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TilfordgreenPhoto: SuzanneKn at en.wikipedia · Public domain
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Work & commute in Tilford · ONS, DWP · claims to August 2026

A place people come to for work: Tilford has 1.9 jobs per resident in work

The journey to work is shorter than 3 miles for 19% of commuters. Every working day brings 294 commuters in: the village fills up. There is no Jobs & income Grade for Tilford.

What stands out · In brief

What the numbers say about work in Tilford

Longer journeys to work

Against 45% across England’s towns. 20% of commuters walk to work, about 1.7 times the share 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.

Jobs based here

414 jobs, one in six in health and social care

The six biggest kinds of work
60Education16% of jobs · England 9%1.8× England’s share
50Care homes14% of jobs · England 2%5.9× England’s share
30Restaurants, cafés and pubs9% of jobs · England 6%1.5× England’s share
30Sport and leisure7% of jobs · England 2%4.6× England’s share
20Shops5% of jobs · England 8%
20Head offices and management consulting5% of jobs · England 3%1.5× England’s share
Share of jobs by industry England’s towns
Health and social care17%
Education15%
Hotels, pubs and restaurants12%
Arts, leisure and other services12%
Business administration and support9%
Professional, scientific and technical9%
Construction6%
Retail5%
Information and communication4%
Motor trades3%

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 (457). 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 Tilford (employees and working owners, ONS Business Register and Employment Survey 2024).

Getting to work

Not by car: 26% of Tilford’s commuters walk, cycle or ride the bus or train

Median journey 12.4 km; typical UK town 8.4 km.

Drive64%Surrey 69% · England 64%
Passenger4%Surrey 5% · England 6%
Walk20%Surrey 11% · England 11%
Cycle1%Surrey 3% · England 3%
Bus1%Surrey 3% · England 6%
Train4%Surrey 6% · England 3%
Other5%Surrey 4% · England 6%
TilfordSurrey’s townsEngland’s towns
How far they travel England’s towns
11%
Under 2 km
8%
2–5 km
22%
5–10 km
37%
10–20 km
11%
20–30 km
2%
30–40 km
8%
40–60 km
2%
60 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).

Benefits over time

Jobless claims in the Waverley 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%Waverley 2%
Waverley (council area)South EastEngland and Wales

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.

Claimant rate
1.8%
of 16 to 64s in the built-up area, January to August 2026
6 people in August 2026 · typical UK town 2.7%
Employment deprivation
4.8%
of 18 to 66s out of work through unemployment, sickness, disability or caring
IoD 2025
Income deprivation
8.2%
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 Waverley, which Nomis publishes monthly; the figures above the line are for Tilford’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).

The daily tide

On a working day, 457 people work in Tilford, 2.1 times its working residents

220 residents were in work at the 2021 Census; 457 people worked in Tilford.

Live in Tilford220 in work
547159
Work in Tilford457 people
2947156
Commute in · 294Commute out · 54Live and work here · 7At home or no fixed place · 156

For every resident who leaves Tilford for work, about 5 people come in. 11% 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

Tilford’s workers come from Farnham to Wandsworth

Farnham: 21 commute inAldershot: 18 commute inAsh and Ash Vale: 18 commute inFleet: 13 commute inFarnborough: 13 commute inBordon: 12 commute inWeybourne: 12 commute inWandsworth: 11 commute inHaslemere: 9 commute inAldershotFleetFarnboroughBordonWandsworthHaslemereGodalming: 6 residents work thereGuildford: 6 residents work thereGodalmingGuildfordTilford5 miles
Grey dots: where people live (Census 2021). Places drawn centre to centre; flows under 5 people are listed, not drawn.
Where Tilford’s workers live
  1. Farnham21
  2. Aldershot18
  3. Ash and Ash Vale18
  4. Countryside16
  5. Fleet13
  6. Farnborough13
  7. Bordon12
  8. Weybourne12
  9. Wandsworth11
  10. Haslemere9
Where residents work, outside Tilford
  1. Countryside11
  2. Godalming6
  3. Guildford6
  4. Farncombe4
  5. Weybourne4
  6. Farnham3
  7. Haslemere2
  8. Hindhead2
  9. Worplesdon2
  10. Portsmouth1

Farnham, 2 miles away, sends 21 people, more than any other town; in all, 64% of the people who work in Tilford live outside it. Going the other way, Godalming is the biggest single destination (6).

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

Household income

Household income in Tilford averages £71,853

Higher than 91% of UK towns of 2,500+; the typical town is £52,385. The whole council area of Waverley averages £72,813.

Tilford £72KTypical 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).

What residents do

Most of Tilford works: 62% of adults are in work

Tilford
61%8%11%12%
England’s towns
56%21%
In workStudents in workUnemployedStudentsRetiredLong-term sick or disabledLooking after home or familyOther
Residents in work, by occupation points above or below England’s towns
Managers, directors and senior officials25%+12.2
Professional occupations26%+5.7
Associate professional and technical occupations17%+3.6
Administrative and secretarial occupations10%+0.3
Skilled trades occupations10%+0.1
Caring, leisure and other service occupations2%−7.1
Sales and customer service occupations3%−4.9
Process, plant and machine operatives0%−7.1
Elementary occupations8%−2.9

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.

Neighbours

The work picture around Tilford

TownPeopleJobsWork in own townClaimantsGrade
Tilford48241411%1.8%—
Elstead2,2611,0629%1.8%B+
Farnham20,49914,03927%2.1%A
Wrecclesham7,3121,4939%1.7%A+
Badshot Lea1,8835083%1.8%A
Weybourne11,2412,4198%2.3%A
Aldershot39,82719,47425%3.8%B−
Hindhead6,4442,10015%1.9%A−

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. Tilford 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 Tilford’s built-up area, from small areas.

Questions about work in Tilford

Where do people in Tilford work?

At the 2021 Census, 11% of Tilford’s residents who travelled to work worked in the village itself; the most common other places were Godalming (6), Guildford (6) and Farncombe (4). 71% 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 Tilford?

294 people who lived elsewhere worked in Tilford at the 2021 Census, 64% of its 457 workers. The most came from Farnham (21), Aldershot (18) and Ash and Ash Vale (18). 54 residents travelled out the other way.

How many jobs are there in Tilford?

About 410 jobs (employees and working owners) were based in Tilford in 2024, on ONS’s Business Register and Employment Survey: 1.9 for every resident in work, against 0.7 in the typical UK town. The biggest kinds of work are education (about 60), care homes (about 50) and restaurants, cafés and pubs (about 30).

How do people in Tilford get to work?

68% of commuters go by car or van, 20% walk, 1% cycle and 6% take the bus or train; 19% travel under 5 km. Census 2021, taken during lockdown.

What is the average household income in Tilford?

Mean household income before tax was £71,853 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.