Commuting patterns in Wales by measure and year
Responses for work location relate to the respondent’s usual working pattern if coronavirus restrictions were not in place. Therefore, data for 2020 do not reflect actual commuting patterns observed during the pandemic.
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2001Metadata
- High level information
- Weblinks
- Keywords
- Summary information
- Statistical quality information
- Open Data
Title
Commuting patterns by Welsh local authorityLast update
11 April 2024Next update
April 2025Publishing organisation
Welsh GovernmentSource 1
Annual Population Survey, Office for National StatisticsContact email
LabourMarket.Stats@gov.walesDesignation
National StatisticsLowest level of geographical disaggregation
Local authoritiesGeographical coverage
WalesLanguages covered
English onlyData licensing
You may use and re-use this data free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government License - see http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licenceKeywords
CommutingGeneral description
This dataset provides information on commuting patterns by local authority in Wales and flows between Wales and the rest of the UK.Data collection and calculation
ONS have reweighted the APS to take account of population data from the 2011 Census. Therefore, all estimates from quarter 4 of 2004 to quarter 3 of 2014 have been revised.The Annual Population Survey, which includes the WLLFS, is an annual sample survey of households living at private addresses in the UK. The annual survey uses results from those sampled for the main quarterly Labour Force Survey and since 2001 additional persons have been sampled on an annual basis to provide a more robust (boosted) annual dataset across the UK, with estimates subject to much lower sampling variability. For Wales, the data are now based on an enhanced sample (around 350 per cent larger) compared to earlier years.
The additional persons sampled in the APS are based on four waves, over four years of the survey. For the first wave, the response rate in Wales is around 60%, with around 75% of these remaining by the fourth wave. In total, approaching 20,000 households are sampled each year for the APS in Wales.
The APS relates to calendar years, whereas the WLLFS used the year ending in February. Therefore values for 2001 to 2003 relate to the years ending February 2002, February 2003 and February 2004. Subsequent values relate to calendar years.
The Welsh Local Labour Force Survey (WLLFS) only contains data for those living in Wales, excluding those commuting into Wales from the rest of the UK. This affects the figures for many local authorities, especially those on the border with England. Therefore, the 2001-2003 figures for ‘Total number of people working in the area’ and ‘Number of people commuting into the area’ have been suppressed.
Frequency of publication
AnnualData reference periods
2001 to 2023Users, uses and context
We believe the key users of commuting in Wales statistics are:Ministers and the Members Research Service in the National Assembly for Wales;
Other areas of the Welsh Government;
Welsh Local Authorities
Other government departments;
Students, academics and universities;
Individual citizens and private companies.
The statistics are used in a variety of ways. Some examples of the uses include: Advice to Ministers; Research and general background material;
To inform debate in the National Assembly for Wales and beyond.
Revisions information
In March 2019, the Annual Population Survey data has been revised back to 2012, due to taking on board the latest population estimates.October 2019: The measure previously labelled “Number of people working in home authority” was calculated so that the Wales figure was a sum of those who lived and worked in the same local authority. This has now been changed to “Number of people living and working within the same area” so that at a Wales level it shows the number of people who both live and work in Wales (including those who travel between different local authorities within Wales).
Statistical quality
Annual Population Survey (APS) responses are weighted to official population projections. The projections for 2020 were 2018-based, and, therefore, were based on demographic trends that pre-dated the COVID-19 pandemic.To allow for different trends during the pandemic the responses for the APS have been reweighted on the 9 September 2021 to new populations derived using growth rates from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) Real Time Information (RTI). The reweighting has been applied from year ending March 2020 data onwards and gives improved estimates of both rates and levels.
The changes ONS have made to the weighting should reduce the bias of estimates at high levels of aggregation. Some smaller breakdowns may be impacted negatively and more extreme changes could be seen given the reduced size of the underlying sample since the start of the pandemic.
As the data come from a survey, the results are sample-based estimates and therefore subject to differing degrees of sampling variability, i.e. the true value for any measure lies in a differing range about the estimated value. This range or sampling variability increases as the detail in the data increases, for example individual local authority data are subject to higher variability than Wales data.
