Cross-border workers commuting to Luxembourg use public transport more often (17%) than cross-border commuters who work in other countries, a French statistical study has found. Photo: Frédéric Antzorn/archives

Cross-border workers commuting to Luxembourg use public transport more often (17%) than cross-border commuters who work in other countries, a French statistical study has found. Photo: Frédéric Antzorn/archives

Insee, France’s National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies, has published a report on the journeys made by cross-border commuters, particularly to work. Those who work in Luxembourg spend more time on the road than those employed in other countries. They also have a larger carbon footprint.

In the Grand Est region, commuting times are much longer for cross-border commuters than for other workers. In its latest study, published on Thursday, France’s National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (Insee) provides details of this phenomenon, which affects just over 200,000 residents, around half of whom commute to work in Luxembourg. The same applies to a quarter of the population in Germany, over 20% in Switzerland and 4% in Belgium. Here are five figures taken from the study.

42km

Border workers in the Grand Est region travel an average of 38km to work, compared with 15km for non-cross-border workers. Cross-border workers employed in Luxembourg have the longest commutes, with an average of 42km, seven kilometres more than other border workers. This distance has increased by 1.5km since 2010, and is longer than for cross-border commuters employed in Germany, Switzerland or Belgium (35km). Between 2010 and 2021, the number of cross-border commuters travelling more than 50km to Luxembourg increased faster than the total number of cross-border commuters to that country (+75% compared with +56%), says Insee.

17%

The Insee study mentions that “cross-border commuters to Luxembourg use public transport more often (17%) than other cross-border commuters, as evidenced by the very busy Metz-Hagondange-Thionville-Luxembourg train line.” 83% still use the car to get to work, a proportion more or less the same as for cross-border commuters employed in Switzerland (85%). In all the countries receiving cross-border workers from France’s Grand Est region, the car remains the preferred mode of transport. However, it is used slightly less by non-cross-border commuters.

+6 km

This is the average additional distance travelled by a managerial cross-border commuter compared with a non-managerial cross-border commuter. In Luxembourg, a quarter of managerial cross-border commuters use public transport, compared with 8% of blue-collar workers, who often have working hours and workplaces that are less suited to public transport.

x2.4

A cross-border commuter's journey generates on average 2.4 times more greenhouse gases than a non cross-border commuter. Insee estimates that in 2021, a cross-border commuter emitted an average of 1.6 tonnes of CO2 equivalent in the course of his or her home-to-work journeys (1.7 tonnes for a commuter to Luxembourg), compared with 0.7 tonnes for a non-cross-border commuter.

40%

Almost 40% of cross-border commuters are women. And they generally travel shorter distances than men and work closer to home, on average 42 km away, i.e., 6 km closer than men. Cross-border commuters of foreign nationality live closer to their place of work than those of French nationality: 30 km compared with 36 km to Germany, 25 km compared with 37 km to Switzerland and 35 km compared with 43 km to Luxembourg.

This article was originally published in .

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