Photo: Thomas Nugent · CC BY-SA 2.0More of Polbeth’s residents are on jobless benefits than in 86% of UK towns
Of the residents who travel to work, 43% go under 3 miles. 3.8% of working-age residents claim jobless benefits, where the typical UK town’s rate is 2.7%. The Jobs & income Grade leaves out Polbeth.
Where Polbeth stands out on work
More jobs than the typical town
1,426 jobs are based in Polbeth for 1,276 working residents; the typical UK town has 0.7 jobs per resident in work. Civil engineering, shops and restaurants, cafés and pubs make up 37% of them. Jobs based here ↓
More benefit claims than most towns
The typical UK town: 2.7%; Scotland: 3.1% so far in 2026. Benefits over time ↓
Written from the data on this page: Scotland’s Census 2022, ONS BRES and DWP claimant counts via Nomis.
1,426 jobs, 23% in construction
1.1 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 (1,328). Data zones and intermediate zones are shared out to the town by where their residents live (Scotland’s Census 2022 has no workplace counts for areas small enough to place jobs more exactly); kinds of work are BRES industry divisions (SIC 2007), rounded. Scotland’s towns: all jobs in its towns.
Jobs at workplaces in Polbeth (employees and working owners, ONS Business Register and Employment Survey 2024).
Jobless claims in the West Lothian council area are below Scotland’s rate
West Lothian’s rate was about 2.8% in 2019, peaked at 6.1% in August 2020 and has averaged 2.6% in 2026, against 3.1% across Scotland and 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 West Lothian, which Nomis publishes monthly; the figures above the line are for Polbeth’s locality. Claimant count: people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance, or Universal Credit while required to look for work. Employment and income deprivation are from the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2020 (benefit records from 2017 to 2019, so before the pandemic and older than the claimant figures): its 2011 data zones are shared out to the town by where their residents live. The “most deprived tenth” compares areas within Scotland 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).
In and out of Polbeth: the working day evens out
1,276 residents were in work at the 2022 Census; 1,328 people worked in Polbeth.
6% 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.
Polbeth’s workers come from Livingston to Edinburgh
- Livingston160
- Countryside90
- Edinburgh54
- Bathgate36
- Whitburn31
- West Calder29
- Broxburn26
- Blackburn15
- Armadale15
- East Calder14
- Livingston289
- Edinburgh97
- Countryside51
- Bathgate30
- West Calder28
- Broxburn22
- Blackburn12
- Glasgow11
- Loanhead8
- Grangemouth7
Livingston, 3 miles away, sends 160 people, more than any other town; in all, 52% of the people who work in Polbeth live outside it. Going the other way, Livingston is the biggest single destination (289).
The ten places that send the most workers into Polbeth, and the ten where its residents most often work (Scotland’s Census 2022, by home and workplace). Line width is the number of people.
Polbeth commutes on foot, by bike or bus for 17% of trips
Median journey 6.6 km; typical UK town 8.4 km.
Polbeth grades B+ for walkability: the share of commuters who walk, cycle or take public transport, against UK towns.
Scotland’s Census 2022, UV701 (method of travel) and UV703 (distance, straight line from home to workplace), output areas summed. Census day was 20 March 2022, a year after England and Wales’s lockdown census, so compare with Scotland’s towns rather than England’s.
How residents who travel to work get there, and how far they go (Scotland’s Census 2022, not counting those working mainly at home).
In work, studying or retired: 64% of Polbeth’s adults work
Scotland’s Census 2022, tables UV601 (economic activity) and UV606 (occupation), output areas summed to the locality. Scotland’s towns: everyone living in its towns.
Everyone 16 and over, by what they were doing the week before the 2022 Census, and the jobs of those in work.
Work next door to Polbeth
| Town | People | Jobs | Work in own town | Claimants | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Polbeth | 2,595 | 1,426 | 6% | 3.8% | — |
| West Calder | 3,405 | 876 | 7% | 2.9% | — |
| Livingston | 55,798 | 40,360 | 47% | 2.8% | — |
| Blackburn | 5,263 | 881 | 8% | 4.1% | — |
| Mid Calder | 3,217 | 190 | 1% | 0.6% | — |
| Bathgate | 22,229 | 10,957 | 18% | 3% | — |
| East Calder | 7,249 | 930 | 5% | 2.1% | — |
| Whitburn | 11,772 | 2,571 | 10% | 3.8% | — |
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 a year later in Scotland. Scotland’s Census was taken on 20 March 2022, a year after England and Wales’s lockdown census, so more people were back at their workplaces. Commuting figures compare fairly with Scotland’s other towns, less so with England’s.
- Flows are by data zone. National Records of Scotland publishes where people live and work by data zone (about 800 residents), not by the smaller output areas England and Wales use. A zone that straddles a town’s edge is shared out by where its residents live, so the flows here are close, not exact.
- At home and no fixed place are one figure. NRS puts people who mainly work at home and people with no fixed workplace (drivers, builders, care workers on rounds) at their home address, so the two are counted together.
- Towns are localities. Polbeth here is NRS’s Census 2022 locality: the town as built, not its council area. A workplace outside every town counts as “outside any town”.
- 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. Data zones are shared out to towns by where their residents live.
- The benefits chart is the council area. Nomis publishes the claimant count monthly for councils back to 2013, so the line is West Lothian as a whole; the claimant rate elsewhere on this page is Polbeth’s locality, from small areas.
Questions about work in Polbeth
Where do people in Polbeth work?
At the 2022 Census, 6% of Polbeth’s residents who travelled to work worked in the town itself; the most common other places were Livingston (289), Edinburgh (97) and Bathgate (30). 47% of working residents worked mainly at home or had no fixed workplace.
How many people commute into Polbeth?
684 people who lived elsewhere worked in Polbeth at the 2022 Census, 52% of its 1,328 workers. The most came from Livingston (160), Edinburgh (54) and Bathgate (36). 629 residents travelled out the other way.
How many jobs are there in Polbeth?
About 1,430 jobs (employees and working owners) were based in Polbeth in 2024, on ONS’s Business Register and Employment Survey: 1.1 for every resident in work, against 0.7 in the typical UK town. The biggest kinds of work are civil engineering (about 120), shops (about 80) and restaurants, cafés and pubs (about 80).
How do people in Polbeth get to work?
84% of commuters go by car or van, 7% walk, 0% cycle and 10% take the bus or train; 43% travel under 5 km. Scotland’s Census 2022.
Why doesn’t Polbeth have a Jobs & income Grade?
The grade needs three of four measures: household income, the claimant rate, employment deprivation and access to jobs. Scotland publishes household income only for council areas, its deprivation index (SIMD 2020) uses benefit records from before the pandemic rather than England’s 2025 index, and the job-access measure covers England and Wales only, so Scottish towns have the claimant rate alone.
Sources: NRS, Scotland’s Census 2022 origin-destination Table 5a (location of usual residence and place of work, 2022 data zones), shared to the Census 2022 locality · Scotland’s Census 2022 tables UV601 (economic activity), UV606 (occupation), UV701 (method of travel) and UV703 (distance) · ONS Business Register and Employment Survey via Nomis (open access), 2022 data zones and intermediate zones, by industry division · DWP claimant count via Nomis (towns January to August 2026; councils, Scotland and England and Wales monthly since January 2015) · Scottish Government, Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2020v2, indicators and domain deciles · 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.