Census 2021: How workforce qualification levels differ across England and Wales

The map shows all local authorities in England and Wales, shaded according to a scoring system we devised based on the qualification level of the labour force who live in each locality. We explain how this was calculated in our technical annex.

Areas are shaded by quintile, from yellow for the lowest-scoring (least-qualified) fifth to dark blue for the highest-scoring (most-qualified) fifth.

When comparing the qualification profile of local areas, the highest-scoring areas had a much higher percentage of the resident workforce that held post-16 qualifications, such as A levels, degrees or NVQs.

In contrast, in the lowest-scoring areas, much more of the workforce held secondary school level qualifications (GCSEs or equivalent) as their highest qualification, or had no qualifications.

Most London boroughs were in the top 20% of areas for workforce qualification level, and none were in the bottom 20%.

When we look at the top 10 highest-ranked areas in England and Wales, 8 of them were in the English capital.

You can see more information about each area by hovering over it on the map.

The City of London (a local authority within the London region) had the most highly qualified population overall. This reflected the high percentage of residents who held degree level or higher qualifications, and the low percentage of residents who held no qualifications, or Level 1 or 2 qualifications (equivalent to GCSEs and O levels) only.

More than 82% of workers and job seekers living in the City of London held higher education qualifications. This is almost 10 percentage points higher than the next highest scoring area, Wandsworth.

However, it is important to note that the population of the City of London is very small, which means relatively few people can have a big impact on percentages.

Nearly half (44%) of the City of London’s resident workforce were employed in professional occupations in Census 2021, a classification which covers jobs in areas such as research, teaching, law and medicine. These jobs are usually paid high salaries, and require higher-level qualifications.

Both the City of London and Wandsworth fell into the top fifth of areas for this measure.

In the other highest-scoring areas, around 1 in 10 people in the labour force held qualifications up to Level 3, which includes AS and A levels. This means that overall, around 80% people had some form of post-16 qualification.

London has a high concentration of universities, providing access to higher qualifications. It is also a centre for graduate job opportunities, which helps retain qualified workers, and attract them from elsewhere. This largely explains the high qualification levels in many London boroughs.

Only 2 of the 10 highest-scoring areas were outside of London: Cambridge and St Albans, both in the East of England.

Cambridge has multiple universities and research parks, all of which create and attract a highly qualified labour force.

St Albans is within commuting distance of London, meaning higher-paid jobs in the capital are also available to locals here.

If professional jobs requiring expert training were readily available in all areas of England and Wales, we would expect the distribution of people with high-level qualifications to be fairly even between local areas.

But there are many areas with a much less-qualified resident workforce. These areas may have a poorer economy, or fewer well-paid jobs available.

Many areas in the East of England and the East Midlands fall into the lowest-ranked fifth in England and Wales.

Of the 10 lowest-scoring areas in England and Wales, 7 were in these two regions, and many were coastal.

Many coastal towns have had slower employment growth than other areas in England and Wales, another sign that these areas struggle to attract and retain highly qualified workers. People may need to leave the area to acquire higher-level qualifications or to get a job that requires more education.

The East Midlands and East of England regions also had the greatest inequality in qualification levels. The East of England was home to the ninth most-qualified area in England and Wales (Cambridge), and the 330th (Fenland).

Part of the reason for this could be that these regions contain both more deprived, coastal areas, and areas within commuting distance of London. This inequality in the southern half of England may partially explain the lack of clear north-south divide on a regional level.

Boston in Lincolnshire had the lowest score of all English and Welsh areas.

The resident workforce here had the lowest percentage of people with higher education qualifications, at 23%, although this is still the most common qualification level among workers or jobseekers who live here.

The second most common education level was not holding any qualifications at all, with almost a fifth (19%) of workers and jobseekers in Boston falling into this group.

Less than half of Boston’s labour force (47%) had post-16 qualifications.

This is reflected in the local job market. In Census 2021, 11% of workers in Boston were employed in professional occupations, the lowest percentage of any local authority in England and Wales.

Conversely, more than 18% worked in elementary occupations, which include jobs in industries such as agriculture, construction and cleaning. This is the second highest of any local authority in England and Wales, next to Leicester.

This means Boston’s local economy might suffer, by being less attractive to highly qualified workers with high earning potential.

While all of the 10 highest-scoring areas were in cities, Hull and Leicester stand out as the only cities in the bottom 10 scoring areas.

In Leicester, 35% of the resident workforce had higher education qualifications, the highest percentage among the 10 lowest-scoring areas.

However, almost one in five workers or jobseekers in the city (18%) held no formal qualifications.

Of Leicester's workers and jobseekers, 4% had an apprenticeship as their highest qualification. This was the lowest of all the bottom 10 scoring areas.

In Hull, the qualification profile was less extreme than in Leicester.

The percentage of workers or jobseekers with higher education qualifications was also relatively high, at 27%. However, the percentage with no formal qualifications was lower than Leicester, at 15%.

Of Hull's resident labour force, 7% had an apprenticeship as their highest qualification, which was among the highest of all areas in England and Wales.

Remaining in central England, the West Midlands was the region with the highest percentage of resident workers or jobseekers who had no formal qualifications, at 11%.

In the lowest-scoring local authority in the region, Sandwell, 16% of workers and jobseekers had no qualifications. Sandwell was the sixth lowest-scoring area in England and Wales.

In Stoke-on-Trent, the second lowest-scoring area in the region, 14% of the resident workforce held no qualifications, the highest after Sandwell. However, it also had the highest percentage of residents with apprenticeships in the region, at 6%.

In Wolverhampton, 14% of the local workforce had no formal qualifications.

In Birmingham, 12% had no formal qualifications.

In the West Midlands, the cities tended to be lower-qualified compared with the surrounding areas than in most other regions.

Other major cities in England and Wales, such as Cardiff, Bristol and Newcastle, are the highest-scoring areas in their respective regions.

In both the East and West Midlands, the most-qualified areas were less populated towns, while cities such as Birmingham and Leicester had lower rankings.

The highest-scoring area in the West Midlands was Warwick, where more than half of the resident workforce held higher education qualifications (55%).

The University of Warwick, which sits partially in the neighbouring local authority of Coventry, likely plays a part in Warwick’s relatively high rank.

Coventry, however, ranked more than 170 places below Warwick, despite the universities of both Warwick and Coventry falling within its boundaries.

The differences between Warwick and Coventry show that local education centres alone do not guarantee a highly qualified and highly paid labour force. There may be other factors, such as job opportunities and other lifestyle differences driving more highly qualified workers towards Warwick.

The highest-ranked areas in the West Midlands may reflect the “commuter effect”, where highly qualified people live outside of cities but work inside them.

The commuter effect is not on display in Wales, where the area with the most-qualified resident labour force is the capital city of Cardiff.

In Cardiff, 52% of the resident workforce held higher education qualifications.

Blaenau Gwent is the local authority with the lowest score in Wales; 14% of workers and jobseekers here had no formal qualifications.

It is the only Welsh local authority to be in the bottom 10 scoring areas in England and Wales.

Compared with the rest of Wales, more people in Blaenau Gwent reported secondary school level qualifications, such as GCSEs, as their highest education level (18%).

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How Adur compares

Adur is ranked 242 out of 331 English and Welsh local authorities.

This puts it in the bottom 40% of areas.

The five most similar areas to Adur in terms of qualification profile are:

1. Folkestone and Hythe
2. Gloucester
3. Southend-on-Sea
4. Thanet
5. Newark and Sherwood

The most similar area, Folkestone and Hythe, was ranked six places higher than Adur.

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