Our research found that 44% of Brits, approximately 23.4 million people, work from home at least some of the time. Along with more traditional money tips like regular saving or using a bank switching offer, working from home can save you money on commuting costs! We break down who is working from home the most and what returning to the office full time might cost.
Working from home statistics: Highlights
More than 2 in 5 adults (44%) work from home at least some of the time, which is around 23.4 million adults.
1 in 6 adults (16%) work exclusively from home, while 2 in 7 adults (28%) are hybrid workers.
1 in 10 adults (10%) choose to travel to work when they could work from home.
Those with a higher income are more likely to work from home.
Self-employed workers are twice as likely as employees to only work from home.
In London, 4 in 10 workers (40%) reported hybrid working.
The average commute time in the UK is 28 minutes. If you travelled to and from work every working day, you’d spend 8 days, 21 hours and 44 minutes commuting in a year.
The average person travelling to work every day will spend almost £2,000 on commuting costs over a year. This is 7% of the average income for a UK worker!
How many people work from home?
An estimated 23.4 million UK adults, or 44% of the population, work from home at least some of the time as of January 2023. 1 in 6 (16%) work from home all the time, while 2 in 7 (28%) are hybrid workers who split their time between home and travelling to work.
This means that more than half of adults (56%) travel to work. 1 in 10 adults (10%) choose to travel to work even though they can work from home, which leaves 46% who travel to work out of necessity. This group likely includes occupations that cannot easily be done from home, such as those in medical care and hospitality.
Those aged 65 and over are most likely to work exclusively from home, with a quarter (24%) of this age group doing so. Meanwhile, the youngest age group, 16- to 24-year-olds, are the least likely to work from home, with only 6% doing so.
In fact, two-thirds (65%) of those aged 16 to 24 say they travel to work because they cannot work from home. This is higher than in any other age group and may be due to the type of jobs the youngest age group has.
The likelihood of working remotely increases with the average income, and more than a quarter (27%) of those earning £50,000 or more a year worked from home all the time. At the other end of the spectrum, less than 1 in 10 (8%) of those earning less than £10,000 worked remotely.
Hybrid working is also more popular among high earners, with 53% of those earning £50,000 or more, 38% of those earning £40,000 or more and 33% of those earning £30,000 or more split their time between home and a place of work.
1 in 3 (32%) self-employed individuals worked fully remotely, while just 1 in 7 (14%) employed individuals worked fully remotely. This means that self-employed people are more than twice as likely to work exclusively from home compared to employees.
What is the average commute time in the UK?
The average commute in the UK is 28 minutes. Over a day, this is almost an hour (56 minutes). If you travelled to work every day in 2024 with the average commute time, excluding holidays and weekends, you would spend 8 days, 21 hours and 44 minutes commuting.
While some people are still working from home and others are hybrid working, more than half of adults (56%) are still travelling to work and, therefore, will be spending a significant amount of their time on the daily commute.
The average cost of commuting to work around the UK
We’ve calculated the cost of commuting to and from work and buying lunch, so you can see how much you would be spending if you travelled to work every day.
Across the UK as a whole, the average commuter will spend an impressive £1,964 a year on travel and lunch costs. This is 7% of the average income for a UK worker!
Although it’s the biggest financial hub in the UK, London is also the most expensive region for commuting. The average person would spend £3,076 on travelling to work and buying lunch over a year.
Meanwhile, people in the North East of England spend much less on commuting to work, with the average yearly spend at £1,665. You can see the full regional breakdown and interactive map below.
Of course, these are just estimates and your personal commuting costs could be different, but it gives an idea of how much you could be shelling out.
Commuting to work as a percentage of take-home pay
London
£3,075.93
£32,747.20
9.4%
South East
£1,906.08
£30,126.40
6.3%
East of England
£1,824.64
£29,471.20
6.2%
West Midlands
£1,821.12
£27,505.60
6.6%
South West
£1,784.47
£27,942.40
6.4%
North West
£1,780.14
£27,396.40
6.5%
Yorkshire and The Humber
£1,779.54
£26,777.60
6.6%
East Midlands
£1,747.68
£27,068.80
6.5%
Scotland
£1,746.07
£29,325.60
6.0%
Wales
£1,703.01
£26,923.20
6.3%
North East
£1,664.71
£26,122.40
6.4%
UK average
£1,964.37
£28,597.60
6.9%
Methodology
Finder established the most popular method of commuting in each region of the UK and combined this with the average time spent commuting in each area to determine how much would be spent on travel.
The popular method of commuting in most regions of the UK, and the UK as a whole, is by car. The average journey times to work in each region and average petrol prices were then used to calculate the cost of commuting. The exception to this is London, where the majority of people travel to work by train, so we calculated the average yearly train costs instead.
Finder used the average cost of a meal deal to work out how much employees might spend on an affordable lunch each day.
Click here for more research. For all media enquiries, please contact –
Matt Mckenna
UK Head of Communications T: +44 20 8191 8806
A recent Freedom Of Information request made by the comparison site, Finder, has found that millions of people could be trapped in Help To Buy (H2B) ISAs, with nearly 2.2 million H2B ISAs currently open.
Chris Lilly is Head of publishing at finder.com. He's a specialist in personal finance, from day-to-day banking to investing to borrowing, and is passionate about helping UK consumers make informed decisions about their money. In his spare time Chris likes forcing his kids to exercise more. See full bio
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A recent Freedom Of Information request made by the comparison site, Finder, has found that millions of people could be trapped in Help To Buy (H2B) ISAs, with nearly 2.2 million H2B ISAs currently open.
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