War Memorial · Photo: Peter Broster · CC BY-SA 4.0Household incomes in Oadby top those of 68% of UK towns
Set against UK towns, the Jobs & income grade of Oadby is A−, #13 of 50 in Leicestershire. On a working day 5,091 residents leave for work while 3,830 people arrive. Under 3 miles is the trip to work for 40% of commuters.
What stands out about work in Oadby
Fewer jobs than working residents
6,825 jobs are based in Oadby for 10,341 working residents; the typical UK town has 0.7 jobs per resident in work. Education, shops and hospitals and health care make up 38% of them. Jobs based here ↓
More people leave for work than arrive
3,830 people come in to work and 5,091 residents go out, so Oadby loses about 1,261 workers a day. Leicester sends the most (1,661). The daily tide ↓
Written from the data on this page: ONS Census 2021 and BRES, DWP claimant counts via Nomis, and ONS household income.
Oadby earns A− for jobs and income
Better than 77% of UK towns across four measures: #13 of 50 in Leicestershire.
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.
Oadby empties a little on a working day
10,341 residents were in work at the 2021 Census; 9,044 people worked in Oadby.
13% 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 Oadby’s commuters who leave work in Leicester and the places around
- Leicester3,061
- Wigston319
- Enderby and Narborough139
- Countryside116
- Kettering84
- Market Harborough79
- Thurmaston62
- Blaby and Whetstone54
- Northampton51
- Loughborough49
87% of residents who travel to a workplace work outside Oadby; Leicester takes the most (3,061). Coming the other way, Leicester sends the most (1,661).
The ten places that send the most workers into Oadby, and the ten where its residents most often work (Census 2021, by home and workplace). Line width is the number of people.
6,825 jobs, 21% in health and social care
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 (9,044). 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 Oadby (employees and working owners, ONS Business Register and Employment Survey 2024).
Mean household income: £60,133 a year
Higher than 70% of UK towns of 2,500+; the typical town is £52,385. The whole council area of Oadby and Wigston averages £53,013.
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).
£52K to £66K: incomes from one part of Oadby to another
Mean household income before tax in each of the 3 neighbourhoods (MSOAs) mostly inside the town: the highest is 1.3 times the lowest.
Each dot is a neighbourhood (MSOA, about 8,000 people) mostly inside Oadby; 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.
One way or another, 13% of Oadby’s commuters skip the car
Median journey 6.4 km; typical UK town 8.4 km.
Oadby 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 Oadby and Wigston council area have run below England and Wales every month since 2015
Oadby and Wigston’s rate was about 1.4% in 2019, peaked at 4.8% in August 2020 and has averaged 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 Oadby and Wigston, which Nomis publishes monthly; the figures above the line are for Oadby’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).
Oadby at work: 53% of adults have a job
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.
Oadby next to UK towns of 17,000 to 32,000: 53rd of 247 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 | Knowle and Dorridge West Midlands | 19,323 | 0.6 | 13% | 1.5% | £79K | A+ |
| 3 | Sevenoaks Kent | 26,474 | 1.2 | 34% | 1.6% | £84K | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 42 | Market Harborough Leicestershire | 24,162 | 0.9 | 41% | 2% | £58K | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 51 | East Grinstead West Sussex | 26,350 | 0.8 | 35% | 2.8% | £67K | A− |
| 52 | Keynsham Somerset | 19,257 | 0.9 | 21% | 2.1% | £60K | A− |
| 53 | Oadby Leicestershire | 24,039 | 0.7 | 13% | 2.6% | £60K | A− |
| 54 | Ely Cambridgeshire | 19,185 | 1.2 | 36% | 2.3% | £65K | A− |
| 55 | Quedgeley and Hardwicke Gloucestershire | 21,125 | 1.1 | 18% | 2.4% | £60K | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 136 | Coalville Leicestershire | 21,975 | 1.1 | 27% | 2.8% | £50K | C |
| … | |||||||
| 143 | Melton Mowbray Leicestershire | 27,451 | 1 | 48% | 3.6% | £51K | C |
| … | |||||||
| 247 | Maesteg Mid Glamorgan | 18,342 | 0.4 | 23% | 3.8% | £37K | 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 Oadby, and others in Leicestershire.
Next to Oadby: how nearby places compare
| Town | People | Jobs | Work in own town | Claimants | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oadby | 24,039 | 6,825 | 13% | 2.6% | A− |
| Wigston | 34,728 | 12,631 | 21% | 3.5% | C+ |
| Great Glen | 4,062 | 877 | 6% | 2.2% | B+ |
| Leicester | 406,612 | 193,579 | 64% | 5.4% | C |
| Houghton on the Hill | 1,738 | 300 | 2% | 1.2% | A |
| Countesthorpe | 7,674 | 988 | 7% | 1.7% | A− |
| Fleckney | 4,926 | 1,300 | 12% | 2% | B |
| Blaby and Whetstone | 14,072 | 7,781 | 12% | 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. Oadby 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 Oadby and Wigston as a whole; the claimant rate elsewhere on this page is Oadby’s built-up area, from small areas.
Questions about work in Oadby
Where do people in Oadby work?
At the 2021 Census, 13% of Oadby’s residents who travelled to work worked in the town itself; the most common other places were Leicester (3,061), Wigston (319) and Enderby and Narborough (139). 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 Oadby?
3,830 people who lived elsewhere worked in Oadby at the 2021 Census, 42% of its 9,044 workers. The most came from Leicester (1,661), Wigston (675) and Great Glen (91). 5,091 residents travelled out the other way.
How many jobs are there in Oadby?
About 6,830 jobs (employees and working owners) were based in Oadby 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 education (about 900), shops (about 850) and hospitals and health care (about 830).
Is Oadby a good place to find work?
Oadby earns an A− for jobs and income, better than 77% of UK towns on household income, the claimant rate, employment deprivation and access to jobs together. Mean household income £60,133; 2.6% of 16 to 64s claim unemployment benefits.
How do people in Oadby get to work?
84% of commuters go by car or van, 7% walk, 2% cycle and 5% take the bus or train; 40% travel under 5 km. Census 2021, taken during lockdown.
What is the average household income in Oadby?
Mean household income before tax was £60,133 in the year to March 2023 (ONS), against £52,385 in the typical UK town. By neighbourhood it runs from £52,392 in Oadby South & West to £65,626 in Oadby North.
How does Oadby compare with Leicester for jobs?
Oadby has 0.7 jobs per working resident against Leicester’s 1.1, a 2.6% claimant rate against 5.4%, and mean household income of £60,133 against £45,436.
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.