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Accredited official statistics

NTS 2025: Introduction and main findings

Updated 10 September 2026

Applies to England

© Crown copyright 2026

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/national-travel-survey-2025/nts-2025-introduction-and-main-findings

About this release

The National Travel Survey (NTS) is a household survey of personal travel by residents of England travelling within Great Britain. Data is collected via interviews and a seven-day travel diary, which enables analysis of patterns and trends in travel behaviours. In 2025, changes were made to the mode of data collection, from all travel diaries completed on paper in previous years, to most being completed digitally in 2025. This release covers the main findings from the survey conducted during 2025.

In January 2025, the NTS digital diary was introduced as the primary tool for travel data collection for the NTS with 74% of households completing their diaries digitally. The introduction of the digital travel diary appears to be associated with a lower rate of recording for certain types of trips. The largest impacts are observed in walks of less than a mile, car driver and car passenger trips, where a fall in trips per person per year has been observed that is not in line with post-Covid trends or those observed in other statistical series such as road traffic statistics. Trips for shopping and leisure purposes appear to have lower rates of recording, whereas commuting and education trips have no apparent fall in recording. There appears to be no systematic effect on measures of trip length or duration, suggesting that the issue is associated with trip under-reporting rather than any other data quality issues. Any statistics based on interview questions, for example personal characteristics and vehicle ownership, are unaffected.

Given that car and walk modes represent a large proportion of overall trips, users are advised to interpret changes in trip rates between 2024 and 2025 with this in mind.

Within established surveys like the NTS, a change in data collection mode often results in a change to the data collected, and a number of international travel surveys have observed similar effects when making such changes. DfT has undertaken some analysis attempting to understand these impacts, identify areas for further development, and determine next steps. These are documented in the 2025 quality report and technical report

Like all statistics from sample surveys, estimates based on the NTS are subject to a level of uncertainty. Information to help users understand levels of uncertainty for the NTS is available.

All survey results contain an element of error due to sampling, non-response and measurement errors. In order to help users understand the level of uncertainty in the NTS, standard errors for key NTS estimates in 2025 are available.

The final response rate for NTS 2025 was 28%, compared to 32% for NTS 2024. The number of individuals fully participating in the survey in 2025 was 20,190, this is 19% higher than in 2024 (16,980 individuals). Please see our latest technical report for more details.

These are Accredited Official Statistics and were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in September 2018. For more information, see the background information section.

Main findings

Average trips made by people living in England decreased by 9% compared to 2024, with 841 trips made on average in 2025. Recorded trip rates were 12% lower than in 2019.

  • In 2025, people made 841 trips per person, travelled 5,605 miles per person and spent on average 342 hours per person travelling.
  • This includes 25 minutes per cycling trip, 22 minutes per car driver trip and 19 minutes per walking trip, on average in 2025.

Chart 1.1: Trends in trips taken, miles travelled, and hours spent travelling: Great Britain (1972 to 1988) and England (1989 to 2025) (NTS0101)

Historic travel trends

From the early 1970s to the early 2000s, the average distance people travelled per year increased, but the number of trips and time spent travelling stayed broadly the same. From then, miles travelled on average gradually declined, however the average number of trips per person and hours spent travelling remained broadly stable until 2019. In 2020 there was a sharp decline in average miles, trips and hours travelled compared to 2019, during a year when the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic resulted in restrictions on travel. Since then, average trips, miles, and time spent travelling have increased but remained below pre-pandemic levels. In 2025, there has been a decrease in average trips, miles, and time spent travelling compared to 2024, which is associated with a fall in the recording of some types of trips within the digital diary.

Trip rates by mode

In 2025, trip rates for walking, cars[footnote 1] (drivers and passengers) and surface rail decreased compared to 2024. Cycling and buses outside London trip rates remained similar to the previous year. While buses in London and London Underground trip rates increased in 2025. Trip rates for these modes were lower than pre-pandemic levels in 2019.

Walking trips

Where more than one transport mode is used within trips, 56% of these trips began with walking in 2025, and 63% of public transport trips using more than one mode started with walking. Nearly all walks recorded in the NTS were under 5 miles in 2025 (99.7%). Most trips to and from school for trip length of under 1 mile were made by walking (79% for children aged 5 to 10 and 86% for children aged 11 to 16) in 2025. Average walking distance travelled was 215 miles per person, a decrease of 6% compared to 2024. In 2025, females of all ages made more walking trips on average and walked a greater distance than males, with the age group 30 to 39 making the most walking trips with 324 trips per person.

Public transport trips

Around 48% of public transport trips used a single mode of transport, and the remaining 52% used more than one transport mode. Around 21% of multi-modal public transport trips in England involved more than one public transport mode. This rises to 27% in London.

Travel by household income quintile

On average, people living in higher income households tend to travel more than people living in lower income households. In 2025, households within the second highest income quintile made the most trips on average with 903 trips per person, this was followed by households within the highest income quintile (901 trips per person). Households within the lowest income quintile made the fewest private transport trips such as by car or motorcycle (348 trips per person). These households had the lowest level of car availability (63%), compared to 87% in the highest income quintile.

Car use

In England in 2025, 57% of cars that people owned were petrol, 28% were diesel, 8% hybrid, 5% battery electric and 2% plug-in hybrid. In 2025, 59% of cars that people owned were a manual transmission vehicle and 41% were an automatic or semi-automatic transmission vehicle. Around 82% of people reported to have used a private car at least once a week, and 7% less than once a year or never in 2025. Car (driver and passenger) trips made up 58% of trips and 76% of distance travelled, on average in 2025. Overall, females made more car trips than males, however, males made longer car trips on average.

Trips and distance travelled by sex

In 2025, males made 3% fewer trips overall (827 trips per person) than females (853 trips per person) but travelled 17% further (6,060 miles per person by males, as opposed to 5,170 miles per person by females).

Trip purpose

The most common trip purpose in 2025 was for shopping with 145 trips per person. Both males and females aged 50 and over made most of their trips for shopping in 2025. Commuting was the second most common trip purpose in 2025 with 112 trips per person. Commuting accounted for the longest distance travelled on average with 1,031 miles per person.

Chart 1.2: Trends in trips taken, miles travelled and hours spent travelling: England, 2002 to 2025 (NTS0101)

Trips

  • People made 841 trips on average in 2025 (or 16 trips per week). This was a decrease of 9% compared to 2024 (922 trips on average), and a decrease of 12% compared to 2019 (953 trips on average).

Distance

  • People travelled 5,605 miles on average in 2025. This was a decrease of 8% compared to 2024 (6,082 miles on average), and a decrease of 14% compared to 2019 (6,500 miles on average).

Time

  • People spent 342 hours on average travelling in 2025. This was a decrease of 6% compared to 2024 (362 hours on average), and a decrease of 8% compared to 2019 (370 hours on average).
  • This includes 25 minutes per cycling trip, 22 minutes per car driver trip and 19 minutes per walking trip, on average in 2025.

Spotlight – new statistics on personal characteristics

In 2025, the National Travel Survey introduced new analysis of travel patterns by personal characteristics. As part of this development, Table NTS0320: Trips by main mode and protected characteristics was published for the first time. This was enabled by the expansion of harmonised questions on protected characteristics, and due to the increased sample sizes allowing more granular breakdowns.

Chart 1.3: Public, private and active mode share by ethnicity: England, 2024 to 2025 (NTS0320)

In 2024 to 2025[footnote 2], differences between ethnic groups were most pronounced for private and public transport use, while levels of active travel were similar among all groups.

  • Private transport was the most commonly used mode for all ethnic groups, accounting for 44% to 61% of trips.

  • White individuals made the highest proportion of trips by private transport (61%), compared to Asian or Asian British (55%), mixed or multiple ethnic groups (54%) and Black or African or Caribbean or Black British individuals (44%).

  • Black or African or Caribbean or Black British individuals made the highest proportion of trips by public transport (26%), compared with 8% among White individuals.

  • Active travel accounted for a similar proportion of trips across ethnic groups, between 30% to 34%.

Chart 1.4: Average number of trips by main mode, marital status and household type, aged 16 and over: England, 2024 to 2025 (NTS0320)

Divorced or widowed includes ‘Divorced or formerly in a civil partnership which is now legally dissolved or widowed or surviving partner from a registered civil partnership’.

Married includes ‘Married, in a registered civil partnership, separated but legally married or in a civil partnership.

Never married includes ‘Never married and never registered in a civil partnership’.

In 2024 to 2025[footnote 2], adults with children made more walking and car driver trips than adults with no children, while differences in public transport use varied by marital status and mode.

  • The largest differences between adults with and without children were seen for pedal cycling, car, London Underground and surface rail trips, while differences in walking trips were smaller and more consistent across all marital status groups.

  • Adults with children made more car driver trips than adults with no children across all marital status groups, with the largest difference being among divorced or widowed adults, where car trips were 65% higher among adults with children.

  • Car passenger trips were 31% higher among adults with children who had never married but were lower among adults with children who were married (28% lower) and among divorced or widowed adults (18% lower).

  • Walking trips were higher among adults with children, with the difference ranging from 9% among married adults to 17% among adults who had never married.

  • Pedal cycle use varied by marital status, adults with children made more pedal cycle trips than adults with no children among divorced or widowed adults and married adults, but fewer trips among adults who had never married.

  • Local bus use was higher among adults with children for married adults and adults who had never married, however, among divorced or widowed adults, local bus trips were lower among adults with children.

  • London Underground and surface rail trips were lower among adults with children for adults who had never married, with reductions of 45% and 35% respectively.

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 seven-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:

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  1. All references to ‘car’ include a small number of vans. ↩

  2. Two survey years combined due to low sample size. ↩ ↩2

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