Welsh Government | Commuting in Wales, 2009

There was a net outflow of 39,800 working people from Wales (up from 29,400 in 2008). This comprised 86,900 Welsh residents working outside Wales offset by 47,100 people resident outside Wales coming into Wales to work.

93% of all working Welsh residents worked in Wales and a large majority worked within the local authority in which they lived (71% of all working residents).

At local authority level, Cardiff has the largest net inflow at 48,900 (39% of all people working in Cardiff commuted in from elsewhere). The largest net outflows were from The Vale of Glamorgan, Blaenau Gwent and Caerphilly.

The number of persons commuting out of Wales increased steadily between 2001 and 2004 from around 72,000 to 82,000. Since then it has fluctuated, falling back to 73,000 in 2005, before climbing to 92,000 in 2006 and levelling off at around 87,000 between 2007 and 2009.

After a reduction between 2001 and 2002, the number of persons commuting into Wales has increased, from around 34,000 in 2002 to 59,000 in 2006. After remaining around the same for 2007 and 2008, there was a sharp decline between 2008 and 2009, to 47,000.