Photo: wx8 · Public domainHousehold incomes in Old Basing top those of 83% of UK towns
Of the residents who travel to work, 40% go under 3 miles. Old Basing grades A+ for jobs and income against UK towns, #8 of 76 in Hampshire. 1.6% of people of working age are on jobless benefits, where the typical UK town’s rate is 2.7%.
The work figures that set Old Basing apart
Fewer jobs than working residents
1,215 jobs are based in Old Basing for 1,852 working residents; the typical UK town has 0.7 jobs per resident in work. Motor trade and repair, restaurants, cafés and pubs and building trades make up 27% of them. Jobs based here ↓
Fewer benefit claims than most towns
The typical UK town: 2.7%; England and Wales: 4% so far in 2026. Claims across the Basingstoke and Deane 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 & income in Old Basing: graded A+
Better than 96% of UK towns across four measures: #8 of 76 in Hampshire.
Its strongest measure is employment deprivation; its weakest, getting to jobs without a car.
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 Basingstoke and Deane 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 Basingstoke and Deane, which Nomis publishes monthly; the figures above the line are for Old Basing’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).
As many come into Old Basing to work as leave
1,852 residents were in work at the 2021 Census; 1,830 people worked in Old Basing.
6% 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.
Most of Old Basing’s commuters who leave work in Basingstoke and the places around
- Basingstoke343
- Countryside27
- Tadley24
- Hook21
- Reading19
- Fleet18
- Oakley17
- Andover9
- Farnborough9
- Odiham8
- Basingstoke310
- Countryside67
- Aldermaston20
- Hook17
- Odiham15
- Alton14
- Reading10
- Tadley9
- Southampton8
- Aldershot8
94% of residents who travel to a workplace work outside Old Basing; Basingstoke takes the most (310). Coming the other way, Basingstoke sends the most (343).
The ten places that send the most workers into Old Basing, and the ten where its residents most often work (Census 2021, by home and workplace). Line width is the number of people.
1,215 jobs, one in seven in hotels, pubs and restaurants
0.7 for every working resident, the same as the typical UK town.
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 (1,830). 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 Old Basing (employees and working owners, ONS Business Register and Employment Survey 2024).
Mean income per household in Old Basing: £66,600
Higher than 84% of UK towns of 2,500+; the typical town is £52,385. The whole council area of Basingstoke and Deane averages £67,746.
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).
11% of Old Basing’s trips to work are on foot, by bike or public transport
Median journey 7.2 km; typical UK town 8.4 km.
Old Basing grades C 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).
32% of Old Basing’s adults have 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.
Old Basing is 38th of 525 UK towns of 3,000 to 5,000 for jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 25 | Rownhams and Nursling Hampshire | 4,796 | 0.9 | 4% | 1.7% | £68K | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 27 | Elvetham Heath Hampshire | 4,916 | 0.4 | 6% | 1.7% | £84K | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 34 | Horton Heath Hampshire | 3,047 | 0.5 | 3% | 1.5% | £70K | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 36 | Whittle-le-Woods Lancashire | 4,388 | 0.4 | 3% | 1.3% | £61K | A+ |
| 37 | Chalfont St Giles Buckinghamshire | 4,707 | 0.5 | 8% | 1.7% | £78K | A+ |
| 38 | Old Basing Hampshire | 3,834 | 0.7 | 6% | 1.6% | £67K | A+ |
| 39 | Bar Hill Cambridgeshire | 3,899 | 1.2 | 20% | 1.7% | £72K | A+ |
| 40 | Dunnington North Yorkshire | 3,256 | 1.4 | 7% | 1.1% | £62K | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Old Basing, and others in Hampshire.
Jobs near Old Basing: the places around it
| Town | People | Jobs | Work in own town | Claimants | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Old Basing | 3,834 | 1,215 | 6% | 1.6% | A+ |
| Basingstoke | 117,211 | 65,836 | 59% | 3.2% | B+ |
| Sherfield on Loddon | 1,385 | 369 | 4% | 1.7% | A |
| Hook | 9,062 | 6,564 | 12% | 1.9% | A+ |
| Odiham | 5,091 | 1,527 | 46% | 1.5% | A |
| Bramley | 4,730 | 750 | 7% | 1.7% | A |
| Oakley | 5,264 | 1,003 | 6% | 1.7% | A |
| Hartley Wintney | 3,465 | 1,022 | 11% | 1.9% | A |
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. Old Basing 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 Basingstoke and Deane as a whole; the claimant rate elsewhere on this page is Old Basing’s built-up area, from small areas.
Questions about work in Old Basing
Where do people in Old Basing work?
At the 2021 Census, 6% of Old Basing’s residents who travelled to work worked in the town itself; the most common other places were Basingstoke (310), Aldermaston (20) and Hook (17). 61% 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 Old Basing?
652 people who lived elsewhere worked in Old Basing at the 2021 Census, 36% of its 1,830 workers. The most came from Basingstoke (343), Tadley (24) and Hook (21). 668 residents travelled out the other way.
How many jobs are there in Old Basing?
About 1,220 jobs (employees and working owners) were based in Old Basing in 2024, on ONS’s Business Register and Employment Survey: 0.7 for every resident in work, against 0.7 in the typical UK town. The biggest kinds of work are motor trade and repair (about 140), restaurants, cafés and pubs (about 140) and building trades (about 100).
Is Old Basing a good place to find work?
Old Basing earns an A+ for jobs and income, better than 96% of UK towns on household income, the claimant rate, employment deprivation and access to jobs together. Mean household income £66,600; 1.6% of 16 to 64s claim unemployment benefits.
How do people in Old Basing get to work?
86% of commuters go by car or van, 6% walk, 1% cycle and 4% take the bus or train; 40% travel under 5 km. Census 2021, taken during lockdown.
What is the average household income in Old Basing?
Mean household income before tax was £66,600 in the year to March 2023 (ONS), against £52,385 in the typical UK town.
How does Old Basing compare with Southampton for jobs?
Old Basing has 0.7 jobs per working resident against Southampton’s 1, a 1.6% claimant rate against 4.4%, and mean household income of £66,600 against £52,380.
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.