Photo: Len Williams · CC BY-SA 2.0Household incomes in Lambeth top those of 94% of UK towns
Jobless benefit claims cover 6.1% of working-age residents (the typical UK town: 2.7%). Measured against other UK towns, jobs and pay in Lambeth rate B, #19 of 33 in London. Under 3 miles is the trip to work for 44% of commuters.
Where Lambeth stands out on work
More jobs than the typical town
160,584 jobs are based in Lambeth for 182,677 working residents; the typical UK town has 0.7 jobs per resident in work. Hospitals and health care, restaurants, cafés and pubs and shops make up 33% of them. Jobs based here ↓
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.
The Jobs & income grade for Lambeth: B
Better than 59% of UK towns on four measures taken together: #19 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.
160,584 jobs, one in four in health and social care
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 (186,233). 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 Lambeth (employees and working owners, ONS Business Register and Employment Survey 2024).
Jobless claims in the Lambeth council area have run above 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 Lambeth, which Nomis publishes monthly; the figures above the line are for Lambeth’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 Lambeth to work as leave
182,677 residents were in work at the 2021 Census; 186,233 people worked in Lambeth.
22% 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.
Lambeth’s workers come from Southwark to Bromley
- Southwark8,762
- Croydon6,146
- Wandsworth4,567
- Lewisham4,362
- Bromley3,019
- Merton2,667
- Greenwich2,166
- Newham1,533
- Sutton1,438
- Tower Hamlets1,369
- Westminster10,338
- Wandsworth7,219
- Southwark6,902
- Camden3,801
- City of London3,418
- Kensington and Chelsea3,140
- Croydon2,514
- Hammersmith and Fulham1,701
- Tower Hamlets1,689
- Merton1,583
Southwark, 2 miles away, sends 8,762 people, more than any other town; in all, 32% of the people who work in Lambeth live outside it. Going the other way, Westminster is the biggest single destination (10,338).
The ten places that send the most workers into Lambeth, and the ten where its residents most often work (Census 2021, by home and workplace). Line width is the number of people.
The average household in Lambeth has £73,838 a year
Higher than 93% of UK towns of 2,500+; the typical town is £52,385. The whole council area of Lambeth averages £73,856.
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).
Household incomes across Lambeth: £60K to £97K
Mean household income before tax in each of the 35 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 Lambeth; 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, 55% of Lambeth’s commuters skip the car
Median journey 5.8 km; typical UK town 8.4 km.
Lambeth 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).
68% of people 16 and over in Lambeth are 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.
Lambeth places 10th of 39 on jobs and income among UK towns of 222,000 to 428,000
| # | 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 | Bexley London | 246,074 | 0.6 | 33% | 3.5% | £76K | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 8 | Redbridge London | 309,509 | 0.6 | 24% | 6.1% | £74K | B |
| 9 | Hounslow London | 286,591 | 1.2 | 32% | 5.2% | £73K | B |
| 10 | Lambeth London | 317,108 | 0.9 | 22% | 6.1% | £74K | B |
| 11 | Southwark London | 307,076 | 1.8 | 25% | 5.7% | £74K | B |
| 12 | Ealing London | 367,271 | 0.7 | 32% | 6.8% | £71K | B |
| … | |||||||
| 39 | Stoke-on-Trent Staffordshire | 260,560 | 1.1 | 64% | 5.5% | £41K | 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 Lambeth, and others in London.
Jobs near Lambeth: the places around it
| Town | People | Jobs | Work in own town | Claimants | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lambeth | 317,108 | 160,584 | 22% | 6.1% | B |
| Southwark | 307,076 | 296,540 | 25% | 5.7% | B |
| Wandsworth | 326,725 | 130,177 | 26% | 4.1% | A− |
| Lewisham | 300,764 | 69,881 | 25% | 6.8% | B− |
| City of London | 7,820 | 670,951 | 30% | 2.2% | A+ |
| Merton | 214,931 | 79,754 | 24% | 4.6% | B+ |
| Kensington and Chelsea | 143,348 | 127,825 | 27% | 3.4% | B+ |
| Westminster | 203,571 | 836,874 | 42% | 4.2% | 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. Lambeth 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 Lambeth as a whole; the claimant rate elsewhere on this page is Lambeth’s built-up area, from small areas.
Questions about work in Lambeth
Where do people in Lambeth work?
At the 2021 Census, 22% of Lambeth’s residents who travelled to work worked in the borough itself; the most common other places were Westminster (10,338), Wandsworth (7,219) and Southwark (6,902). 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 Lambeth?
59,391 people who lived elsewhere worked in Lambeth at the 2021 Census, 32% of its 186,233 workers. The most came from Southwark (8,762), Croydon (6,146) and Wandsworth (4,567). 55,233 residents travelled out the other way.
How many jobs are there in Lambeth?
About 160,600 jobs (employees and working owners) were based in Lambeth 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 hospitals and health care (about 27,900), restaurants, cafés and pubs (about 12,700) and shops (about 12,300).
Is Lambeth a good place to find work?
Lambeth earns a B for jobs and income, better than 59% of UK towns on household income, the claimant rate, employment deprivation and access to jobs together. Mean household income £73,838; 6.1% of 16 to 64s claim unemployment benefits.
How do people in Lambeth get to work?
20% of commuters go by car or van, 12% walk, 11% cycle and 33% take the bus or train; 44% travel under 5 km. Census 2021, taken during lockdown.
What is the average household income in Lambeth?
Mean household income before tax was £73,838 in the year to March 2023 (ONS), against £52,385 in the typical UK town. By neighbourhood it runs from £59,682 in Loughborough Road to £97,178 in Clapham South.
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.