West Suffolk
Economic profile. Data last updated 2026-03-28.
West Suffolk supports 102,545 workplace jobs with median earnings broadly in line with the England average. The claimant rate (2.6%) is lower than the England average of 4.1%. Productivity (GVA per job) is ranked 259th of 391 local authorities.
Source: ONS, Nomis, HM Land Registry, 2024-2025·Last updated March 2026
Employment & Labour Market
Monthly claimant count rate over the past 3 years.
Source: Claimant Count via Nomis, BRES, 2020-2026·Last updated March 2026
Industry Structure
Location quotients and shift-share analysis for West Suffolk's economy.
The most specialised sectors are Agriculture, forestry & fishing (LQ 2.80) and Administrative & support services (LQ 2.53). Manufacturing shows the strongest local competitive advantage. Human health & social work underperforms its national sectoral trend.
Source: BRES via Nomis, 2020-2024·Last updated March 2026
Economic Output
Estimated Gross Value Added for West Suffolk, derived from sector employment and national productivity ratios.
Estimates based on national GVA-per-job ratios applied to local sector employment (BRES). Indicative only. See Methodology for details.
Earnings & Income
Gross annual earnings distribution, 2025.
Median annual earnings of £33,437 are in line with the England median of £33,080.
Source: ASHE via Nomis, 2025·Last updated March 2026
Skills & Qualifications
Census 2021 highest qualification and occupation data.
Source: Census 2021, ONS
Demographics
Census 2021 population by age band.
The population is 179,946 with 62.6% of working age. The dependency ratio is 59.8%.
Source: Census 2021, ONS·Last updated 2021
Commuting & Travel to Work
Census 2021 method of travel to work for West Suffolk residents.
23.5% of residents work from home (below the national average). The most common commute method is driving a car or van (57.6%).
Source: Census 2021 TS061, ONS·Last updated 2021
Business Environment
Business data not available for this area.
Business count data is not available for this area.
UK Business Counts data covers VAT and/or PAYE registered enterprises. Some areas may have suppressed data due to disclosure control.
Housing & Property Market
Estimated house prices for West Suffolk vs England, 2015-2025.
The median house price of £278,473 is in line with the England median of £290,000. The price-to-earnings ratio is 8.3x. Prices have risen 1.8% over the past year.
Source: HM Land Registry, Census 2021, 2015-2025·Last updated March 2026
Place & Deprivation
Deprivation data not available for this area.
IMD data is only available for English local authorities.
The English Indices of Deprivation 2019 cover 317 English local authorities. Scottish and Welsh areas use separate indices (SIMD and WIMD) with different methodologies.
Impact Calculator
Estimate the economic impact of investment or job creation in West Suffolk using regional input-output multipliers.
Source: Derived from ONS Supply-Use Tables, regionalized via SLQ, 2019·Last updated March 2026