TRAVEL TO WORK AREA

A 'Travel to Work Area' or 'TTWA' is a statistical tool used by UK Government agencies and local authorities, especially by the Department for Work and Pensions and Job Centres, to indicate an area where the population would generally commute to a larger town, city or conurbation for the purposes of employment.
As a measure based on urban areas and their commuter hinterland they are a form of Metropolitan Area, though as methods of calculation differ they cannot directly be compared with other specific measurements such as Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the United States.
TTWAs have no legal status. However, they give planners and geographers an alternate view of urban life as their boundaries are tied not to arbitary administrative limits but socio-economic ties. Having an idea of where people commute from for work is particularly useful for public transport planning.

Contents
Definition
The ''State of the Cities''
Largest TTWAs by number of jobs in comparison to population
See also
External links
References

Definition


Travel to Work Areas are defined by the Office for National Statistics using census data for commuting between wards, based on the the different locations of individuals' home and work addresses.
A Travel to Work Area is a collection of wards for which "of the resident economically active population, at least 75% actually work in the area, and also, that of everyone working in the area, at least 75% actually live in the area".[1]. According to this measure, there are 308 TTWAs within the United Kingdom.

The ''State of the Cities''


Travel to Work Areas were selected to approximate city regions as one of the main units of comparison used by the ''State of the Cities'' report and database, commissioned and maintained by the Communities and Local Government department of the UK Government.[2]
This has greatly increased the amount of information available about Travel to Work Areas, although the ''State of the Cities'' only publishes data for the 56 Travel to Work Areas based around Primary Urban Areas in England. Travel to Work Areas in Scotland and Wales and those covering only rural areas are not included.[3]
To increase the range of statistics available the ''State of the Cities'' also publishes data for Travel to Work Areas approximated to local authority boundaries. These areas can differ considerably from the more accurate ward-based areas.[4]

Largest TTWAs by number of jobs in comparison to population


Travel to Work Area (TTWA) Jobs (1997 Census) Population(2005 Estimate)[5]
London 2,879,000 9,294,800
Manchester 759,000 1,919,700
Birmingham 705,000 2,826,400
Slough & Woking 596,000 208,907
Glasgow 528,000 1,171,390
Leeds 384,000 723,100
Newcastle 376,000 1,032,600
Edinburgh 345,000 448,624
Bristol 329,000 841,500
Liverpool 314,000 987,300
Sheffield & Rotherham 294,000 773,900
Nottingham 281,000 716,600

See also



Primary Urban Area

External links



Office of National Statistics

Map of UK TTWAs

A Local Government website page

UK 1997 Census tables using TTWAs

References


1. Beginners' guide to UK geography - Travel to Work Areas (TTWAs) Office for National Statistics
2. Robinson, Phillipa "And city regions......", State of the Cities Database, Presentation to North East Regional Information Partnership
3. - State of the Cities - Making sense of cities - Travel to work areas (TTWAs) Department for Communities and Local Government
4. Robinson, Phillipa "Presenting Statistics on UK Geographies", State of the Cities Database, Presentation to North East Regional Information Partnership
5. Download raw data from State of the Cities Department for Communities and Local Government (Wizard driven data download - Grouping type:Subject, Select subject:Population and Households, Select place type:TTWA (LA), Select the dataset you are interested in:Mid year population estimates, Start:2005, End:2005, Select download format:Excel)


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