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Accredited official statistics

NTS 2025: Trips by purpose, age, mode and sex

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-trips-by-purpose-age-mode-and-sex

The introduction of the digital travel diary in 2025 appears to be associated with a lower rate of recording for certain types of trips. When looking at trips by purpose, 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.

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

  • The most common trip purpose in 2025 was for shopping with 145 trips per person.
  • The proportion of trips made for shopping tends to increase with age, with those aged 70 and over making an average of 250 trips per person.
  • Commuting was the second most common trip purpose with 112 trips per person, but represented the longest average distance travelled with 1,031 miles per person.
  • Males made a similar average number of trips to females (827 trips per person by males compared to 853 trips per person by females) but travelled 17% further (6,060 miles per person by males, as opposed to 5,170 miles per person by females).

Chart 6.1: Trips per person per year by selected purposes: England, 2002 to 2025 (NTS0403)

Trips by trip purpose

  • The most common trip purpose in 2025 was shopping with 145 trips per person, a decrease of 13% compared to 2024 (167 trips per person) and a decrease of 19% compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019.
  • Commuting was the second most common trip purpose in 2025 with 112 trips per person, this was similar to 2024 (111 trips per person), but a decrease of 20% compared to 2019. This may suggest a shift towards working from home and hybrid working since the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Just walk was the third most common trip purpose in 2025 with 79 trips per person, 6% lower than in 2024 (85 trips per person) but 31% higher than in 2019.
  • During 2025, average trips for business, personal business, visiting friends at private home and day trips[footnote 1] decreased compared to 2024. Average trips for education remained similar to 2024.

Chart 6.2: Miles travelled per person per year by selected purposes: England, 2002 to 2025 (NTS0403)

Distance travelled by trip purpose

  • In 2025 the longest distance travelled on average was for commuting with 1,031 miles per person. This was similar to 2024 (1,007 miles per person), but 19% less than in 2019.
  • The second largest distance travelled on average was for the purpose of visiting friends at home, with 804 miles per person in 2025, a decrease compared to both 2024 (a decrease of 10%) and 2019 (a decrease of 8%).
  • The third longest distance travelled was for shopping with 561 miles per person in 2025, a decrease of 9% compared to 2024 and 20% compared to 2019.
  • The shortest distance travelled was for the purpose of just walk with 80 miles per person in 2025, similar to 2024, but 51% more than in 2019.

Chart 6.3: Average trips made, and miles travelled per person per year by sex: England, 2025 (NTS0601)

Trips and distance travelled by sex

In 2025, males made a similar average number of trips to females (827 trips per person by males compared to 853 trips per person by females) but travelled 17% further (6,060 miles per person by males, as opposed to 5,170 miles per person by females).

This partly reflects differences in the type of trips made and the mode of travel used by males compared to females in 2025, with males making:

  • fewer trips but travelling longer distances by car (19% more miles on average)
  • more trips and travelling further by cycling (178% more miles on average)
  • fewer trips but travelling similar distances by walking and bus (11% less walking trips and 17% less bus trips on average)

Females made more shopping trips, which tend to be relatively short, whereas males made more commuting and business trips which tend to be longer.

Chart 6.4: Average trips by sex, age and selected main modes: England, 2002 to 2025 (NTS0601)

Walking

Overall walking trip trends for females have fluctuated over the years but have remained fairly stable for age groups between 0 and 29. For age groups 30 and over, walking trips by females have seen an overall increase in recent years. Walking trip trends by males have remained stable over the years for all age groups. In 2025:

  • for females, those aged 30 to 39 made the most walking trips with 324 trips per person
  • for males, those aged 0 to 16 made the most walking trips with 252 trips per person
  • females and males aged 17 to 20 made more trips by walking than by any other transport mode

Car driver

For females, trends in car driver trips have declined over the years for those aged 17 to 49, remained relatively stable for those aged 50 to 59 and increased for those aged 60 and over. Males aged 17 to 69 have seen a decrease in car driver trips over the years, and the trend has remained relatively stable for males aged 70 and over. In 2025:

  • for both males and females, those aged 21 and over made most of their trips as a car driver
  • for females, those aged 40 to 49 made the most car driver trips with 511 trips per person
  • for males, those aged 60 to 69 made the most car driver trips with 529 trips per person

Car passenger

Car passenger trips made by females have declined over the years for all age groups apart from those aged 70 and over where trends have been relatively stable. Males have seen a decline in car passenger trips for age groups between 0 and 20, and all other age groups have seen trends that are relatively stable. In 2025, for both females and males, those aged 0 to 16 made the most car passenger trips with 405 and 384 trips per person respectively.

Bus

For all age groups, females have shown a decline in bus trip trends over the years, whereas trends by males have been more stable. In 2025, for both females and males, those aged 17 to 20 made the most bus trips with 84 and 81 trips per person respectively.

Surface rail

Surface rail trip trends have seen a gradual increase over the years by all age groups 17 and over, which follow a similar pattern for both males and females. In 2025:

  • for females, those aged 17 to 20 made the most surface rail trips with 40 trips per person
  • for males, those aged 30 to 39 made the most surface rail trips with 33 trips per person

Chart 6.5: Average trips by sex, age and selected purposes: England, 2002 to 2025 (NTS0611)

Shopping

Shopping trip trends for males and females have declined over the years for all age groups up to the age of 69, above which trends have remained stable until more recent years which have also shown a decline (more by males than by females). In 2025:

  • shopping was the journey purpose for which the most trips were recorded by females aged 50 and over and by males aged 60 and over
  • for females and males, those aged 70 and over made most shopping trips with 232 and 271 trips per person respectively

Commuting

Males and females have shown a decline in commuting trips over the years for age groups between 17 and 59, above which the trend is relatively stable, at low average levels. In 2025:

  • commuting was the journey purpose for which the most trips were recorded by males between the age groups of 21 to 59 and females aged 21 to 29
  • for females and males, those aged 21 to 29 made the most commuting trips with 170 and 238 trips per person respectively

Education

Education trips remained fairly stable for both males and females with the majority of trips being made by those aged 20 and under. In 2025:

  • for both females and males, those aged 0 to 16 made most of their trips for education purposes with 270 and 266 trips per person respectively, representing 36% of trips made by each group
  • the highest number of escort education trips were made by those aged 40 to 49, more by females than males (190 and 106 trips per person respectively)

Visiting friends at private home

Trips to visit friends at private home have declined over the years for both males and females of all ages up to 59, above which trends have remained stable. In 2025, for both females and males, those aged 60 to 69 made the most trips for visiting friends at private home, with 104 and 81 trips per person respectively.

Personal business

Personal business trips have declined slightly over the years for both males and females of all age groups. In 2025, for both females and males, those aged 70 and over made the most trips for personal business, a category which includes trips for medical consultations or treatment, with 115 and 126 trips per person respectively.

Just walk

Just walk trips have increased in recent years by all age groups for both males and females. In 2025, for both females and males, those aged 60 to 69 made more just walk trips than other age groups with 119 and 129 trips per person 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 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:

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  1. Day trips include trips for pleasure (not otherwise classified as social or entertainment) within a single day and other including just walk trips include walking trips for pleasure or exercise along public highways, including taking the dog for a walk and jogging. ↩

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