The Grange · Photo: Dave.Dunford · CC BY-SA 3.0With 0.6 jobs for each resident in work, most of Chelsworth commutes out
Jobless benefits go to 2.4% of working-age residents, against 2.7% in the typical UK town. 38 residents leave for work each working day, and 18 people come the other way. Jobs and income go ungraded in Chelsworth.
What the numbers say about work in Chelsworth
Fewer jobs than working residents
57 jobs are based in Chelsworth for 101 working residents; the typical UK town has 0.7 jobs per resident in work. Wood products, shops and education make up 33% of them. Jobs based here ↓
Benefit claims close to the typical town
The typical UK town: 2.7%; England and Wales: 4% so far in 2026. Claims across the Babergh 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.
A commuter town: Chelsworth sends out more workers than it takes in
101 residents were in work at the 2021 Census; 81 people worked in Chelsworth.
For every person who comes in to work, about 2 residents travel out. 3% 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.
Most of Chelsworth’s commuters who leave work in Sudbury and the places around
- Ipswich5
- Countryside5
- Kesgrave2
- Brantham1
- Sudbury1
- Kedington1
- Woodbridge1
- Bury St Edmunds1
- Mildenhall1
- Countryside6
- Sudbury5
- Ipswich5
- Hadleigh4
- Colchester3
- Martlesham Heath2
- Elmsett2
- Great Bricett2
- Wool1
- Warminster1
97% of residents who travel to a workplace work outside Chelsworth; Sudbury takes the most (5). Coming the other way, Ipswich sends the most (5).
The ten places that send the most workers into Chelsworth, and the ten where its residents most often work (Census 2021, by home and workplace). Line width is the number of people.
57 jobs, 18% in manufacturing
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 (81). 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 Chelsworth (employees and working owners, ONS Business Register and Employment Survey 2024).
Income in Chelsworth: £54,773 per household a year
Higher than 57% of UK towns of 2,500+; the typical town is £52,385. The whole council area of Babergh averages £56,308.
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).
10% of commuters in Chelsworth go on foot, by bike or by public transport
Median journey 17.1 km; typical UK town 8.4 km.
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 Babergh council area have run below England and Wales every month since 2015
Babergh’s rate was about 1.7% in 2019, peaked at 5% in May 2020 and has averaged 2.5% 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 Babergh, which Nomis publishes monthly; the figures above the line are for Chelsworth’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).
Work in and around Chelsworth
| Town | People | Jobs | Work in own town | Claimants | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chelsworth | 212 | 57 | 3% | 2.4% | — |
| Bildeston | 1,096 | 292 | 8% | 1.8% | C+ |
| Great Bricett | 1,518 | 642 | 28% | 0.3% | A− |
| Lavenham | 1,224 | 530 | 17% | 2.7% | C |
| Hadleigh | 8,638 | 3,690 | 35% | 2.7% | C+ |
| Elmsett | 1,001 | 246 | 8% | 1.3% | B+ |
| Great Waldingfield | 1,377 | 365 | 2% | 3.5% | C+ |
| Acton | 1,666 | 139 | 3% | 1.3% | 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. Chelsworth 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 Babergh as a whole; the claimant rate elsewhere on this page is Chelsworth’s built-up area, from small areas.
Questions about work in Chelsworth
Where do people in Chelsworth work?
At the 2021 Census, 3% of Chelsworth’s residents who travelled to work worked in the village itself; the most common other places were Sudbury (5), Ipswich (5) and Hadleigh (4). 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 Chelsworth?
18 people who lived elsewhere worked in Chelsworth at the 2021 Census, 22% of its 81 workers. The most came from Ipswich (5), Kesgrave (2) and Brantham (1). 38 residents travelled out the other way.
How many jobs are there in Chelsworth?
About 60 jobs (employees and working owners) were based in Chelsworth in 2024, on ONS’s Business Register and Employment Survey: 0.6 for every resident in work, against 0.7 in the typical UK town.
How do people in Chelsworth get to work?
86% of commuters go by car or van, 8% walk, 0% cycle and 2% take the bus or train. Census 2021, taken during lockdown.
What is the average household income in Chelsworth?
Mean household income before tax was £54,773 in the year to March 2023 (ONS), against £52,385 in the typical UK town.
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.