Photo: David Anstiss · CC BY-SA 2.0Cliffe Woods has fewer jobs than residents in work: 0.2 for each
More leave than arrive on a working day: 638 residents go out to work, 181 people come in. Cliffe Woods grades B for jobs and income against UK towns, #29 of 87 in Kent. 23% of commuters travel less than 3 miles.
Jobs and income in Cliffe Woods: what the figures say
More people leave for work than arrive
181 people come in to work and 638 residents go out, so Cliffe Woods loses about 457 workers a day. Rochester sends the most (35). The daily tide ↓
Longer journeys to work
Against 45% across England’s towns. 5% of commuters walk to work (11% across England’s towns). Getting to work ↓
Written from the data on this page: ONS Census 2021 and BRES, DWP claimant counts via Nomis, and ONS household income.
The Jobs & income grade for Cliffe Woods: B
Taken together, its four measures make it better than 62% of UK towns: #29 of 87 in Kent.
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.
Walking, cycling, the bus or the train: 11% of Cliffe Woods’ commuters
Median journey 10.2 km; typical UK town 8.4 km.
Cliffe Woods 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).
More of Cliffe Woods’ workers leave each day than arrive
1,322 residents were in work at the 2021 Census; 860 people worked in Cliffe Woods.
For every person who comes in to work, about 4 residents travel out. 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.
Cliffe Woods’ commuters work from Rochester to Bexley
- Rochester35
- Gillingham26
- Chatham20
- Cliffe16
- Hoo St Werburgh9
- Gravesend7
- Countryside7
- Sittingbourne5
- Higham5
- High Halstow5
- Rochester102
- Gillingham70
- Countryside45
- Chatham41
- Gravesend41
- Dartford33
- Northfleet30
- Bexley24
- Maidstone22
- Stone17
94% of residents who travel to a workplace work outside Cliffe Woods; Rochester takes the most (102). Coming the other way, Rochester sends the most (35).
The ten places that send the most workers into Cliffe Woods, and the ten where its residents most often work (Census 2021, by home and workplace). Line width is the number of people.
303 jobs, one in six in construction
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 (860). 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 Cliffe Woods (employees and working owners, ONS Business Register and Employment Survey 2024).
Households in Cliffe Woods average £59,723 a year
Higher than 69% of UK towns of 2,500+; the typical town is £52,385. The whole council area of Medway averages £56,127.
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).
Jobless claims in the Medway council area are above England and Wales’ rate
Medway’s rate was about 2.9% in 2019, peaked at 7% in May 2020 and has averaged 4.2% 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 Medway, which Nomis publishes monthly; the figures above the line are for Cliffe Woods’ 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).
Jobs, studies and retirement in Cliffe Woods: 60% in work
Compared with England’s towns, 27% are retired (against 21%) and 2% are long-term sick or disabled (against 4%).
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.
How Cliffe Woods ranks: 332nd of 836 UK towns of 2,000 to 4,000
| # | Town | People | Jobs per worker | Work in own town | Claimants | Income | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pannal North Yorkshire | 2,530 | 0.8 | 4% | 0.6% | £71K | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 50 | Istead Rise Kent | 3,398 | 0.3 | 2% | 1.3% | £65K | A |
| … | |||||||
| 111 | Ebbsfleet Valley Kent | 2,989 | 0 | 1% | 4.5% | £75K | A |
| … | |||||||
| 115 | Dunton Green Kent | 3,241 | 0.3 | 2% | 2.4% | £67K | A |
| … | |||||||
| 330 | Hambrook and Nutbourne West Sussex | 2,752 | 0.4 | 3% | 3% | £61K | B |
| 331 | Creigiau South Glamorgan | 2,304 | 0.5 | 4% | 3.1% | £65K | B |
| 332 | Cliffe Woods Kent | 2,689 | 0.2 | 6% | 2.5% | £60K | B |
| 333 | Godstone Surrey | 2,648 | 0.6 | 6% | 2.7% | £64K | B |
| 334 | Henley-in-Arden Warwickshire | 3,001 | 1.4 | 15% | 2.3% | £58K | B |
| … | |||||||
| 836 | Maerdy Mid Glamorgan | 2,843 | 0.4 | 11% | 5.7% | £38K | 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 Cliffe Woods, and others in Kent.
Around Cliffe Woods: jobs, pay and the commute
| Town | People | Jobs | Work in own town | Claimants | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cliffe Woods | 2,689 | 303 | 6% | 2.5% | B |
| Chattenden | 2,417 | 361 | 2% | 3.8% | C+ |
| Cliffe | 2,531 | 265 | 2% | 2.5% | C+ |
| Higham | 2,642 | 1,117 | 2% | 2.5% | B+ |
| Hoo St Werburgh | 8,758 | 1,529 | 7% | 3.5% | C |
| High Halstow | 1,823 | 260 | 1% | 1.7% | B |
| Shorne | 1,038 | 1,138 | 3% | 2.2% | A− |
| Rochester | 67,279 | 30,267 | 26% | 4% | 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. Cliffe Woods 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 Medway as a whole; the claimant rate elsewhere on this page is Cliffe Woods’ built-up area, from small areas.
Questions about work in Cliffe Woods
Where do people in Cliffe Woods work?
At the 2021 Census, 6% of Cliffe Woods’ residents who travelled to work worked in the town itself; the most common other places were Rochester (102), Gillingham (70) and Chatham (41). 48% 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 Cliffe Woods?
181 people who lived elsewhere worked in Cliffe Woods at the 2021 Census, 21% of its 860 workers. The most came from Rochester (35), Gillingham (26) and Chatham (20). 638 residents travelled out the other way.
How many jobs are there in Cliffe Woods?
About 300 jobs (employees and working owners) were based in Cliffe Woods in 2024, on ONS’s Business Register and Employment Survey: 0.2 for every resident in work, against 0.7 in the typical UK town. The biggest kinds of work are building trades (about 50), education (about 50) and restaurants, cafés and pubs (about 40).
Is Cliffe Woods a good place to find work?
Cliffe Woods earns a B for jobs and income, better than 62% of UK towns on household income, the claimant rate, employment deprivation and access to jobs together. Mean household income £59,723; 2.5% of 16 to 64s claim unemployment benefits.
How do people in Cliffe Woods get to work?
87% of commuters go by car or van, 5% walk, 0% cycle and 5% take the bus or train; 23% travel under 5 km. Census 2021, taken during lockdown.
What is the average household income in Cliffe Woods?
Mean household income before tax was £59,723 in the year to March 2023 (ONS), against £52,385 in the typical UK town.
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.