Photo: David Howard · CC BY-SA 2.0A larger share of Daventry’s residents claim jobless benefits than in 80% of UK towns
3.4% of working-age residents claim jobless benefits, where the typical UK town’s rate is 2.7%. Set against UK towns, the Jobs & income grade of Daventry is C, #27 of 31 in Northamptonshire. 5,844 residents leave for work each working day, and 4,112 people come the other way.
What Daventry’s work numbers say
Fewer jobs than working residents
11,406 jobs are based in Daventry for 14,237 working residents; the typical UK town has 0.7 jobs per resident in work. Warehousing and logistics, shops and wholesale make up 27% 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. Claims across the West Northamptonshire council area have run below the national rate every month since 2015. Benefits over time ↓
Written from the data on this page: ONS Census 2021 and BRES, DWP claimant counts via Nomis, and ONS household income.
Daventry earns C for jobs and income
Taken together, its four measures make it better than 29% of UK towns: #27 of 31 in Northamptonshire.
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.
Jobless claims in the West Northamptonshire council area have run below 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 West Northamptonshire, which Nomis publishes monthly; the figures above the line are for Daventry’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).
More of Daventry’s workers leave each day than arrive
14,237 residents were in work at the 2021 Census; 12,463 people worked in Daventry.
37% 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.
Daventry’s commuters work from Northampton to Rugby
- Northampton828
- Rugby512
- Countryside368
- Coventry154
- Leicester146
- Weedon Bec95
- Long Buckby93
- Woodford Halse87
- Braunston85
- Towcester66
- Countryside1,790
- Northampton1,139
- Rugby316
- Banbury191
- Kilsby165
- Milton Keynes134
- Weedon Bec118
- Coventry110
- Badby108
- Crick104
63% of residents who travel to a workplace work outside Daventry; Northampton takes the most (1,139). Coming the other way, Northampton sends the most (828).
The ten places that send the most workers into Daventry, and the ten where its residents most often work (Census 2021, by home and workplace). Line width is the number of people.
11,406 jobs, one in seven in transport and storage
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 (12,463). 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 Daventry (employees and working owners, ONS Business Register and Employment Survey 2024).
Household income in Daventry averages £49,141
Higher than 39% of UK towns of 2,500+; the typical town is £52,385. The whole council area of West Northamptonshire averages £56,048.
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).
In Daventry, household incomes run from £44K to £55K from one neighbourhood to the next
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 Daventry; 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.
In Daventry, 18% of commuters leave the car behind
Median journey 4.6 km; typical UK town 8.4 km.
52% of journeys to work are under 5 km (3 miles), against 45% across England’s towns, and 9% are 30 km or more. Daventry 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).
Work, study, retirement: 64% of adults in Daventry 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.
Out of 262 UK towns of 19,000 to 38,000, Daventry comes 166th 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 145 | Rushden Northamptonshire | 31,689 | 1 | 27% | 3.2% | £50K | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 164 | Hucknall Nottinghamshire | 35,848 | 0.6 | 22% | 3.8% | £47K | C |
| 165 | Royton Greater Manchester | 22,997 | 0.7 | 14% | 3.8% | £43K | C |
| 166 | Daventry Northamptonshire | 27,783 | 0.8 | 37% | 3.4% | £49K | C |
| 167 | Evesham Worcestershire | 28,256 | 0.7 | 39% | 3.8% | £50K | C |
| 168 | Deal Kent | 28,992 | 0.4 | 29% | 2.8% | £51K | C |
| … | |||||||
| 262 | Skegness Lincolnshire | 20,701 | 1.1 | 53% | 6.1% | £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 Daventry, and others in Northamptonshire.
The work picture around Daventry
| Town | People | Jobs | Work in own town | Claimants | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daventry | 27,783 | 11,406 | 37% | 3.4% | C |
| Braunston | 1,519 | 333 | 7% | 2.5% | C+ |
| Long Buckby | 3,821 | 736 | 10% | 2% | B+ |
| Weedon Bec | 2,856 | 783 | 11% | 2.2% | B− |
| Kilsby | 1,341 | 3,710 | 6% | 2.1% | B+ |
| Flore | 1,452 | 401 | 2% | 1.8% | B+ |
| Onley | 1,667 | 1,134 | 12% | 1.4% | B+ |
| Crick | 2,245 | 2,463 | 13% | 2.3% | 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. Daventry 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 West Northamptonshire as a whole; the claimant rate elsewhere on this page is Daventry’s built-up area, from small areas.
Questions about work in Daventry
Where do people in Daventry work?
At the 2021 Census, 37% of Daventry’s residents who travelled to work worked in the town itself; the most common other places were Northampton (1,139), Rugby (316) and Banbury (191). 35% 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 Daventry?
4,112 people who lived elsewhere worked in Daventry at the 2021 Census, 33% of its 12,463 workers. The most came from Northampton (828), Rugby (512) and Coventry (154). 5,844 residents travelled out the other way.
How many jobs are there in Daventry?
About 11,400 jobs (employees and working owners) were based in Daventry 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 warehousing and logistics (about 1,410), shops (about 940) and wholesale (about 870).
Is Daventry a good place to find work?
Daventry earns a C for jobs and income, better than 29% of UK towns on household income, the claimant rate, employment deprivation and access to jobs together. Mean household income £49,141; 3.4% of 16 to 64s claim unemployment benefits.
How do people in Daventry get to work?
79% of commuters go by car or van, 14% walk, 3% cycle and 2% take the bus or train; 52% travel under 5 km. Census 2021, taken during lockdown.
What is the average household income in Daventry?
Mean household income before tax was £49,141 in the year to March 2023 (ONS), against £52,385 in the typical UK town. By neighbourhood it runs from £43,922 in Daventry Central to £54,956 in Daventry North.
How does Daventry compare with Northampton for jobs?
Daventry has 0.8 jobs per working resident against Northampton’s 1.1, a 3.4% claimant rate against 4.3%, and mean household income of £49,141 against £52,489.
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.