Commuter flows in Lancashire and beyond

Key points for Lancashire-14

• The total flow of commuters between Lancashire-14 LADs was 143,290.
• The highest flow was 7,551 between Wyre and Blackpool.
• There was a flow of nearly 5,000 from Sefton in Merseyside to West Lancashire.
• There was a net commuter flow of 9,235 out of the Lancashire-14 area.
• There was a net flow of 9,053 into Preston, giving a workplace total of 75,677 workers.
• Rossendale had the 13^th lowest workplace total (27,423) in England and Wales.

Introduction

The 2021 Census provides information on the population in England and Wales, and dataset ODWP01EW details the commuter flows between local authorities: the movement between their local authority of residence and stated place of work.

This short article highlights the complex flows between the 14 Lancashire authorities and the rest of the country. The results are for usual UK residents in employment and aged 16 and over. 

To protect against disclosure of personal information, there has been swapping of records in the Census database between different geographic areas, and so some counts will be affected. The greatest effects will be at the lowest geographies, since the record swapping is targeted towards those households with unusual commuting patterns. It is for this reason that the workplace totals differ from the workplace totals shown in the Census 2021 industry sector article.

Because the census was conducted during the Covid-19 lockdown, a far greater number of jobs were performed from home, and some workplaces were still closed. A lot of the flows were greatly reduced compared to 2011 and so these results cannot be compared with those or previous census results.

Commuter flows to and from Lancashire 14 local authorities

Figure 1 shows the magnitude of commuter flows between neighbouring authorities. The largest flow was the 7,551 commuters who lived in Wyre but worked in Blackpool. The few significant flows of workers that commuted to a local authority that was not a direct neighbour included the 3,170 travelling from Chorley to Preston, the 2,037 travelling from West Lancashire to Liverpool and the 1,186 travelling the opposite way from Liverpool to West Lancashire. 1,793 workers commuted from Blackburn with Darwen to Preston. There were flows of over a thousand between Blackpool and Preston and West Lancashire and Preston. Flows between Rossendale and Manchester were under a thousand. The figures shown in the text boxes on the map are those people who lived and worked in the same district, these are also in Table 2. The values for the flows are listed in table 1 in descending order, this table scrolls to the right.

The total flow of commuters between Lancashire-12 districts was 88,929 and between Lancashire-14 authorities it was 143,290.

Top flow

The flow from Wyre to Blackpool was the 86^th highest between English and Welsh authorities. The highest flow was 23,181, between Birmingham and Solihull.

Figure 1. Travel to work flows between neighbouring local authorities and workplace totals for workers who live and work in the same LAD.

Source: ONS Census 2021 - dataset ODWP01EW_LTLA.
Click on the map image to download a pdf version.

Table 1. Highest commuter flows between local authorities

Table scrolls left to right. Source: ONS Census 2021 - dataset ODWP01EW_LTLA.

Total flows in Lancashire compared to England and Wales

Table 2 shows the figures for total commuter flows within the UK (including to offshore facilities). Because this was the English and Welsh Census, the total inflow can be made up from flows from any English or Welsh local authority, but the outflow could be to any UK local authority. The net flow provides the shading in figure 1. The workplace total (number of workers by place of work) in Preston (75,677, 136^th) was the highest in Lancashire, but this is small compared to even some neighbouring authorities. Bradford was in 12^th place in England and Wales with over 200,000 workers while Wigan and Bolton, with over 120,000, were in 52^nd and 57^th places respectively. Birmingham was highest with a workforce exceeding 460,000 and Manchester was third with 287,935. Liverpool came in with 227,576 in 10^th place.

Rossendale, Ribble Valley and Hyndburn had some of the lowest workplace totals in England and Wales, being in 13^th, 20^th and 22^nd lowest places respectively out of 331 authorities.

Lancaster had the highest 'core' workforce (53,462) who lived and worked within the authority. With total inflows and outflows under 10,000 each this showed a highly self-contained economy.

Commuter flows between West Lancashire and other Lancashire-14 authorities (6,979) were much lower than those to and from Merseyside (16,793) showing greater connectivity with that sub-region.

Table 2:  Total commuter flows

Area	Live and work in the same district	Total inflow	Total outflow	Net flow	Workplace total
Burnley	26,901	13,568	13,134	434	40,469
Chorley	37,300	13,486	19,940	-6,454	50,786
Fylde	25,176	12,674	10,552	2,122	37,850
Hyndburn	21,112	10,509	14,513	-4,004	31,621
Lancaster	53,462	6,416	8,936	-2,520	59,878
Pendle	26,998	8,750	12,612	-3,862	35,748
Preston	49,879	25,798	16,745	9,053	75,677
Ribble Valley	20,166	11,111	10,217	894	31,277
Rossendale	20,762	6,661	12,351	-5,690	27,423
South Ribble	35,490	19,325	19,234	91	54,815
West Lancashire	36,599	16,817	16,935	-118	53,416
Wyre	32,395	9,145	15,435	-6,290	41,540
Lancashire-12	475,178	65,361	81,702	-16,341	540,539
Blackburn with Darwen	47,106	21,570	16,447	5,123	68,676
Blackpool	45,581	15,748	13,781	1,967	61,329
Lancashire-14	622,232	48,330	57,565	-9,235	670,562

Source: ONS Census 2021 - datasets ODWP01EW_LTLA and ODWP01EW_UTLA.

Page created September 2025.