Accredited official statistics

NTS 2025: Household car availability and trends in car trips

Published 10 September 2026

Applies to England

The introduction of the digital travel diary in 2025 appears to be associated with a lower rate of recording for certain types of trips. Within car travel, the overall fall in trip rates appears to be driven by falls in shopping, leisure, personal business and business purposes, whereas commuting and education trips appear less affected. Users are advised to interpret changes in trip rates between 2024 and 2025 with this in mind. Statistics based on interview questions, such as vehicle ownership, are assumed to be unaffected by changes to the travel diary as the interview is conducted before the travel diary is introduced.

Further details of work to understand the impact of the digital diary can be found in the quality report and technical report for 2025.

Main findings

• Around a third (33%) of households had two or more cars in 2025, 42% had one car and 25% no cars.
• Around 57% of cars (including sport utility vehicles) that people owned were petrol, 28% were diesel, 8% hybrid, 5% battery electric and 2% plug-in hybrid.
• Among all respondents, car (driver and passenger) trips made up 58% of trips and 76% of distance travelled.
• Average trips decreased compared to 2024 with 323 car driver trips per person (9% decrease) and 166 car passenger trips per person (12% decrease).
• Females made more car trips than males (495 and 485 trips respectively), but males made longer car trips on average (3,885 miles by females and 4,640 miles by males).
• The most common purpose for a trip by car was for leisure, with 32% of trips in 2025.
• Around 44% of households in the lowest income quintile had no access to a car, compared to 17% in the highest income quintile.

Household car access

Chart 4.1: Percentage of households by car access: Great Britain (1971 to 1988) and England (1989 to 2025) (NTS0205)

Household car access

• There have been long-term increases in the proportion of households with access to more than one car since 1971, however the trend has levelled out in more recent years.
• A third (33%) of households had two or more cars in 2025 compared to 8% in 1971.
• The proportion of households with one car was 42% in 2025, however, the long-term trend has remained broadly consistent since 1971.
• The proportion of households without a car fell from 48% in 1971 (based on the Census) to 25% in 2025.
• In 1985 to 1986, there were 8 cars for every 10 households in Great Britain; in 2025 there were 12 cars for every 10 households in England.
• These trends are comparable to those found in the Census.

Types of vehicles people own

Chart 4.2: Cars^{[footnote 1]} by fuel type: England, 2019, 2024 and 2025 (NTS0909)

Fuel type

In England in 2025^{[footnote 2]}, 57% of cars (including sport utility vehicles) people owned were petrol, 28% were diesel, 8% hybrid, 5% battery electric and 2% plug-in hybrid. The National Travel Attitudes Study wave 9 statistical release contains more information on attitudes towards ultra-low emission vehicles and government policies relating to them.

Vehicle transmission type

In England in 2025, 59% of cars people owned were manual and 41% automatic or semi-automatic.

Where people park

Around 64% of respondents usually parked their vehicles on private property (excluding garages) overnight in 2024,^{[footnote 3]} this has shown a general upward trend since 2002 (50%). The proportion of parked vehicles in garages overnight decreased from 22% in 2002 to 9% in 2024, showing a downward trend.

Trends in car trips

Chart 4.3: Average car trips and miles travelled (as driver or passenger), per person per year: England, 2002 to 2025 (NTS0303)

Car trips and distance travelled

• Car (driver and passenger) trips made up 58% of trips and 76% of distance travelled, on average in 2025.
• Average trips decreased for both car drivers and passengers in 2025 compared to 2024 with 323 trips per person (9% decrease) and 166 trips per person (12% decrease) respectively and remained below pre-pandemic levels (a decrease of 15% and 17% compared to 2019).
• Overall, there has been a gradual decline in car driver and passenger trips since 2002.
• For average miles travelled by car, the trend since 2002 was similar to that for trips.

Long-term trends in car trips in the NTS broadly reflect those observed in DfT’s {Road Traffic Statistics]( https://roadtraffic.dft.gov.uk/). The year-on-year change in NTS car trips for 2025, however, does not match the latest road traffic statistics, which show a 2% increase in car and taxi traffic between 2024 and 2025. As noted above, the change in car trips recorded in the NTS in 2025 appears to be associated with the introduction of the digital diary.

Chart 4.4: Car trips per person per year by trip purpose: England, 2019, 2024 and 2025 (NTS0409)

Car trips by trip purpose

• The most common purpose for a trip by car was for leisure, with 32% of trips in 2025. This was followed by shopping (19%), commuting (14%) and other escort (12%).
• Despite fluctuations in the number of trips overall, the proportions of those trips taken for different purposes remained similar to the previous 5 years.

Chart 4.5: Average car trips and miles travelled, by age and sex: England, 2025 (NTS0601)

Car trips and distance travelled by age and sex

• Overall, females made more car trips than males, however, males made longer car trips.
• In 2025, females made 495 car trips per person and males made 485 car trips per person.
• Females travelled 3,885 miles per person by car and males travelled 4,640 miles per person by car, 19% more.
• Females aged up to 59, except for females aged 17 to 20, made more car trips on average compared to males, with males aged 60 and over making more car trips than females in the same age bands.
• Males of all ages, apart from those aged under 17, made longer car journeys than females.
• For males, the age group with the highest number of car trips on average was 60 to 69 with 592 trips per person and for distance travelled was 50 to 59 with 6,190 miles per person.
• For females, the age group with the highest number of car trips on average was 40 to 49 with 638 trips per person and for distance travelled was 50 to 59 with 5,084 miles per person.

Household car availability by household income quintile

Chart 4.6: Household car availability by household income quintile: England, 2025 (NTS0703)

Household car availability by household income quintile

• The proportion of households which did not have access to a car decreased as household income increased in 2025.
• Around 44% of households in the lowest income quintile had no access to a car, compared to 17% in the highest income quintile.
• Having two or more cars is more common when income increases, around 43% of households within the highest income quintile had two or more cars compared with 15% of households in the lowest income quintile.

NTS modernisation – we want your feedback

From autumn 2026, the NTS is launching a modernisation programme, which aims to review the survey’s methodology, data collection and outputs. The intention is to make the survey more flexible and scalable, reduce burden on respondents, and utilise modern technologies where appropriate.

The first stages involve capturing the views of our users and stakeholders on their use of, and need for, NTS data and statistics. We are contacting a number of known stakeholders directly, however we are keen to gather views from as wide a range of users as possible.

We want to ensure that the survey meets the needs of users, and any feedback provided will help inform the future design and development of the survey. If you have any feedback or wish to discuss this with the team, please email National Travel Survey statistics.

Background information

The 2025 National Travel Survey (NTS) is the latest in a series of household surveys of personal travel by residents of England travelling within Great Britain, from data collected via interviews and a 7-day travel diary. The NTS is part of a continuous survey that began in 1988, following ad-hoc surveys from the 1960s, which enables analysis of patterns and trends.

Some key uses of the data include describing patterns, for example how different groups of people travel, monitoring trends in travel, including sustainable modes; assessing the potential equality impacts of different groups; and contributing to the evaluation of policies.

These official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in September 2018. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and are labelled ‘Accredited Official Statistics’.

Further information is available, including:

• data tables
• notes and definitions
• guidance and quality information
• future developments

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1. Excludes vans and other vehicle types. ↩

2. These figures are broadly comparable with vehicle statistics based on Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) data (VEH1103). ↩

3. This question in table NTS0908 is asked in the NTS every even year. ↩