Photo: Hassocks5489 · CC0With 0.4 jobs for each resident in work, most of Busbridge commutes out
For 42% of residents who travel to work, the journey is under 3 miles. Every working day 97 people travel in to work, so the village fills up. Busbridge has no Jobs & income Grade.
The work figures that set Busbridge apart
Journeys to work
Against 45% across England’s towns. 7% of commuters walk to work (11% across England’s towns). Getting to work ↓
Fewer benefit claims than most towns
The typical UK town: 2.7%; England and Wales: 4% so far in 2026. Claims across the Waverley 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.
Jobless claims in the Waverley council area have run below England and Wales every month since 2015
Waverley’s rate was about 0.8% in 2019, peaked at 3.4% in May 2020 and has averaged 1.9% 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 Waverley, which Nomis publishes monthly; the figures above the line are for Busbridge’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).
Every working day, Busbridge’s workforce grows by 24%
163 residents were in work at the 2021 Census; 202 people worked in Busbridge.
For every resident who leaves Busbridge for work, about 2 people come in.
The middle of each bar is the same people: residents who work in the village or from home.
Busbridge’s workers come from Godalming to Guildford
Godalming, 1 miles away, sends 34 people, more than any other town; in all, 48% of the people who work in Busbridge live outside it. Going the other way, Godalming is the biggest single destination (12).
The ten places that send the most workers into Busbridge, and the ten where its residents most often work (Census 2021, by home and workplace). Line width is the number of people.
57 jobs, 19% in education
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 (202). 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 Busbridge (employees and working owners, ONS Business Register and Employment Survey 2024).
The mean household in Busbridge has £85,576 before tax
Higher than 99% of UK towns of 2,500+; the typical town is £52,385. The whole council area of Waverley averages £72,813.
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).
Car-free commutes: 7% of workers in Busbridge
Median journey 6.5 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).
Retirement is the main occupation for 31% of adults in Busbridge
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.
Next to Busbridge: how nearby places compare
| Town | People | Jobs | Work in own town | Claimants | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Busbridge | 392 | 57 | — | 1.1% | — |
| Godalming | 10,450 | 7,283 | 23% | 2.1% | A |
| Farncombe | 13,247 | 3,962 | 17% | 2.2% | A |
| Milford and Witley | 6,489 | 1,483 | 10% | 2% | A− |
| Bramley and Wonersh | 4,193 | 1,009 | 9% | 1.5% | A+ |
| Shalford | 2,508 | 998 | 4% | 1.8% | A+ |
| Shamley Green | 1,200 | 331 | 3% | 1.3% | A+ |
| Chilworth | 1,917 | 421 | 5% | 1.7% | A |
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. Busbridge 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 Waverley as a whole; the claimant rate elsewhere on this page is Busbridge’s built-up area, from small areas.
Questions about work in Busbridge
How many people commute into Busbridge?
97 people who lived elsewhere worked in Busbridge at the 2021 Census, 48% of its 202 workers. The most came from Godalming (34), Milford and Witley (8) and Guildford (8). 58 residents travelled out the other way.
How many jobs are there in Busbridge?
About 60 jobs (employees and working owners) were based in Busbridge 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.
How do people in Busbridge get to work?
91% of commuters go by car or van, 7% walk, 0% cycle and 0% take the bus or train; 42% travel under 5 km. Census 2021, taken during lockdown.
What is the average household income in Busbridge?
Mean household income before tax was £85,576 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.