstow, and others in Gwent.
Work next door to Chepstow
| Town | People | Jobs | Work in own town | Claimants | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chepstow | 11,939 | 5,950 | 27% | 2.9% | C |
| Tutshill and Sedbury | 3,618 | 571 | 5% | 1.5% | B |
| Beachley | 1,120 | 137 | 29% | 1.6% | B+ |
| Portskewett | 1,627 | 925 | 9% | 2.4% | B− |
| Caer-went | 1,523 | 328 | 3% | 1.7% | B |
| Caldicot | 9,813 | 2,625 | 17% | 2.8% | C− |
| Severn Beach | 2,208 | 7,483 | 14% | 2.5% | B− |
| Pilning | 1,400 | 667 | 2% | 2.4% | B |
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. Chepstow 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 Monmouthshire as a whole; the claimant rate elsewhere on this page is Chepstow’s built-up area, from small areas.
Questions about work in Chepstow
Where do people in Chepstow work?
At the 2021 Census, 27% of Chepstow’s residents who travelled to work worked in the town itself; the most common other places were Bristol (252), Severn Beach (181) and Newport (129). 43% 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 Chepstow?
2,623 people who lived elsewhere worked in Chepstow at the 2021 Census, 43% of its 6,043 workers. The most came from Newport (396), Caldicot (314) and Tutshill and Sedbury (142). 2,376 residents travelled out the other way.
How many jobs are there in Chepstow?
About 5,950 jobs (employees and working owners) were based in Chepstow in 2024, on ONS’s Business Register and Employment Survey: 1 for every resident in work, against 0.7 in the typical UK town. The biggest kinds of work are warehousing and logistics (about 710), shops (about 660) and wholesale (about 610).
Is Chepstow a good place to find work?
Chepstow earns a C for jobs and income, better than 29% of UK towns on household income, the claimant rate, employment deprivation and access to jobs together. Mean household income £48,459; 2.9% of 16 to 64s claim unemployment benefits.
How do people in Chepstow get to work?
81% of commuters go by car or van, 13% walk, 1% cycle and 2% take the bus or train; 35% travel under 5 km. Census 2021, taken during lockdown.
What is the average household income in Chepstow?
Mean household income before tax was £48,459 in the year to March 2023 (ONS), against £52,385 in the typical UK town.
How does Chepstow compare with Newport for jobs?
Chepstow has 1 jobs per working resident against Newport’s 0.9, a 2.9% claimant rate against 5.3%, and mean household income of £48,459 against £44,210.
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.