Photo: Trevor Harris · CC BY-SA 2.0Barnet has higher household incomes than 97% of UK towns
UK towns are the yardstick, and by them Barnet earns B on jobs and income, #12 of 33 in London. The claimant rate is 5.1% of working-age residents, against 2.7% in the typical UK town. 52,416 residents travel out to work and 37,842 people come in.
The work figures that set Barnet apart
Longer journeys to work
Against 45% across England’s towns. 9% of commuters walk to work (11% across England’s towns). Getting to work ↓
More benefit claims than most towns
The typical UK town: 2.7%; England and Wales: 4% so far in 2026. Benefits over time ↓
Written from the data on this page: ONS Census 2021 and BRES, DWP claimant counts via Nomis, and ONS household income.
Barnet earns B for jobs and income
Its four measures together rank it better than 64% of UK towns: #12 of 33 in London.
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.
In Barnet, 29% of commuters leave the car behind
Median journey 7.4 km; typical UK town 8.4 km.
36% of journeys to work are under 5 km (3 miles), against 45% across England’s towns, and 3% are 30 km or more. Barnet 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 Barnet council area are above England and Wales’ rate
Barnet’s rate was about 2.1% in 2019, peaked at 7.5% in February 2021 and has averaged 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 Barnet, which Nomis publishes monthly; the figures above the line are for Barnet’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).
A commuter town: Barnet sends out more workers than it takes in
186,027 residents were in work at the 2021 Census; 170,668 people worked in Barnet.
33% of residents who travel to a workplace stay in the borough; 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 borough or from home.
Barnet’s commuters work from Camden to Harrow
- Enfield5,655
- Brent5,050
- Harrow3,535
- Haringey2,669
- Borehamwood1,395
- Camden1,199
- Islington969
- Watford894
- Ealing839
- Potters Bar720
- Camden7,901
- Westminster6,854
- Brent5,248
- Enfield3,790
- Haringey3,173
- Islington2,676
- Harrow1,921
- City of London1,872
- Kensington and Chelsea1,498
- Ealing1,137
67% of residents who travel to a workplace work outside Barnet; Camden takes the most (7,901). Coming the other way, Enfield sends the most (5,655).
The ten places that send the most workers into Barnet, and the ten where its residents most often work (Census 2021, by home and workplace). Line width is the number of people.
141,226 jobs, one in six in health and social care
0.8 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 (170,668). 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 Barnet (employees and working owners, ONS Business Register and Employment Survey 2024).
The mean household in Barnet has £78,135 before tax
The whole council area of Barnet averages £78,148.
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).
The spread of household incomes in Barnet: £60K to £95K
Mean household income before tax in each of the 42 neighbourhoods (MSOAs) mostly inside the borough: the highest is 1.6 times the lowest.
Each dot is a neighbourhood (MSOA, about 8,000 people) mostly inside Barnet; 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.
Work, study, retirement: 60% of adults in Barnet are in work
Compared with England’s towns, 15% are retired (against 21%).
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.
Barnet places 3rd of 29 on jobs and income among UK towns of 272,000 to 525,000
| # | Town | People | Jobs per worker | Work in own town | Claimants | Income | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bromley London | 325,469 | 0.7 | 40% | 3.5% | £87K | A− |
| 2 | Wandsworth London | 326,725 | 0.7 | 26% | 4.1% | £85K | A− |
| 3 | Barnet London | 388,572 | 0.8 | 33% | 5.1% | £78K | B |
| 4 | Hillingdon London | 307,089 | 1.4 | 44% | 5.3% | £75K | B |
| 5 | Redbridge London | 309,509 | 0.6 | 24% | 6.1% | £74K | B |
| 6 | Hounslow London | 286,591 | 1.2 | 32% | 5.2% | £73K | B |
| 7 | Lambeth London | 317,108 | 0.9 | 22% | 6.1% | £74K | B |
| 8 | Southwark London | 307,076 | 1.8 | 25% | 5.7% | £74K | B |
| … | |||||||
| 29 | Bradford West Yorkshire | 333,968 | 1.1 | 62% | 9.1% | £43K | C− |
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 Barnet, and others in London.
How the places next to Barnet compare on work
| Town | People | Jobs | Work in own town | Claimants | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barnet | 388,572 | 141,226 | 33% | 5.1% | B |
| Brent | 340,611 | 130,117 | 30% | 7.4% | B− |
| Borehamwood | 39,760 | 19,265 | 25% | 4.4% | B− |
| Elstree | 1,737 | 2,500 | 3% | 3.2% | B+ |
| Haringey | 264,069 | 78,046 | 20% | 7.3% | B− |
| Camden | 209,342 | 446,504 | 34% | 4.8% | B |
| Harrow | 260,534 | 74,509 | 25% | 4.9% | B+ |
| Islington | 216,309 | 270,267 | 23% | 5.6% | 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. Barnet 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 Barnet as a whole; the claimant rate elsewhere on this page is Barnet’s built-up area, from small areas.
Questions about work in Barnet
Where do people in Barnet work?
At the 2021 Census, 33% of Barnet’s residents who travelled to work worked in the borough itself; the most common other places were Camden (7,901), Westminster (6,854) and Brent (5,248). 57% 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 Barnet?
37,842 people who lived elsewhere worked in Barnet at the 2021 Census, 22% of its 170,668 workers. The most came from Enfield (5,655), Brent (5,050) and Harrow (3,535). 52,416 residents travelled out the other way.
How many jobs are there in Barnet?
About 141,250 jobs (employees and working owners) were based in Barnet in 2024, on ONS’s Business Register and Employment Survey: 0.8 for every resident in work, against 0.7 in the typical UK town. The biggest kinds of work are education (about 15,200), shops (about 14,750) and hospitals and health care (about 13,250).
Is Barnet a good place to find work?
Barnet earns a B for jobs and income, better than 64% of UK towns on household income, the claimant rate, employment deprivation and access to jobs together. Mean household income £78,135; 5.1% of 16 to 64s claim unemployment benefits.
How do people in Barnet get to work?
47% of commuters go by car or van, 9% walk, 2% cycle and 19% take the bus or train; 36% travel under 5 km. Census 2021, taken during lockdown.
What is the average household income in Barnet?
Mean household income before tax was £78,135 in the year to March 2023 (ONS), against £52,385 in the typical UK town. By neighbourhood it runs from £59,921 in Burnt Oak & Watling Park to £94,778 in High Barnet & Hadley.
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.