Accredited official statistics

Road lengths in Great Britain: 2024

Published 20 February 2025

© Crown copyright 2025

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/road-lengths-in-great-britain-2024/road-lengths-in-great-britain-2024

About this release

This annual release presents estimates for the length of road in Great Britain maintained at public expense.

These estimates are based on information from a range of sources, including Ordnance Survey and local authorities. The data relates to the length of roads as of April 2024. Detailed statistical tables can be accessed online via the road length statistical series.

To note, some of the figures in this release may not sum due to rounding.

These are accredited official statistics and were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in February 2013. For more information, see the about these statistics section.

Headline figures in this release

In 2024, the total length of roads in Great Britain was estimated to be 246,500 miles.

There were 31,900 miles of major road in Great Britain in 2024, consisting of:

  • 2,300 miles of motorway (98.9% centrally managed, 1.1% locally managed)

  • 29,600 miles of ‘A’ road (18.4% centrally managed, 81.6% locally managed)

There were 214,600 miles of minor road in Great Britain in 2024, consisting of:

  • 18,900 miles of ‘B’ road

  • 195,700 miles of ‘C and U’ road

The proportion of the total road length by road classification (see Chart 1) consisted of:

  • 0.9% motorway

  • 12.0% ‘A’ road

  • 7.7% ‘B’ road

  • 79.4% ‘C and U’ road

Chart 1: A horizontal bar chart showing the percentage of road length by road classification, in Great Britain, in 2024 (RDL0103, RDL0203)

Roads in Great Britain (see Infographic 1)

By length, most roads in Great Britain are managed locally (by a local highway authority or Transport for London). These include all minor roads (‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘U’ roads), and some major roads (locally managed ‘A’ roads and locally managed motorways).

The rest of the major road network is managed centrally by National Highways (formerly Highways England) in England, the Welsh Government in Wales, and Transport Scotland in Scotland. The centrally managed road network in England makes up the Strategic Road Network (SRN).

Motorways, ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ roads are classified roads, and ‘U’ roads are unclassified. ‘U’ roads are made up of roads that have a variety of uses but they are typically residential streets or rural lanes.

The lengths of ‘C’ and ‘U’ roads have been combined in this publication due to data constraints. Separate lengths for ‘C’ and ‘U’ roads are currently only available in years when the department runs an additional data collection. This was last conducted for 2022 road lengths, with data available in Table RDL0103.

For further information see the notes and definitions.

Infographic 1: A flow diagram showing the breakdown of road types and their management, in Great Britain

In 2024, there were 246,500 miles of road in Great Britain. This was 5,600 more miles than in 2004 (a 2.3% increase).

Most of the 5,600-mile change seen over the last 20 years is due to the changes in minor road lengths. There were 4,900 more miles of minor road in Great Britain in 2024 than in 2004 (a 2.3% increase) almost entirely driven by an increase in ‘C and U’ roads.

Table 1: Breakdown of length of major road (thousand miles), by road type and management, in Great Britain, in 2004, 2014 and 2024 (RDL0103, RDL0203)

Year Centrally Managed Motorways Locally managed Motorways Centrally managed ‘A’ Roads Locally managed ‘A’ Roads
2004 2.2 0.03 5.7 23.3
2014 2.2 0.03 5.3 23.8
2024 2.3 0.03 5.5 24.2

Chart 2: A bar chart showing the length of major road, by road type and management, in Great Britain, in 2004, 2014 and 2024 (RDL0103, RDL0203)

The rest of the increase in road length between 2004 and 2024 was accounted for by an 800-mile increase in major roads in Great Britain, marking a 2.4% growth. A significant portion of this growth came from ‘A’ roads (see Chart 2), which grew by over 600 miles during the same period.

Centrally managed ‘A’ roads saw a decrease of over 200 miles from 2004 to 2024, mainly due to the ‘de-trunking’ of major roads, transferring their management to local authorities.

Locally managed ‘A’ roads grew from approximately 23,300 miles in 2004 to around 24,200 miles in 2024, reflecting an 900-mile increase. This growth has been driven not only by new road construction but also by the de-trunking process, which has significantly contributed to the expansion of locally managed road networks since 2004.

Road length by country

Of the 246,500 miles of road in Great Britain in 2024:

  • 188,300 miles (76.4%) of road were in England

  • 21,100 miles (8.6%) were in Wales

  • 37,100 miles (15.0%) were in Scotland

Table 2 below shows the varying composition of each country’s road network by road type (please note that these numbers may not sum to the same total due to rounding).

Table 2: Breakdown of road length (thousand miles) by country and road type, in Great Britain, in 2024 (RDL0101)

Centrally managed Major Roads Locally managed Major Roads All Major Roads ‘B’ Roads ‘C and U’ Roads All Minor Roads Total Roads
England 4.6 17.9 22.5 12.5 153.4 165.9 188.3
Wales  1.1 1.7 2.7   1.9 16.5 18.4 21.1
Scotland   2.1 4.6 6.7 4.6 25.8 30.3 37.1
Great Britain 7.8 24.2 31.9 18.9 195.7 214.6 246.5

Chart 3: A series of doughnut charts showing the proportion of road length classified as major or minor road, for each country in Great Britain, in 2024 (RDL0101, RDL0201)

In 2024, major roads accounted for 11.9% (22,500 miles) of the overall road network in England. Major roads accounted for a larger proportion of the road network in Wales (13%, 2,700 miles) and Scotland (18.2%, 6,700 miles) (see Chart 3).

Chart 4: A bar chart showing the proportion of major road length, by country and management, in Great Britain, in 2024 (RDL0101, RDL0201)

In England, the SRN (all centrally managed motorways and ‘A’ roads) was 4,600 miles long and makes up 2.4% of the total length of road in England, but 20.3% of major road length.

In comparison, centrally managed roads made up a higher proportion of the major road network in both Wales (38.6%) and Scotland (31.7%) (see Chart 4). The composition of these centrally managed roads differed in each country, with 42.0% of centrally managed roads classified as motorways in England, compared to only 8.4% in Wales and 14.0% in Scotland.

Rural and urban breakdowns

Urban or rural classification

The urban or rural classification of a road is based on the size of the population in the local area. As of April 2024 the population data defining the urban or rural classification for England and Wales was based on the 2011 census, for Scotland this was based on 2020 census data.

Urban areas for England and Wales are defined as built-up areas with a population of at least 10,000, and for Scotland, a population of at least 3,000.

In 2024, most road length in Great Britain was rural, with:

  • 75.4% of ‘A’ roads

  • 79.8% of ‘B’ roads

  • 57.3% of ‘C and U’ roads being classed as rural

Chart 5: A bar chart showing the proportion of ‘A’ road and minor road length classified as urban or rural, by country in Great Britain, in 2024 (RDL0101, RDL0201)

Just as the makeup of the road network by road type varied between England, Wales and Scotland, so did the proportion of urban and rural road length. Wales had a higher proportion of ‘A’ roads classified as rural (87.5%) than England (71.3%) or Scotland (83.7%). Wales also had a higher proportion of minor roads classified as rural (76.9%) than England (57.0%) or Scotland (61.1%) (see Chart 5).

Background information

Rounding

Figures quoted in this publication are rounded to the nearest 100 miles. Raw differences and percentage changes are always calculated from unrounded numbers.

Urban or rural classifications

The urban and rural classification for England and Wales used in this publication was based on the 2011 census data for England and Wales, and 2020 census data for Scotland. This is the latest version of the urban or rural classification available for each country.

As the population data is not updated annually, the urban or rural classification may not reflect the latest population. For example, when a new housing development is built on a brown field site, the new roads built to feed this development will be classified as “rural” based on the current urban or rural classification. If the urban or rural classification were to be updated, the increased population size from the new housing development would lead to the area to be reclassified as “urban”. This example may partially explain the gradual increase in rural roads as new roads are built to feed new developments in previously unpopulated areas.

The time delay between updates of this population information means that there is normally a step change in the relative length of urban and rural roads when the classifications are updated. Due to this, year-on-year comparisons of urban and rural road lengths should be made with caution.

Traffic and road length in England

Vehicle activity is unevenly distributed across Great Britain’s road network.

In 2023, 65% of the motor vehicle miles travelled were on motorways and ‘A’ roads, despite comprising only 13% of the road network by length.

On an average day in 2023, 55 times more vehicles travelled along a typical stretch of motorway than a typical stretch of minor road (‘B’ roads, ‘C’ roads and unclassified roads).

More information can be found in the Road traffic estimates in Great Britain: 2023.

The figures presented above are referring to the latest published statistics. ‘Road Traffic Estimates in Great Britain: 2024’ is provisionally scheduled for release in June 2025.

Scotland and Wales estimates

The Scottish and Welsh Governments produce their own separate road length estimates. The road length estimates for Scotland and Wales in this publication are produced by the UK Department for Transport, using the same methodology and at the same point in time for the whole of Great Britain, to provide road length estimates for Great Britain on a consistent basis.

Road length estimates produced by the devolved governments:

Transport Scotland: Scottish Transport Statistics 2023 - Chapter 4 - Road Network

Welsh Government: Stats Wales - Road lengths and conditions

Northern Ireland estimates

The Department for Transport produce road length statistics for Great Britain and this report does not contain road length estimates for Northern Ireland.

It is not possible to produce road length estimates for Northern Ireland using the same methodology as this report because the underlying data provided by Ordnance Survey MasterMap Highways covers Great Britain only.

Road length estimates for Northern Ireland have been published as official statistics by the Department for Infrastructure Northern Ireland from 2023. Prior to this, these estimates have been made available as management information.

Road length estimates for Northern Ireland:

Northern Ireland Road Length Statistics

Methodology changes

The department aims to use Ordnance Survey MasterMap Highways Network product as the sole source of road length information once the data is of sufficient quality. The ongoing improvement work to Ordnance Survey MasterMap Highways means that year on year changes in road length estimates are likely to reflect methodological improvements and road reclassification, in addition to the construction or demolition of roads.

Other changes that have likely impacted road length estimates in recent years include improvements to the digitised road networks held by local authorities, alongside the transfer of housing estate roads to management by a third party (un-adoption).

Road length statistics are updated each year using data from Ordnance Survey. However, Ordnance Survey data has historically lacked sufficient accuracy to allow the statistics to accurately distinguish between ‘C’ roads and ‘U’ roads. This means that in most years road length estimates are only provided as a combined estimate for ‘C and U’ road length. To address this limitation, a road length consultation, known as the ‘R199b’, is run every 3 to 5 years. This consultation asks all local authorities in England to provide road length estimates, which the department validates against existing sources of this information.

The information on road classifications stored in the Ordnance Survey MasterMap Highways Network product has improved in recent years and continues to do so. The department is committed to improving the quality of this data so that it will replace the R199b process in future years.

Further technical and methodological information

Further information about these statistics is available, including:

Future road length statistics publications

The department is continuing to assess the OS MasterMap Highways Network dataset to produce improved estimates of road length in future. The product is continuously being developed with Ordnance Survey (OS), GeoPlace and other stakeholders. If you have any questions, please email road.length@dft.gov.uk.

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About these statistics

These official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in February 2013. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled ‘accredited official statistics’.

Accredited Official Statistics are produced to high professional standards set out in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. They undergo regular quality assurance to ensure customer needs are met. Details of ministers and officials who receive pre-release access to these statistics up to 24 hours before release can be found in the pre-release access list.

Contact details

Road length statistics

Email road.length@dft.gov.uk

Media enquiries 0300 7777 878

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