This page includes the Surrey-specific data from the national 2021 Census release which has been prepared by the SCC Population Insight team.
A summary of the economic activity status of residents from the 2021 Census is also available on Surrey-i.
A summary of the hours worked by Surrey residents from the 2021 Census is also available on Surrey-i.
Economic activity
People aged 16 years and over are economically active if, between 15 March and 21 March 2021, they were:
- in employment (an employee or self-employed)
- unemployed, but looking for work and could start within two weeks
- unemployed, but waiting to start a job that had been offered and accepted
It is a measure of whether or not a person was an active participant in the labour market during this period. Economically inactive are those aged 16 years and over who did not have a job between 15 March to 21 March 2021 and had not looked for work between 22 February to 21 March 2021 or could not start work within two weeks.
The census definition differs from International Labour Organization definition used on the Labour Force Survey, so estimates are not directly comparable.
Employee
An employee is a person aged 16 years and over in employment doing paid work for an individual or organisation. This relates to people’s main jobs or, if not working at the time of the census, their last main jobs.
Self-employed
Self-employed people aged 16 years and over who own and operate their own business, professional practice or similar enterprise, including those operated with a partner. This relates to people’s main jobs or, if not working at the time of the census, their last main jobs. This can include people who work freelance, which means someone who is self-employed and works (or worked) for different companies on particular pieces of work.
Self-employed people who are not freelance can have employees who work for them.
Hours worked
The number of hours worked per week before the census includes paid and unpaid overtime. This covers the main job of anyone aged 16 years and over.
Source: Labour market and travel to work: Census 2021 in England and Wales - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)
