Photo: Oliver Mills · CC BY-SA 2.0A larger share of Coventry’s residents claim jobless benefits than in 98% of UK towns
Measured against other UK towns, jobs and pay in Coventry rate C, #15 of 35 in West Midlands. 6% of people of working age are on jobless benefits, next to 2.7% in the typical UK town. Each working day 38,552 residents head out to work, and 29,482 people come the other way.
Work in Coventry: the figures worth knowing
More jobs than the typical town
158,626 jobs are based in Coventry for 148,741 working residents; the typical UK town has 0.7 jobs per resident in work. Education, hospitals and health care and shops make up 33% of them. Jobs based here ↓
More benefit claims than most towns
The typical UK town: 2.7%; England and Wales: 4% so far in 2026. Benefits over time ↓
Written from the data on this page: ONS Census 2021 and BRES, DWP claimant counts via Nomis, and ONS household income.
Coventry grades C for jobs and income
With four measures combined, it comes out better than 30% of UK towns: #15 of 35 in West Midlands.
Its strongest measure is getting to jobs without a car; 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.
158,626 jobs, 15% in health and social care
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 (139,272). 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 Coventry (employees and working owners, ONS Business Register and Employment Survey 2024).
Jobless claims in the Coventry council area are above England and Wales’ rate
Coventry’s rate was about 3% in 2019, peaked at 7.7% in March 2021 and has averaged 5.7% 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 Coventry, which Nomis publishes monthly; the figures above the line are for Coventry’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).
More workers leave Coventry each day than arrive
148,741 residents were in work at the 2021 Census; 139,272 people worked in Coventry.
58% of residents who travel to a workplace stay in the city; 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 city or from home.
Coventry’s commuters work from Birmingham to Rugby
- Birmingham3,642
- Nuneaton3,470
- Bedworth2,403
- Countryside1,740
- Rugby1,572
- Royal Leamington Spa1,030
- Kenilworth900
- Solihull860
- Hinckley788
- Warwick723
- Countryside6,964
- Birmingham3,148
- Baginton2,799
- Warwick2,363
- Rugby2,224
- Bedworth1,681
- Nuneaton1,420
- Keresley Newlands1,401
- Royal Leamington Spa1,371
- Solihull1,268
42% of residents who travel to a workplace work outside Coventry; Birmingham takes the most (3,148). Coming the other way, Birmingham sends the most (3,642).
The ten places that send the most workers into Coventry, and the ten where its residents most often work (Census 2021, by home and workplace). Line width is the number of people.
Mean income per household in Coventry: £49,065
Higher than 38% of UK towns of 2,500+; the typical town is £52,385. The whole council area of Coventry averages £48,912.
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).
Household incomes in Coventry, part by part: £38K to £63K
Mean household income before tax in each of the 42 neighbourhoods (MSOAs) mostly inside the city: the highest is 1.7 times the lowest.
Each dot is a neighbourhood (MSOA, about 8,000 people) mostly inside Coventry; 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.
Walking, cycling, the bus or the train: 24% of Coventry’s commuters
Median journey 5 km; typical UK town 8.4 km.
Coventry 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).
Jobs, studies and retirement in Coventry: 54% 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.
Coventry places 31st of 36 on jobs and income among UK towns of 241,000 to 465,000
| # | Town | People | Jobs per worker | Work in own town | Claimants | Income | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bromley London | 325,469 | 0.7 | 40% | 3.5% | £87K | A− |
| 2 | Wandsworth London | 326,725 | 0.7 | 26% | 4.1% | £85K | A− |
| 3 | Bexley London | 246,074 | 0.6 | 33% | 3.5% | £76K | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 29 | Newcastle upon Tyne Tyne and Wear | 286,472 | 1.6 | 57% | 4.3% | £47K | C |
| 30 | Derby Derbyshire | 275,561 | 1.1 | 64% | 5% | £49K | C |
| 31 | Coventry West Midlands | 344,289 | 1.1 | 58% | 6% | £49K | C |
| 32 | Leicester Leicestershire | 406,612 | 1.1 | 64% | 5.4% | £45K | C |
| 33 | Nottingham Nottinghamshire | 299,786 | 1.8 | 61% | 6.2% | £46K | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 36 | Stoke-on-Trent Staffordshire | 260,560 | 1.1 | 64% | 5.5% | £41K | 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 Coventry, and others in West Midlands.
Work in and around Coventry
| Town | People | Jobs | Work in own town | Claimants | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coventry | 344,289 | 158,626 | 58% | 6% | C |
| Ash Green | 2,562 | 2,591 | 4% | 3.6% | C+ |
| Keresley Newlands | 3,631 | 3,193 | 8% | 5.2% | C− |
| Hawkesbury | 2,288 | 1,017 | 1% | 4.5% | C |
| Binley Woods | 2,569 | 475 | 4% | 2.2% | A− |
| Bedworth | 31,083 | 9,040 | 19% | 4% | C |
| Ryton-on-Dunsmore | 1,829 | 3,000 | 7% | 2.8% | C+ |
| Burton Green | 1,556 | 385 | 1% | 2.8% | 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. Coventry 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 Coventry as a whole; the claimant rate elsewhere on this page is Coventry’s built-up area, from small areas.
Questions about work in Coventry
Where do people in Coventry work?
At the 2021 Census, 58% of Coventry’s residents who travelled to work worked in the city itself; the most common other places were Birmingham (3,148), Baginton (2,799) and Warwick (2,363). 38% 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 Coventry?
29,482 people who lived elsewhere worked in Coventry at the 2021 Census, 21% of its 139,272 workers. The most came from Birmingham (3,642), Nuneaton (3,470) and Bedworth (2,403). 38,552 residents travelled out the other way.
How many jobs are there in Coventry?
About 158,650 jobs (employees and working owners) were based in Coventry 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 education (about 24,150), hospitals and health care (about 16,150) and shops (about 11,650).
Is Coventry a good place to find work?
Coventry earns a C for jobs and income, better than 30% of UK towns on household income, the claimant rate, employment deprivation and access to jobs together. Mean household income £49,065; 6% of 16 to 64s claim unemployment benefits.
How do people in Coventry get to work?
72% of commuters go by car or van, 10% walk, 3% cycle and 11% take the bus or train; 50% travel under 5 km. Census 2021, taken during lockdown.
What is the average household income in Coventry?
Mean household income before tax was £49,065 in the year to March 2023 (ONS), against £52,385 in the typical UK town. By neighbourhood it runs from £38,251 in Stoke Heath to £63,428 in Stivichall & Finham.
How does Coventry compare with Birmingham for jobs?
Coventry has 1.1 jobs per working resident against Birmingham’s 1.3, a 6% claimant rate against 11%, and mean household income of £49,065 against £45,929.
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.