Remote working (National Survey for Wales): April 2024 to March 2025
Information from the National Survey for Wales on the characteristics of people who are more likely to work remotely.
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Introduction
This report sets out results from the remote working questions included in the National Survey for Wales during 2024-25. The survey involved around 6,000 people aged 16 and over. It took place in two parts: an interviewer-led section (either by telephone or face-to-face) and then a self-completion section (online or, if a face-to-face interview, on the interviewer’s tablet computer). The remote working questions were asked in the interviewer-led section.
Fieldwork issues were encountered during 2024-25 resulting in lower response rates than previous years, smaller sample sizes, and some differences in the sample composition (see Quality and methodology information). Due to the smaller sample sizes, confidence intervals around estimates are wider than in previous years, particularly for smaller geographies and population sub-groups.
However, it is still appropriate to use these statistics. At a national level the survey continues to provide reasonable estimates, particularly when used alongside alternative sources. The smaller sample size means that some detailed breakdowns of the data on remote working are not possible in this release.
This report sets out results from the remote working questions included in the National Survey for Wales during April 2024 to March 2025, shortened to 2024-25 in this report.
Main findings
More people worked remotely in 2024-25 than in 2022-23. In 2024-25, 42% of people in work worked remotely at least some of the time, compared with 34% in 2022-23.
Although more people are working remotely, they are doing it for fewer hours per week. 35% of people who worked some or all of their hours remotely in 2024-25 said they did this for more than 32 hours a week, compared with 61% in 2022-23. In 2024-25, 17% worked 8 or fewer hours remotely each week, compared with 8% in 2022-23.
People with higher qualifications were more likely to work remotely: 51% of those with qualifications at degree level or above worked remotely, compared with 16% of those with low or no qualifications.
People living in social housing were less likely to work remotely: 19% of this group worked remotely, compared with 46% of those in owner occupied and 36% in privately rented homes.
Of those who do not usually work remotely, 10% said they don’t want to work remotely and 87% said they can’t work remotely.
Overall, just over half (52%) of people reported that they could not work remotely in 2024-25.
Overall levels of remote working
The proportion of people in Wales who work remotely (42% in the 2024-25 National Survey) is in line with levels of remote working found in the UK-wide Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (Office for National Statistics (ONS)) (41% in April 2025). There has been an increase in levels of remote working: the 2022-23 National Survey figure was 34% (and the April 2023 Opinions Survey figure for the UK was 37%).
Hours worked remotely
Figure 1: Distribution of the number of hours worked remotely per week in 2022-23 and 2024-25
Description of figure 1: In 2024-25, 35% of people who do any remote working said they did this for 33 or more hours per week, compared with 61% in 2022-23. 17% worked 8 or fewer hours remotely each week, compared with 8% in 2022-23. This suggests that although more people are working remotely, they are doing it for fewer hours.
Source: National Survey for Wales, 2022-23 and 2024-25
In the National Survey in 2024-25, of those who do not usually work remotely 10% said they don’t want to work remotely and 87% said they can’t work remotely. The remaining 3% said they both don’t want to work remotely and can’t work remotely.
Factors linked to remote working
The relationship between remote working and various factors was explored using statistical techniques (see Quality and methodology information). When taking other factors into account, the following were independently linked to working remotely:
- having higher levels of qualifications
- being an owner-occupier, or not living in social housing
- living in south-east Wales
- not being religious
- participating in sport three or more times a week
- being aged 25 or above
- being less likely to feel that life was worthwhile
Additionally, distance travelled to work was found to be linked in 2022-23, with people travelling more than 15 miles to work being more likely to work remotely (23%, compared with 11% of people who travelled 3 miles or less). However, this wasn’t asked about in 2024-25.
Sexual orientation was also linked to remote working in 2022-23 (but not in 2024-25), with gay, lesbian, bisexual or other sexual orientations being more likely to work remotely than heterosexuals. The reason sexual orientation wasn’t found to be linked to remote working in 2024-25 may be due to the smaller sample size. Sector of work was also linked in 2022-23 but not in 2024-25.
Although religion and participation in sport were linked to remote working in 2024-25, they were not found to be linked in 2022-23.
Sex, limiting long-term illness, mental illness, ethnicity, rurality, household type, Welsh speaking, material deprivation, and marital status were not found to be linked with remote working in either 2022-23 or 2024-25.
The remainder of this bulletin is structured primarily around factors found to be linked to remote working in 2024-25.
Highest qualification
Figure 2: Percentage of people who worked remotely in 2022-23 and 2024-25, by their highest qualification
Description of figure 2: In 2024-25, 51% of those with higher education qualifications or National Qualification Framework (NQF) level 4 or above worked remotely. This was higher than in 2022-23 (43%). The proportion for people with a lower level of qualification or no qualification remained the same (16%). See the section on Quality for further information on qualification levels.
Source: National Survey for Wales, 2022-23 and 2024-25
Tenure
Figure 3: Percentage of people who worked remotely in 2022-23 and 2024-25, by tenure
Description of figure 3: People in social housing were less likely than renters or owner occupiers to work remotely, and owner occupiers were more likely to work remotely. 19% of people in social housing worked remotely, compared with 36% of private renters and 46% of owner-occupiers. The pattern was similar in 2022-23. The proportion of owner-occupiers working remotely increased from 37% in 2022-23 to 46% in 2024-25.
Source: National Survey for Wales, 2022-23 and 2024-25
Region
Figure 4: Percentage of people who worked remotely in 2022-23 and 2024-25, by region
Description of figure 4: There are differences in the percentage of people working remotely by region in 2024-25, varying from 34% in north-west Wales to 46% in south-east Wales. The proportion of people working remotely was higher in south-east Wales than the two north Wales regions. The pattern was similar in 2022-23; and there was an increase in levels of remote working in south east Wales from 2022-23 to 2024-25.
Source: National Survey for Wales, 2022-23 and 2024-25
Religion
Once other factors were taken into account, not being religious had an independent link with remote working. In 2024-25, 44% of people who said they are not religious work remotely, compared with 40% of people who said they are religious. The difference was similar in 2022-23.
Participation in sport
People who said they participated in sport three or more times per week were more likely to work remotely (46%) than those who did less sport (41% of this group worked remotely).
However this was not consistent with results from 2022-23, where the opposite pattern was found: those who participated in sport three or more times per week were less likely to work remotely (31%) than those who didn’t participate in so much sport (35% worked remotely).
Figures from the ONS Time Use Survey in March 2024 suggest that people working remotely in the UK spend more time participating in sport, which would support the 2024-25 survey position. Further research would be useful and participation in sport questions will also be included in the 2026-27 survey, with a larger sample, which will support more detailed analysis.
Age
People aged under 25 were less likely to work remotely than those aged 25 or older.
Figure 5: Percentage of people who worked remotely in 2022-23 and 2024-25, by age
Description of figure 5: In 2024-25, 22% of those aged 16-24 said they worked remotely compared with 44% in the 25-44 age group, 43% in the 45-64 age group and 40% in the 65-74 age group. The pattern was similar in 2022-23, although the levels of remote working were lower for people aged 25-64 than they were in 2024-25.
Source: National Survey for Wales, 2022-23 and 2024-25
[Note 1] The sample size for those aged 16 to 24 who worked remotely is fewer than 30.
[Note 2] The 75+ age group is not shown due to there only being a small number of cases in each year.
Feeling life was worthwhile
In a simple comparison, people who felt that life was worthwhile were not more likely to work remotely. However, once other factors (such as age, education and so on) were taken into account, a link became apparent between feeling that life was worthwhile and not working remotely. This was also the case in 2022-23.
Other factors
There were also several factors that showed differences only when other factors were not taken into account. These differences are better explained by the factors listed above, but are worth some discussion in their own right.
Material deprivation
Being in material deprivation means lacking essentials such as having a holiday, replacing household appliances or keeping their accommodation warm. In 2024-25 people in material deprivation were less likely to work remotely (31%) compared with people not in material deprivation (44%). In 2022-23, the same pattern was found but the proportions were lower: 21% for people in material deprivation and 36% for people not in material deprivation.
However, once other factors are taken into account material deprivation is not associated with likelihood of remote working. This suggests the differences in the previous paragraph are better explained by other linked factors, such as being more highly educated or being an owner-occupier.
The large increase in remote working by those in material deprivation between 2022-23 and 2024-25 is of interest. Further research would be needed to understand the differences. Remote working questions will be included in the 2026-27 survey, which will have a larger sample and will support more detailed exploration.
Sector of work
In 2024-25, people who worked for charity or voluntary organisations were more likely to work remotely (58%) than those in the private sector (38%). The level of remote working in the public sector (44%) isn’t significantly different from the other sectors.
Policy context
The Welsh Government’s Smarter Working strategy sets an ambition for 30% of the workforce to work remotely on a regular basis. Accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, remote working is an evolving trend where employers continue to refine their approaches and expectations, and workers adapt their routines and develop new skills. The questions in the National Survey for Wales aim to strengthen the evidence base on these changing patterns and their wider impacts.
Quality and methodology information
The 2024-25 National Survey for Wales was a large-scale, random-sample telephone survey covering adults aged 16+ across Wales.
Methodology
Addresses were selected at random, and invitations sent by post requesting that a phone number be provided for the address. A phone number could be provided via an online portal or a telephone enquiry line. Where no phone number was provided, telematching was undertaken with available databases of phone numbers to see if one can be found for the address.
The interviewer then called the phone number for the address, established how many adults live there, and selected one at random (the person with the next birthday) to take part in the survey. The selected person was interviewed by phone. Once they had completed the phone section, they were asked to complete an online section and details were sent to them.
If no number was obtained for the address then for a randomly-chosen 46% of such cases the interviewer made a visit to the address to select a respondent and either carried out an in-home, face-to-face interview with them or (if a phone interview is preferred) collected a phone number for them.
The survey lasted around 40 to 45 minutes on average and covers a range of topics. Respondents were offered a £15 voucher to say thank you for taking part. The achieved sample size each month was around 500 people on average, and the response rate was 18.7% of those eligible to take part.
Survey weighting
When comparing the unweighted achieved sample with the 2022-23 unweighted achieved sample, the 2024-25 sample has some differences such as: more Welsh speakers; fewer people aged 25 to 54; more people aged 75+; more people with higher-level qualifications; fewer people with no qualifications; fewer working people; and more people in rural areas. In terms of household type, there are more single-person households in the 2024-25 sample and fewer couples (with or without children). There are fewer people in the areas of lowest income and employment, and more in areas where people have higher levels of qualification and skills. There is also a less even spread of interviews across the year (for example, proportionately fewer in February and March) compared with previous years.
Survey weights are used to bring the sample closer to the population in terms of age, sex, and local authority size, as well as to compensate for variation from target in the numbers of interviews in each health board within each quarter. The weights reduce but will not eliminate the effects of differences in the achieved sample compared with previous years and with the general population. As noted above, care should therefore be taken when comparing results with previous years, and any differences should be explored in the context of other sources.
Statistical analysis
This release uses regression analysis to allow us to look at the relationship with a given factor (remote working), while keeping other things constant (sometimes referred to as “controlling for other factors”). However, it does not mean that remote working is caused by these factors, or vice versa.
Where the text of this release notes a difference between two survey results, we have checked to ensure that the confidence intervals (sometimes called the “margin of error”) for the two results do not overlap. This suggests that the difference is statistically significant, i.e. that there is less than a 5% or 1 in 20 chance that the results are due to a quirk of the survey sample rather than reflecting a real difference in the wider population. Where no difference is noted, the confidence intervals do overlap.
The survey questionnaire is available on our web pages.
Detailed charts and tables of results are available in our interactive results viewer. For information on data collection and methodology please see our Quality report and Technical report.
Terms and definitions
Respondents’ highest qualifications are coded by National Qualification Framework (NQF) levels, where level 1 is the lowest level of qualifications and level 8 is doctoral degree or equivalent. For reporting purposes, respondents are grouped into 5 categories, as follows.
NQF levels 4 to 8
Higher education (Level 4+)
NQF level 3
'A' level and equivalent (Level 3)
NQF level 2
GCSE grades A to C and equivalent (Level 2)
Below NQF level 2
GCSE below grade C (below Level 2)
No qualifications
No qualifications
More information on the terms used in the National Survey for Wales are available in our Terms and definitions report.
Statement of compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics
Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.
All of our statistics are produced and published in accordance with a number of statements and protocols to enhance trustworthiness, quality and value. These are set out in the Welsh Government’s Statement of Compliance.
These official statistics in development (OSR) demonstrate the standards expected around trustworthiness, quality and public value in the following ways.
Trustworthiness
All personal data underlying these statistics is processed in accordance with the requirements of the Data Protection Act 2018.
National Survey for Wales statistics are published in an accessible, orderly, pre-announced manner on the Welsh Government website at 9:30am on the day of publication. All releases are available to download for free.
All outputs adhere to the Code of Practice by pre-announcing the date of publication through the upcoming calendar web pages. Access to the data during processing is restricted to those involved in the production of the statistics, quality assurance and for operational purposes. Pre-release access is restricted to eligible recipients in line with the Code of Practice (UK Statistics Authority).
The published figures are compiled by professional analysts using the latest available data.
Quality
As noted above, the achieved sample size for the National Survey 2024-25 (6,000 respondents) is smaller than originally planned. The smaller sample size is due to the contractor encountering fieldwork issues including response rates being lower than in previous years. There are also changes in the composition of the achieved unweighted sample compared with previous years.
In July 2025 we therefore requested and received from the Office for Statistics Regulation a temporary suspension of accredited official statistics status for this first release and for other outputs based on the 2024-25 data. The temporary suspension reflects the fact that the 2024-25 outputs generally do not provide sufficiently precise results for small geographic areas and other small subgroups, and that care should be taken in comparing some 2024-25 results with those from previous years. All outputs based on 2024-25 data are badged as official statistics in development.
It is still appropriate to use these statistics. At a national level, estimates continue to provide a reasonable indication of estimates for Wales, particularly if used alongside alternative sources. However, users should note the wider confidence intervals particularly for smaller geographies and population sub-groups.
All stages in the collection, validation and production of these statistics are led by professional statisticians and the statistics are produced free from any political interference. All statistics are quality-assured prior to publication.
Statistics published by Welsh Government adhere to the Statistical Quality Management Strategy which supplements the Quality pillar of the Code of Practice for Statistics and the European Statistical System principles of quality for statistical outputs.
Set-up work for a new online-first survey design is progressing well and mainstage fieldwork will begin in March 2026, with first results due in summer 2027. One key advantage of the new approach is that it will be possible to deliver much larger achieved sample sizes, and therefore much more precise estimates for small subgroups. Following the start of mainstage fieldwork under the new design in 2026-27, we will request that accredited official statistics badging be reinstated by OSR for survey outputs from 2026-27 onwards.
Value
These statistics are used in a variety of ways. Some examples of these are:
- providing advice to ministers; and
- to inform a wide range of policy decisions.
The commentary and notes in this release have been developed to try to make the information as accessible as possible to users.
You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.
Well-being of Future Generations Act (WFG)
The Well-being of Future Generations Act 2015 is about improving the social, economic, environmental and cultural wellbeing of Wales. The Act puts in place seven wellbeing goals for Wales. These are for a more equal, prosperous, resilient, healthier and globally responsible Wales, with cohesive communities and a vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language. Under section (10)(1) of the Act, the Welsh Ministers must (a) publish indicators (“national indicators”) that must be applied for the purpose of measuring progress towards the achievement of the wellbeing goals, and (b) lay a copy of the national indicators before Senedd Cymru. Under section 10(8) of the Well-being of Future Generations Act, where the Welsh Ministers revise the national indicators, they must as soon as reasonably practicable (a) publish the indicators as revised and (b) lay a copy of them before the Senedd. These national indicators were laid before the Senedd in 2021. The indicators laid on 14 December 2021 replace the set laid on 16 March 2016.
Information on the indicators, along with narratives for each of the wellbeing goals and associated technical information is available in the Wellbeing of Wales report.
Further information on the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.
There is no specific national indicator on remote working, however the statistics included in this bulletin could provide supporting narrative to the national indicators and could be used by public services boards in relation to their local wellbeing assessments and local wellbeing plans. For example, the remote working information could affect the following indicators:- the percentage of people participating in sporting activities three or more times a week, the percentage of people living in households in material deprivation and the percentage of people in employment.
