Photo: Marathon · CC BY-SA 2.0Tonbridge’s household incomes are higher than in 80% of UK towns
2.9% of people of working age are on jobless benefits, where the typical UK town’s rate is 2.7%. Tonbridge grades B+ for jobs and income against UK towns, #23 of 87 in Kent. Short trips are common: 41% of commuters travel less than 3 miles.
What stands out about work in Tonbridge
More jobs than the typical town
15,288 jobs are based in Tonbridge for 17,461 working residents; the typical UK town has 0.7 jobs per resident in work. Education, shops and restaurants, cafés and pubs make up 35% of them. Jobs based here ↓
As many come in to work as leave
5,650 people come in to work and 5,671 residents go out, so Tonbridge loses about 21 workers a day. Royal Tunbridge Wells sends the most (759). The daily tide ↓
Written from the data on this page: ONS Census 2021 and BRES, DWP claimant counts via Nomis, and ONS household income.
Tonbridge grades B+ for jobs and income
Better than 69% of UK towns once its four measures are combined: #23 of 87 in Kent.
Its strongest measure is getting to jobs without a car; its weakest, the claimant rate.
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.
15,288 jobs, one in six in education
0.9 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 (17,400). 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 Tonbridge (employees and working owners, ONS Business Register and Employment Survey 2024).
As many come into Tonbridge to work as leave
17,461 residents were in work at the 2021 Census; 17,400 people worked in Tonbridge.
33% 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.
Tonbridge’s commuters work from Royal Tunbridge Wells to Bromley
- Royal Tunbridge Wells759
- Countryside534
- Maidstone383
- Southborough250
- Paddock Wood234
- Hildenborough195
- Larkfield194
- Sevenoaks153
- Hadlow142
- Kings Hill121
- Royal Tunbridge Wells814
- Countryside693
- Sevenoaks498
- Pembury282
- Maidstone259
- Hildenborough216
- Paddock Wood177
- Bromley164
- Larkfield136
- Westminster125
67% of residents who travel to a workplace work outside Tonbridge; Royal Tunbridge Wells takes the most (814). Coming the other way, Royal Tunbridge Wells sends the most (759).
The ten places that send the most workers into Tonbridge, and the ten where its residents most often work (Census 2021, by home and workplace). Line width is the number of people.
Household income in Tonbridge averages £65,061
Higher than 81% of UK towns of 2,500+; the typical town is £52,385. The whole council area of Tonbridge and Malling averages £66,819.
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).
From £56K to £69K: household incomes within Tonbridge
Mean household income before tax in each of the 4 neighbourhoods (MSOAs) mostly inside the town: the highest is 1.2 times the lowest.
Each dot is a neighbourhood (MSOA, about 8,000 people) mostly inside Tonbridge; names from the House of Commons Library. ONS gives each a 95% range of roughly ±£7K to ±£10K, so neighbourhoods close together on the strip may not really differ.
Car-free commutes: 28% of workers in Tonbridge
Median journey 7.3 km; typical UK town 8.4 km.
Tonbridge 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 Tonbridge and Malling council area have run below England and Wales every month since 2015
Tonbridge and Malling’s rate was about 1.2% in 2019, peaked at 4.4% in May 2020 and has averaged 2.5% 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 Tonbridge and Malling, which Nomis publishes monthly; the figures above the line are for Tonbridge’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).
How Tonbridge spends its days: 61% of adults in work
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.
Out of 198 UK towns of 25,000 to 49,000, Tonbridge comes 49th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Jobs per worker | Work in own town | Claimants | Income | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harpenden Hertfordshire | 30,964 | 0.8 | 30% | 1.5% | £92K | A+ |
| 2 | Sevenoaks Kent | 26,474 | 1.2 | 34% | 1.6% | £84K | A+ |
| 3 | Chandler's Ford Hampshire | 31,965 | 1 | 18% | 1.6% | £72K | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 47 | Chippenham Wiltshire | 36,084 | 0.9 | 39% | 2.4% | £61K | B+ |
| 48 | Horndean Hampshire | 34,046 | 0.3 | 12% | 2.2% | £61K | B+ |
| 49 | Tonbridge Kent | 36,136 | 0.9 | 33% | 2.9% | £65K | B+ |
| 50 | Hoddesdon Hertfordshire | 40,615 | 0.9 | 26% | 2.9% | £63K | B+ |
| 51 | Larkfield Kent | 26,147 | 1.2 | 17% | 2.7% | £62K | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 77 | Whitstable Kent | 32,185 | 0.8 | 31% | 2.8% | £56K | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 106 | Broadstairs Kent | 25,780 | 1 | 27% | 3.5% | £52K | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 198 | Bridlington East Riding of Yorkshire | 34,831 | 0.7 | 46% | 5% | £33K | 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 Tonbridge, and others in Kent.
Jobs and income in the places around Tonbridge
| Town | People | Jobs | Work in own town | Claimants | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tonbridge | 36,136 | 15,288 | 33% | 2.9% | B+ |
| Hildenborough | 4,943 | 1,091 | 9% | 1.4% | A+ |
| Leigh | 1,104 | 293 | 9% | 1.9% | A |
| Hadlow | 3,168 | 708 | 8% | 2.6% | C+ |
| Southborough | 9,632 | 2,411 | 10% | 2.8% | B+ |
| Five Oak Green | 1,436 | 284 | 3% | 2.2% | B+ |
| Plaxtol | 1,137 | 204 | 6% | 1% | A |
| Pembury | 5,783 | 4,300 | 22% | 1.8% | 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. Tonbridge 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 Tonbridge and Malling as a whole; the claimant rate elsewhere on this page is Tonbridge’s built-up area, from small areas.
Questions about work in Tonbridge
Where do people in Tonbridge work?
At the 2021 Census, 33% of Tonbridge’s residents who travelled to work worked in the town itself; the most common other places were Royal Tunbridge Wells (814), Sevenoaks (498) and Pembury (282). 52% 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 Tonbridge?
5,650 people who lived elsewhere worked in Tonbridge at the 2021 Census, 32% of its 17,400 workers. The most came from Royal Tunbridge Wells (759), Maidstone (383) and Southborough (250). 5,671 residents travelled out the other way.
How many jobs are there in Tonbridge?
About 15,300 jobs (employees and working owners) were based in Tonbridge in 2024, on ONS’s Business Register and Employment Survey: 0.9 for every resident in work, against 0.7 in the typical UK town. The biggest kinds of work are education (about 2,440), shops (about 1,850) and restaurants, cafés and pubs (about 950).
Is Tonbridge a good place to find work?
Tonbridge earns a B+ for jobs and income, better than 69% of UK towns on household income, the claimant rate, employment deprivation and access to jobs together. Mean household income £65,061; 2.9% of 16 to 64s claim unemployment benefits.
How do people in Tonbridge get to work?
70% of commuters go by car or van, 16% walk, 2% cycle and 10% take the bus or train; 41% travel under 5 km. Census 2021, taken during lockdown.
What is the average household income in Tonbridge?
Mean household income before tax was £65,061 in the year to March 2023 (ONS), against £52,385 in the typical UK town. By neighbourhood it runs from £56,068 in Tonbridge Trench Wood to £68,910 in Tonbridge Higham Wood.
How does Tonbridge compare with Maidstone for jobs?
Tonbridge has 0.9 jobs per working resident against Maidstone’s 1.1, a 2.9% claimant rate against 4.1%, and mean household income of £65,061 against £58,325.
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.