Photo: john bristow · CC BY-SA 2.0Household incomes in Machynlleth are lower than in 90% of UK towns
UK towns are the yardstick, and by them Machynlleth earns D− on jobs and income. 4.4% of working-age residents claim jobless benefits, next to 2.7% in the typical UK town. Every working day 564 people travel in to work, so the village fills up.
Work in Machynlleth: the figures worth knowing
A local job centre
1,250 jobs are based in Machynlleth for 1,013 working residents; the typical UK town has 0.7 jobs per resident in work. Road and rail transport, shops and hospitals and health care make up 25% 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 Powys 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.
Machynlleth earns D− for jobs and income
Taken together, its four measures make it better than 2% of UK towns.
Its strongest measure is employment deprivation; 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.
1,250 jobs, one in six in transport and storage
1.2 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 (1,230). 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. Wales’ towns: all jobs in its built-up areas.
Jobs at workplaces in Machynlleth (employees and working owners, ONS Business Register and Employment Survey 2024).
Jobless claims in the Powys council area have run below England and Wales every month since 2015
Powys’ rate was about 1.5% in 2019, peaked at 4.9% in May 2020 and has averaged 2.6% 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 Powys, which Nomis publishes monthly; the figures above the line are for Machynlleth’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 (Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation 2025). The “most deprived tenth” compares areas within Wales 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).
Machynlleth fills up on a working day: 21% more workers
1,013 residents were in work at the 2021 Census; 1,230 people worked in Machynlleth.
For every resident who leaves Machynlleth for work, about 2 people come in. 40% of residents who travel to a workplace stay in the village; 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 village or from home.
Machynlleth’s workers come from Tywyn to Newtown
- Countryside336
- Tywyn34
- Aberystwyth25
- Bow Street10
- Borth9
- Newtown8
- Dolgellau7
- Aberdovey6
- Bryncrug6
- Barmouth6
- Countryside95
- Aberystwyth63
- Newtown32
- Tywyn23
- Llandrindod Wells19
- Welshpool13
- Llanbadarn Fawr9
- Llanfair Caereinion7
- Dolgellau6
- Brecon5
Tywyn, 10 miles away, sends 34 people, more than any other town; in all, 46% of the people who work in Machynlleth live outside it. Going the other way, Aberystwyth is the biggest single destination (63).
The ten places that send the most workers into Machynlleth, and the ten where its residents most often work (Census 2021, by home and workplace). Line width is the number of people.
An average of £41,673 a year per household in Machynlleth
Higher than 12% of UK towns of 2,500+; the typical town is £52,385. The whole council area of Powys averages £42,376.
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).
One way or another, 38% of Machynlleth’s commuters skip the car
Median journey 14.9 km; typical UK town 8.4 km.
42% of journeys to work are under 5 km (3 miles), against 41% across Wales’ towns, and 29% are 30 km or more. Machynlleth 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).
56% of people 16 and over in Machynlleth are in work
Compared with Wales’ towns, 3% are full-time students (against 8%) and 28% are retired (against 24%).
ONS Census 2021, tables TS066 (economic activity) and TS063 (occupation), output areas summed to the built-up area. Wales’ 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.
UK towns of 2,000 to 3,000, and where Machynlleth sits
| # | Town | People | Jobs per worker | Work in own town | Claimants | Income | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pannal North Yorkshire | 2,530 | 0.8 | 4% | 0.6% | £71K | A+ |
| 2 | Limpsfield Surrey | 2,247 | 0.9 | 8% | 1.1% | £84K | A+ |
| 3 | Woodford Greater Manchester | 2,241 | 0.6 | 1% | 1.6% | £72K | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 356 | Crickhowell Powys | 2,108 | 0.9 | 24% | 2% | £51K | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 465 | Hay-on-Wye Powys | 2,065 | 1.5 | 44% | 2.3% | £43K | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 471 | Llanidloes Powys | 2,197 | 0.9 | 37% | 1.9% | £42K | D |
| … | |||||||
| 527 | Meden Vale Nottinghamshire | 2,095 | 0.2 | 4% | 4.3% | £41K | D− |
| 528 | Cwm Gwent | 2,507 | 0.3 | 5% | 3.6% | £39K | D− |
| 529 | Machynlleth Powys | 2,161 | 1.2 | 40% | 4.4% | £42K | D− |
| 530 | Lampeter Dyfed | 2,505 | 1.8 | 36% | 4% | £41K | D− |
| 531 | Chopwell Tyne and Wear | 2,530 | 0.3 | 5% | 6% | £42K | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 542 | Maerdy Mid Glamorgan | 2,843 | 0.4 | 11% | 5.7% | £38K | 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 Machynlleth, and others in Powys.
Work next door to Machynlleth
| Town | People | Jobs | Work in own town | Claimants | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Machynlleth | 2,161 | 1,250 | 40% | 4.4% | D− |
| Tywyn | 3,134 | 850 | 47% | 3.2% | D− |
| Dolgellau | 2,599 | 2,150 | 55% | 2.9% | D |
| Borth | 1,115 | 265 | 8% | 2.9% | D |
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. Machynlleth 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 Powys as a whole; the claimant rate elsewhere on this page is Machynlleth’s built-up area, from small areas.
Questions about work in Machynlleth
Where do people in Machynlleth work?
At the 2021 Census, 40% of Machynlleth’s residents who travelled to work worked in the village itself; the most common other places were Aberystwyth (63), Newtown (32) and Tywyn (23). 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 Machynlleth?
564 people who lived elsewhere worked in Machynlleth at the 2021 Census, 46% of its 1,230 workers. The most came from Tywyn (34), Aberystwyth (25) and Bow Street (10). 346 residents travelled out the other way.
How many jobs are there in Machynlleth?
About 1,250 jobs (employees and working owners) were based in Machynlleth in 2024, on ONS’s Business Register and Employment Survey: 1.2 for every resident in work, against 0.7 in the typical UK town. The biggest kinds of work are road and rail transport (about 100), shops (about 70) and hospitals and health care (about 70).
Is Machynlleth a good place to find work?
Machynlleth earns a D− for jobs and income, better than 2% of UK towns on household income, the claimant rate, employment deprivation and access to jobs together. Mean household income £41,673; 4.4% of 16 to 64s claim unemployment benefits.
How do people in Machynlleth get to work?
59% of commuters go by car or van, 31% walk, 3% cycle and 4% take the bus or train; 42% travel under 5 km. Census 2021, taken during lockdown.
What is the average household income in Machynlleth?
Mean household income before tax was £41,673 in the year to March 2023 (ONS), against £52,385 in the typical UK town.
How does Machynlleth compare with Newtown for jobs?
Machynlleth has 1.2 jobs per working resident against Newtown’s 1.5, a 4.4% claimant rate against 3.7%, and mean household income of £41,673 against £38,475.
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) · Welsh Government, Welsh Index of Multiple 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.