An interactive introduction to Census 2021 origin-destination data
21 November 2023
Origin-destination data show the movement of people from one location to another, such as migration and commuting patterns. It is sometimes known as "flow data".
This is an interactive guide to some of the origin-destination data published for Census 2021.
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic strongly affected patterns of population movement. Census day was 21 March 2021, when lockdown restrictions were in force in the UK.
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Some residents in England and Wales moved address in the year ahead of census day, including 5.9 million people who moved from within the UK and 545,000 people who moved from outside of the UK.
These data display movement between March 2020 and March 2021 when migration was impacted by the pandemic. Migration in other years is likely to have been very different.
Read our demography and migration quality information for Census 2021.
Each pink point on this map represents 20 people who lived at a different address 12 months before census day, located based on their previous address.
The points on this map broadly represent the data in each area, but they are distributed randomly, so do not identify precise addresses. They also reflect population density. Read our methodology.
By zooming in on the West Midlands, we can start to see the representative points more clearly.
We can animate these points to show where people moved to as of census day, 21 March 2021.
In the interactive tool, you can animate the points by switching between "previous address" and "new address" at the bottom of the map.
It is easier to read patterns of migration by focusing on a smaller area.
We can visualise workplace flow data in much the same way as internal migration data.
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There were 27.8 million usual residents aged 16 and over in England and Wales who were working in the week before the census. This map gives a representation of where they lived and where they worked.
Lockdown restrictions and the furlough scheme that was in place in March 2021 had a significant impact on travel to work data. As such, the data are not reflective of current commuting patterns.
Read our travel to work quality information for Census 2021.
Each blue point on this map represents 100 working people, located based on their place of residence in March 2021.
The points on this map broadly represent the data in each area, but they are distributed randomly, so do not identify precise addresses. They also reflect population density. Read our methodology.
Zooming in on Greater London, we can see the representative points more clearly.
By animating these points, we can see the approximate journey to work of each of these people at the time of census, as well as those who were working from home.
In the interactive tool, you can animate the points by switching between "place of residence" and "place of work" at the bottom of the map.
People who were furloughed during census and gave a workplace address are included in this data, even though they were not commuting at the time.
Find out more about how census data on travel to work was affected by the pandemic and other quality considerations.
You can explore both migration and workplace flow data using the interactive tool below.
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View origin-destination data for migration or workplace flows.
Select your preferred dataset and then click the explore button to activate the map controls. Click close when you are finished.
Embed the interactive map in your own website by copy-pasting the following code.
Your embed will show the workplace flows dataset. You can change your selection above.
You can download the data used in this tool, along with a wider range of origin-destination datasets, from Nomis. You can read more about these datasets and how to use them in the User guide to Census 2021 origin-destination data. Headline insights can be found in the origin-destination data bulletin.
The points on this map broadly represent the data in each area, but they are distributed randomly within each MSOA, a statistical area with between 5,000 and 15,000 residents.
When we say each point "represents" 100 people, what we mean is that the map is displaying a sample of 1 in 100 of the MSOA-level journey counts in the dataset.
The underlying data only contain counts of the number of movements from each MSOA to each other MSOA, so it is not possible for the points to identify addresses of individual people.
In aggregate, the points should be representative of the level of movement between the areas shown on the map. However, some of the smaller individual flows between areas may or may not be represented.
Our origin-destination data are designed to protect the confidentiality of individuals. Read more about our statistical disclosure control on Census 2021 data in our protecting personal data in Census 2021 results article.