Photo: Jo and Steve Turner · CC BY-SA 2.0Welshpool has lower household incomes than 98% of UK towns
The working day brings 2,294 people in, and the town fills up. Welshpool grades D− for jobs and income against UK towns, #3 of 7 in Powys. Jobless benefit claims cover 4% of working-age residents, against 2.7% in the typical UK town.
Welshpool and work: the main findings
A local job centre
4,099 jobs are based in Welshpool for 2,447 working residents; the typical UK town has 0.7 jobs per resident in work. Shops, wholesale and restaurants, cafés and pubs make up 30% of them. Jobs based here ↓
Short journeys to work
Against 41% across Wales’ towns. 26% of commuters walk to work, about 2.5 times the share across Wales’ towns. Getting to work ↓
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.
The Jobs & income grade for Welshpool: D−
Its strongest measure is getting to jobs without a car; its weakest, household income.
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.
4,099 jobs, 23% in manufacturing
1.7 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 (3,797). 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 Welshpool (employees and working owners, ONS Business Register and Employment Survey 2024).
Walking, cycling, the bus or the train: 28% of Welshpool’s commuters
Median journey 1.9 km; typical UK town 8.4 km.
61% of journeys to work are under 5 km (3 miles), against 41% across Wales’ towns, and 13% are 30 km or more. Welshpool 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 Powys 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 Powys, which Nomis publishes monthly; the figures above the line are for Welshpool’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).
Every working day, Welshpool’s workforce grows by 55%
2,447 residents were in work at the 2021 Census; 3,797 people worked in Welshpool.
For every resident who leaves Welshpool for work, about 2 people come in. 46% 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.
Welshpool’s workers come from Newtown to Shrewsbury
- Countryside981
- Newtown172
- Guilsfield126
- Shrewsbury99
- Oswestry85
- Forden58
- Llanfair Caereinion57
- Four Crosses54
- Knighton37
- Montgomery36
- Countryside422
- Newtown117
- Shrewsbury70
- Llanfyllin21
- Telford17
- Oswestry15
- Four Crosses12
- Brecon11
- Llandrindod Wells11
- Llanfair Caereinion10
Newtown, 13 miles away, sends 172 people, more than any other town; in all, 60% of the people who work in Welshpool live outside it. Going the other way, Newtown is the biggest single destination (117).
The ten places that send the most workers into Welshpool, and the ten where its residents most often work (Census 2021, by home and workplace). Line width is the number of people.
How much households earn in Welshpool: £37,717
Higher than 3% 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).
How Welshpool spends its days: 54% of adults in work
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 4,000 to 7,000, and where Welshpool sits
| # | Town | People | Jobs per worker | Work in own town | Claimants | Income | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Moor Park Hertfordshire | 5,850 | 2.2 | 17% | 1.1% | £86K | A+ |
| 2 | Brookmans Park Hertfordshire | 4,033 | 0.9 | 7% | 1.2% | £79K | A+ |
| 3 | Girton Cambridgeshire | 4,384 | 0.8 | 7% | 1.1% | £72K | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 480 | Abertridwr and Senghenydd Gwent | 5,639 | 0.2 | 6% | 4.9% | £39K | D− |
| 481 | Hunstanton Norfolk | 4,230 | 1.3 | 28% | 3.8% | £42K | D− |
| 482 | Welshpool Powys | 5,460 | 1.7 | 46% | 4% | £38K | D− |
| 483 | Brynmawr Gwent | 5,250 | 0.7 | 11% | 3.8% | £37K | D− |
| 484 | Aberbargoed Gwent | 4,412 | 0.4 | 7% | 4.4% | £39K | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 499 | Ystradgynlais Powys | 4,032 | 0.7 | 12% | 4% | £41K | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 504 | Llandrindod Wells Powys | 5,429 | 1.6 | 55% | 5.6% | £39K | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 506 | Withernsea East Riding of Yorkshire | 5,766 | 0.7 | 35% | 5.4% | £39K | 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 Welshpool, and others in Powys.
Welshpool and its neighbours: work and income
| Town | People | Jobs | Work in own town | Claimants | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Welshpool | 5,460 | 4,099 | 46% | 4% | D− |
| Guilsfield | 1,160 | 80 | 4% | 2% | C |
| Four Crosses | 1,469 | 302 | 8% | 2% | C |
| Llanymynech | 1,040 | 162 | 2% | 1.8% | C+ |
| Llanfyllin | 1,118 | 492 | 34% | 3% | D |
| Minsterley | 1,719 | 663 | 16% | 2% | C |
| Pant | 1,173 | 159 | 5% | 2.2% | C+ |
| Pontesbury | 1,968 | 473 | 11% | 2.1% | C+ |
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. Welshpool 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 Welshpool’s built-up area, from small areas.
Questions about work in Welshpool
Where do people in Welshpool work?
At the 2021 Census, 46% of Welshpool’s residents who travelled to work worked in the town itself; the most common other places were Newtown (117), Shrewsbury (70) and Llanfyllin (21). 29% 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 Welshpool?
2,294 people who lived elsewhere worked in Welshpool at the 2021 Census, 60% of its 3,797 workers. The most came from Newtown (172), Guilsfield (126) and Shrewsbury (99). 938 residents travelled out the other way.
How many jobs are there in Welshpool?
About 4,100 jobs (employees and working owners) were based in Welshpool in 2024, on ONS’s Business Register and Employment Survey: 1.7 for every resident in work, against 0.7 in the typical UK town. The biggest kinds of work are shops (about 630), wholesale (about 310) and restaurants, cafés and pubs (about 310).
Is Welshpool a good place to find work?
Welshpool earns a D− for jobs and income, better than 4% of UK towns on household income, the claimant rate, employment deprivation and access to jobs together. Mean household income £37,717; 4% of 16 to 64s claim unemployment benefits.
How do people in Welshpool get to work?
70% of commuters go by car or van, 26% walk, 2% cycle and 1% take the bus or train; 61% travel under 5 km. Census 2021, taken during lockdown.
What is the average household income in Welshpool?
Mean household income before tax was £37,717 in the year to March 2023 (ONS), against £52,385 in the typical UK town.
How does Welshpool compare with Newtown for jobs?
Welshpool has 1.7 jobs per working resident against Newtown’s 1.5, a 4% claimant rate against 3.7%, and mean household income of £37,717 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.