Photo: Peter Whatley · CC BY-SA 2.0Households in Caterham earn more than those in 90% of UK towns
Measured against other UK towns, jobs and pay in Caterham rate B+, #52 of 65 in Surrey. More leave than arrive on a working day: 3,831 residents go out to work, 3,031 people come in. Jobless benefit claims cover 3.1% of working-age residents (the typical UK town: 2.7%).
What Caterham’s work numbers say
Longer journeys to work
Against 45% across England’s towns. 9% of commuters walk to work (11% across England’s 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 Tandridge 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.
Jobs & income in Caterham: graded B+
Better than 74% of UK towns once its four measures are combined: #52 of 65 in Surrey.
Its strongest measure is household income; 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.
Car-free commutes: 23% of workers in Caterham
Median journey 8.4 km, the same as the typical UK town.
32% of journeys to work are under 5 km (3 miles), against 45% across England’s towns, and 5% are 30 km or more. Caterham 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 Tandridge council area have run below England and Wales every month since 2015
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.
The chart is the whole council area of Tandridge, which Nomis publishes monthly; the figures above the line are for Caterham’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).
Each working day, more people leave Caterham for work than come in
11,258 residents were in work at the 2021 Census; 10,426 people worked in Caterham.
21% 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.
Caterham’s commuters work from Croydon to Redhill
- Croydon967
- Warlingham152
- Countryside141
- Sutton115
- Redhill94
- Crawley84
- Oxted81
- Bromley74
- Whyteleafe67
- South Merstham63
79% of residents who travel to a workplace work outside Caterham; Croydon takes the most (854). Coming the other way, Croydon sends the most (967).
The ten places that send the most workers into Caterham, and the ten where its residents most often work (Census 2021, by home and workplace). Line width is the number of people.
7,266 jobs, 15% in education
0.6 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 (10,426). 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 Caterham (employees and working owners, ONS Business Register and Employment Survey 2024).
Before tax, households in Caterham average £70,865
The whole council area of Tandridge averages £70,313.
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).
In Caterham, household incomes run from £66K to £73K from one neighbourhood to the next
Mean household income before tax in each of the 3 neighbourhoods (MSOAs) mostly inside the town: the highest is 1.1 times the lowest.
Each dot is a neighbourhood (MSOA, about 8,000 people) mostly inside Caterham; names from the House of Commons Library. ONS gives each a 95% range of roughly ±£7K to ±£10K, so neighbourhoods close together on the strip may not really differ.
Jobs, studies and retirement in Caterham: 62% in work
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.
Caterham places 62nd of 271 on jobs and income among UK towns of 16,000 to 31,000
| # | Town | People | Jobs per worker | Work in own town | Claimants | Income | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hale Greater Manchester | 16,716 | 0.7 | 7% | 1.1% | £73K | A+ |
| 2 | Harpenden Hertfordshire | 30,964 | 0.8 | 30% | 1.5% | £92K | A+ |
| 3 | Knowle and Dorridge West Midlands | 19,323 | 0.6 | 13% | 1.5% | £79K | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 11 | Great Bookham and Fetcham Surrey | 21,655 | 0.5 | 19% | 1.3% | £77K | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 13 | Reigate Surrey | 23,774 | 1.4 | 22% | 1.8% | £74K | A+ |
| 14 | Cobham Surrey | 17,505 | 1 | 21% | 1.8% | £85K | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 60 | Quedgeley and Hardwicke Gloucestershire | 21,125 | 1.1 | 18% | 2.4% | £60K | A− |
| 61 | Longfield, New Ash Green and Hartley Kent | 16,077 | 0.6 | 16% | 2.3% | £66K | B+ |
| 62 | Caterham Surrey | 22,757 | 0.6 | 21% | 3.1% | £71K | B+ |
| 63 | Witney Oxfordshire | 30,167 | 1 | 42% | 2.2% | £61K | B+ |
| 64 | Ramsbottom Greater Manchester | 17,074 | 0.5 | 13% | 2% | £55K | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 271 | Maesteg Mid Glamorgan | 18,342 | 0.4 | 23% | 3.8% | £37K | 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 Caterham, and others in Surrey.
Caterham and its neighbours: work and income
| Town | People | Jobs | Work in own town | Claimants | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Caterham | 22,757 | 7,266 | 21% | 3.1% | B+ |
| Chaldon | 1,441 | 348 | 2% | 1.7% | A |
| Whyteleafe | 3,174 | 1,737 | 3% | 5.5% | B+ |
| Warlingham | 8,918 | 1,979 | 8% | 2.6% | A |
| Netherne on-the-Hill | 1,475 | 161 | — | 3.6% | B+ |
| Woldingham | 2,223 | 594 | 4% | 0.8% | A+ |
| Godstone | 2,648 | 828 | 6% | 2.7% | B |
| Hooley | 1,010 | 107 | — | 3.8% | 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. Caterham 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 Caterham’s built-up area, from small areas.
Questions about work in Caterham
Where do people in Caterham work?
At the 2021 Census, 21% of Caterham’s residents who travelled to work worked in the town itself; the most common other places were Croydon (854), Redhill (280) and Sutton (275). 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 Caterham?
3,031 people who lived elsewhere worked in Caterham at the 2021 Census, 29% of its 10,426 workers. The most came from Croydon (967), Warlingham (152) and Sutton (115). 3,831 residents travelled out the other way.
How many jobs are there in Caterham?
About 7,270 jobs (employees and working owners) were based in Caterham 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. The biggest kinds of work are education (about 1,110), shops (about 700) and restaurants, cafés and pubs (about 540).
Is Caterham a good place to find work?
Caterham earns a B+ for jobs and income, better than 74% of UK towns on household income, the claimant rate, employment deprivation and access to jobs together. Mean household income £70,865; 3.1% of 16 to 64s claim unemployment benefits.
How do people in Caterham get to work?
74% of commuters go by car or van, 9% walk, 1% cycle and 13% take the bus or train; 32% travel under 5 km. Census 2021, taken during lockdown.
What is the average household income in Caterham?
Mean household income before tax was £70,865 in the year to March 2023 (ONS), against £52,385 in the typical UK town. By neighbourhood it runs from £65,541 in Caterham West to £72,674 in Caterham Valley.
How does Caterham compare with Guildford for jobs?
Caterham has 0.6 jobs per working resident against Guildford’s 1.6, a 3.1% claimant rate against 2.2%, and mean household income of £70,865 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.