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Bletchingley Church in September 2010Photo: Gareth Williams · CC BY 2.0
B+Jobs & income Grade
Work & commute in Bletchingley · ONS, DWP · claims to August 2026

Bletchingley has higher household incomes than 91% of UK towns

449 residents leave for work each working day, and 113 people come the other way. Measured against other UK towns, jobs and pay in Bletchingley rate B+. Short trips are common: 27% of commuters travel less than 3 miles.

What stands out · In brief

Jobs and income in Bletchingley: what the figures say

Fewer jobs than working residents

495 jobs are based in Bletchingley for 1,112 working residents; the typical UK town has 0.7 jobs per resident in work. Hospitals and health care, education and building trades make up 35% of them. Jobs based here ↓

Longer journeys to work

Against 45% across England’s towns. 6% of commuters walk to work (11% across England’s towns). Getting to work ↓

Written from the data on this page: ONS Census 2021 and BRES, DWP claimant counts via Nomis, and ONS household income.

Jobs & income Grade

Jobs & income in Bletchingley: graded B+

With four measures combined, it comes out better than 71% of UK towns.

Access to jobs without a car 52 / 100 · DfT connectivity by public transport, walking and cyclingBetter than 74% of UK towns
Mean household income £71,418 · before tax, ONS, year to March 2023Better than 91% of UK towns
Claimant rate, 16 to 64 2.4% · DWP claimant count, January to August 2026Better than 48% of UK towns
Employment deprivation 11% · out of work through unemployment, sickness or caring, IoD 2025Better than 39% of UK towns

Its strongest measure is household income; its weakest, employment deprivation.

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.

Getting to work

How Bletchingley gets to work: 13% without a car

Median journey 8.5 km; typical UK town 8.4 km.

Drive77%Surrey 69% · England 64%
Passenger7%Surrey 5% · England 6%
Walk6%Surrey 11% · England 11%
Cycle1%Surrey 3% · England 3%
Bus3%Surrey 3% · England 6%
Train3%Surrey 6% · England 3%
Other4%Surrey 4% · England 6%
BletchingleySurrey’s townsEngland’s towns
How far they travel England’s towns
8%
Under 2 km
20%
2–5 km
32%
5–10 km
26%
10–20 km
7%
20–30 km
3%
30–40 km
3%
40–60 km
2%
60 km +

Bletchingley grades C+ 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).

The daily tide

On a working day, Bletchingley loses more workers than it gains

1,112 residents were in work at the 2021 Census; 773 people worked in Bletchingley.

Live in Bletchingley1,112 in work
44923640
Work in Bletchingley773 people
11323637
Commute in · 113Commute out · 449Live and work here · 23At home or no fixed place · 637

For every person who comes in to work, about 4 residents travel out. 5% 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.

On the map

Bletchingley’s commuters work from Redhill to Croydon

Redhill: 16 commute inSouth Merstham: 10 commute inHorley: 9 commute inCroydon: 6 commute inReigate: 5 commute inRedhillHorleyCroydonReigateRedhill: 68 residents work thereReigate: 30 residents work thereCaterham: 29 residents work thereCroydon: 27 residents work thereOxted: 25 residents work thereSutton: 20 residents work thereCrawley: 19 residents work thereSouth Merstham: 18 residents work thereNutfield: 14 residents work thereRedhillReigateCaterhamCroydonOxtedSuttonCrawleyBletchingley2 miles
Grey dots: where people live (Census 2021). Places drawn centre to centre; flows under 5 people are listed, not drawn.
Where Bletchingley’s workers live
  1. Countryside18
  2. Redhill16
  3. South Merstham10
  4. Horley9
  5. Croydon6
  6. Reigate5
  7. Oxted4
  8. Lingfield3
  9. South Godstone3
  10. Godstone3
Where residents work, outside Bletchingley
  1. Redhill68
  2. Countryside42
  3. Reigate30
  4. Caterham29
  5. Croydon27
  6. Oxted25
  7. Sutton20
  8. Crawley19
  9. South Merstham18
  10. Nutfield14

95% of residents who travel to a workplace work outside Bletchingley; Redhill takes the most (68). Coming the other way, Redhill sends the most (16).

The ten places that send the most workers into Bletchingley, and the ten where its residents most often work (Census 2021, by home and workplace). Line width is the number of people.

Jobs based here

495 jobs, one in five in health and social care

0.4 for every working resident; the typical UK town has 0.7.

The six biggest kinds of work
130Hospitals and health care17% of jobs · England 9%1.9× England’s share
80Education10% of jobs · England 9%
70Building trades8% of jobs · England 3%3.1× England’s share
70Restaurants, cafés and pubs8% of jobs · England 6%
60Property7% of jobs · England 2%3.1× England’s share
40Cleaning and grounds maintenance5% of jobs · England 2%2× England’s share
Share of jobs by industry England’s towns
Health and social care20%
Hotels, pubs and restaurants11%
Construction11%
Education10%
Business administration and support9%
Property7%
Professional, scientific and technical7%
Manufacturing6%
Arts, leisure and other services4%
Retail4%

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 (773). 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 Bletchingley (employees and working owners, ONS Business Register and Employment Survey 2024).

Household income

Before tax, households in Bletchingley average £71,418

Higher than 90% of UK towns of 2,500+; the typical town is £52,385. The whole council area of Tandridge averages £70,313.

Bletchingley £71KTypical UK town £52K
£50K£55K£60K£65K£70K£75K

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).

Benefits over time

Jobless claims in the Tandridge council area have run below England and Wales every month since 2015

0%2%4%6%201520172019202120232025First lockdownCensus dayEngland & Wales 4%South East 3.1%Tandridge 2.5%
Tandridge (council area)South EastEngland and Wales

Tandridge’s rate was about 1.2% in 2019, peaked at 4.5% in August 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.

Claimant rate
2.4%
of 16 to 64s in the built-up area, January to August 2026
33 people in August 2026 · typical UK town 2.7%
Employment deprivation
11%
of 18 to 66s out of work through unemployment, sickness, disability or caring
IoD 2025
Income deprivation
20%
of residents in low-income households on means-tested benefits
In the most deprived tenth
0%
of residents live in England’s most employment-deprived 10% of areas

The chart is the whole council area of Tandridge, which Nomis publishes monthly; the figures above the line are for Bletchingley’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).

What residents do

59% of adults in Bletchingley are in work

Bletchingley
58%22%
England’s towns
56%21%
In workStudents in workUnemployedStudentsRetiredLong-term sick or disabledLooking after home or familyOther

The mix is close to England’s towns’ as a whole.

Residents in work, by occupation points above or below England’s towns
Managers, directors and senior officials18%+5.3
Professional occupations18%−1.9
Associate professional and technical occupations15%+2.1
Administrative and secretarial occupations11%+1.3
Skilled trades occupations11%+0.7
Caring, leisure and other service occupations10%+0.5
Sales and customer service occupations5%−2.3
Process, plant and machine operatives4%−3.3
Elementary occupations8%−2.5

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.

Towns its size

Bletchingley places 163rd of 542 on jobs and income among UK towns of 2,000 to 3,000

#TownPeopleJobs per workerWork in own townClaimantsIncomeGrade
1Pannal North Yorkshire2,5300.84%0.6%£71KA+
2Limpsfield Surrey2,2470.98%1.1%£84KA+
3Woodford Greater Manchester2,2410.61%1.6%£72KA+
…
5Shalford Surrey2,5080.84%1.8%£76KA+
…
9Woldingham Surrey2,2230.74%0.8%£73KA+
…
161Yarnfield Staffordshire2,1440.63%1.5%£59KB+
162Saughall Cheshire2,6550.43%1.8%£57KB+
163Bletchingley Surrey2,3720.45%2.4%£71KB+
164Cotford St Luke Somerset2,4110.23%1.3%£60KB+
165Pen-y-fai Mid Glamorgan2,3011.44%1.3%£55KB+
…
542Maerdy Mid Glamorgan2,8430.411%5.7%£38KD−

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 Bletchingley, and others in Surrey.

Neighbours

Neighbouring places to Bletchingley, compared

TownPeopleJobsWork in own townClaimantsGrade
Bletchingley2,3724955%2.4%B+
Godstone2,6488286%2.7%B
South Nutfield1,9511,0444%2.1%A−
South Merstham9,9533,27311%3.2%B+
Chaldon1,4413482%1.7%A
South Godstone1,5251753%2%B+
Redhill32,51620,52533%2.6%A
Caterham22,7577,26621%3.1%B+

Jobs based in each place, commuters who stay in their own town, and the claimant rate.

How to read these numbers

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. Bletchingley 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 Tandridge as a whole; the claimant rate elsewhere on this page is Bletchingley’s built-up area, from small areas.

Questions about work in Bletchingley

Where do people in Bletchingley work?

At the 2021 Census, 5% of Bletchingley’s residents who travelled to work worked in the village itself; the most common other places were Redhill (68), Reigate (30) and Caterham (29). 57% 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 Bletchingley?

113 people who lived elsewhere worked in Bletchingley at the 2021 Census, 15% of its 773 workers. The most came from Redhill (16), South Merstham (10) and Horley (9). 449 residents travelled out the other way.

How many jobs are there in Bletchingley?

About 500 jobs (employees and working owners) were based in Bletchingley in 2024, on ONS’s Business Register and Employment Survey: 0.4 for every resident in work, against 0.7 in the typical UK town. The biggest kinds of work are hospitals and health care (about 130), education (about 80) and building trades (about 70).

Is Bletchingley a good place to find work?

Bletchingley earns a B+ for jobs and income, better than 71% of UK towns on household income, the claimant rate, employment deprivation and access to jobs together. Mean household income £71,418; 2.4% of 16 to 64s claim unemployment benefits.

How do people in Bletchingley get to work?

84% of commuters go by car or van, 6% walk, 1% cycle and 6% take the bus or train; 27% travel under 5 km. Census 2021, taken during lockdown.

What is the average household income in Bletchingley?

Mean household income before tax was £71,418 in the year to March 2023 (ONS), against £52,385 in the typical UK town.

How does Bletchingley compare with Guildford for jobs?

Bletchingley has 0.4 jobs per working resident against Guildford’s 1.6, a 2.4% claimant rate against 2.2%, and mean household income of £71,418 against £69,856.

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.