The city centre in Singapore continues to draw the lion's share of resident workers here, including younger ones.
Some 284,000 employed residents aged 15 and over - or 12.9 per cent of the resident workforce - worked in offices in the Downtown Core planning area - Singapore's financial and commercial centre - last year.
This was followed by Queenstown, Geylang and Bukit Merah, with more than 100,000 residents working in each of these areas, according to population census data released yesterday.
The Downtown Core also attracted younger workers.
Almost two-thirds of employed residents working there were younger than 45, while less than 4 per cent were 65 years and older.
In comparison, nine other planning areas had at least 10 per cent of employed residents who were aged 65 and older last year: Bukit Panjang, Rochor, Marine Parade, Bishan, Hougang, Bukit Timah, Outram, Bedok and Choa Chu Kang.
Among employed residents working in the Downtown Core, 86.2 per cent had at least post-secondary qualifications - the highest across all workplace planning areas.
Other planning areas with at least 80 per cent of employed residents having post-secondary or higher qualifications included Queenstown, Newton and Seletar.
The Downtown Core was also the top workplace destination last year of residents living in all five residential planning regions - Central, East, North, North-East and West.
It accounted for 9.8 per cent to 21.3 per cent of the resident workforce from each region.
The number of employed residents travelling to the Downtown Core for work was the highest for those staying in the Central region at 91,500, followed by the North-East region at 65,900, the East region at 51,100, the West region at 47,600, and the North region at 27,900.
Almost 80 per cent of the resident workforce had their workplace located in a different planning area from their homes.
The report noted that employed residents in older age groups tended to have their workplace located in the same planning area as their homes, or have no fixed location for work.
Explaining why the authorities had, for the first time, tracked workplace geographical distribution in the census, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Indranee Rajah said this has important implications for transport and urban planning.
"Would it, for example, be better for people to have workplaces which are nearer where they live?" she said.
"It gives us data that we can use to plan. And the way that we have been planning for the housing estates and towns is to have more people being able to work, live and play nearer their areas of residence."
Grace Ho
