Accredited official statistics

Road traffic estimates in Great Britain, 2024: Traffic on England's road networks

Published 12 June 2025

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

About this release

This release presents the 2024 annual estimates of traffic for England’s strategic and local road networks.

Please see the companion releases for an overview of the 2024 traffic estimates, a breakdown by vehicle type, a breakdown by road type.

Annual traffic statistics are compiled using data from around 8,000 roadside 12-hour manual counts, continuous data from automatic traffic counters, and data on road lengths. Please see our background quality report for more details.

The next annual traffic statistics release is expected to be published in June 2026, reporting 2025 traffic figures.

This publication includes both accredited official statistics^{[footnote 1]} and official statistics. For more information, see the background information section.

Summary

Definition

Strategic Road Network (SRN)

The SRN is made up of the motorways and major trunk roads in England that are managed by National Highways. In 2024, the SRN comprised approximately 4,566 miles of road (2.4% of the English network). The majority of other roads in England are maintained by one of the local highways authorities.

England’s road networks saw an increase in traffic levels during 2024 compared to 2023. Traffic on England’s locally managed major roads and locally managed minor roads remain below 2019 levels, whereas traffic levels on the Strategic Road Network were in line with 2019 levels.

Chart 37: Vehicle miles travelled by road type in England, 2019 to 2024

Chart 37 is a bar chart that shows that in 2024:

• Strategic Road Network (SRN) traffic increased by 1.1% compared to 2023, carrying 96.9 billion vehicle miles of traffic. 2024 SRN traffic estimates were unchanged when compared to before the pandemic
• traffic on England’s local authority managed roads, compared to 2023, increased by 2.1% on motorways and ‘A’ roads and increased by 1.7% on minor roads
• overall traffic estimates for local authority roads remain below pre-pandemic 2019 levels. They were 1.5% lower on local authority managed motorways and ‘A’ roads and 1.2% lower on locally managed minor roads

Chart 38: Share of traffic and length by road types in England, 2024

Chart 38 is a bar chart that shows that in 2024:

• the SRN made up 2.4% of England’s road network, and carried 33.8% of all motorised traffic in England
• the SRN is particularly important for freight, with over one third of van miles and over two-thirds of lorry miles in England being driven on the SRN

In 2024 on the Local Road Networks:

• the local motorway and ‘A’ road network (major roads) carried 31.5% of traffic despite being only 9.5% of England’s road length
• the remaining traffic (34.8%) was on England’s local minor road network - ‘B’, classified unnumbered and unclassified - which makes up 88.1% of road length in England

Chart 39: Number of vehicles passing per 24 hours on a typical stretch of road, 2024

Chart 39 is a bar chart that shows over 58 thousand vehicles travel along a typical stretch of the strategic road network each day. This is over 4 times greater than the number for a typical stretch of locally managed major roads, at 13,800.

England’s Strategic Road Network traffic

Chart 40: Vehicle miles driven on the Strategic Road Network, 2014 to 2024

Chart 40 is a bar chart that shows that motor vehicle miles travelled on the SRN saw year-on-year growth in all years between 2014 and 2019. This was followed by a sharp decline in 2020 and then increases in the following years. Traffic levels between 2023 and 2024 increased by 1.1%. 2024 levels were similar to 2019 pre-pandemic levels.

Chart 41: Vehicle miles driven on the Strategic Road Network by vehicle type, 2019 to 2024

Chart 41 is a bar chart that shows that traffic levels on the Strategic Road Network for cars and vans increased in 2024, whilst traffic for lorries decreased.

Between 2023 and 2024, car traffic increased by 1.4% on the Strategic Road Network to 68.3 billion vehicle miles, van traffic rose by 1.6% to 17.9 billion vehicle miles, and lorry traffic fell 1.8% to 10.2 billion vehicle miles.

Compared to pre-pandemic 2019 levels, 2024 traffic for cars and lorries remained lower (by -3.6% and -1.1%, respectively), whereas traffic for vans was above 2019 levels (by 19.2%).

England’s local road traffic

Chart 42: Vehicle miles driven on England’s locally managed roads, 2014 to 2024

Chart 42 is a bar chart that shows that motor vehicle miles travelled on England’s locally managed major and minor roads generally saw year-on-year growth between 2014 and 2019. This was followed by a sharp decline in 2020 and then increases in the following years. Traffic levels between 2023 and 2024 increased by 1.9%. 2024 levels were 1.3% below 2019 pre-pandemic levels.

Chart 43: Vehicle miles driven England’s locally managed roads by vehicle type, 2019 to 2024

Chart 43 is a bar chart that shows that traffic levels on the locally managed roads for cars and vans increased in 2024, whilst traffic levels for lorries decreased.

Between 2023 and 2024, car traffic increased by 2.2% on locally managed roads to 150.9 billion vehicle miles, van traffic increased by 1.1% to 31.2 billion vehicle miles, and lorry traffic fell 3.6% to 4.3 billion vehicle miles.

Compared to pre-pandemic 2019 levels, 2024 traffic for cars and lorries remained lower (by -2.2% and -7.8%, respectively), whereas traffic levels for vans were above 2019 levels (by 3.9%).

Background information

Annual estimates make use of data from around 8,000 manual traffic counts in addition to continuous data from a national network of automatic traffic counters (ATCs). These data sources produce accurate estimates on traffic levels in Great Britain by vehicle type and by road type.

This publication is a compendium of both accredited official statistics^{[footnote 1]} and official statistics. The type of statistics presented is detailed below.

• Accredited Official Statistics: National and regional road traffic estimates and flow estimates

(Datasets: TRA0101-TRA0106, TRA0202-TRA0206, TRA0301-TRA0303, TRA0401-TRA0413, TRA3105, TRA4101-TRA4116, TRA4201-TRA4216.)

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’.

• Other official statistics: Temporal road traffic estimates

(Datasets: TRA0305-TRA0308.)

Traffic temporal distributions are not as robust, as they are based on only the ATC data, and must be treated with caution. These statistics are official statistics. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics.

• Other official statistics: Static road network road traffic estimates

(Datasets: TRA4201-TRA4216)

Traffic estimates based on a static road management status were developed after the last review of these statistics. These statistics are official statistics. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics.

• Other official statistics: Local authority road traffic estimates

(Datasets: TRA8901-TRA8907)

Traffic at this level is not as robust, due to the sample size of the minor road data, and must be treated with caution. These statistics are official statistics. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics.

Further information about these statistics is available, including:

• a detailed explanation of the methodology used to produce DfT road traffic statistics can be found online in the annual road traffic estimates: background quality report

• notes and definitions for the road traffic statistics

• the data tables, which give further detail of the key results presented in this statistical release

• a geographical website that allows users to view and download estimated traffic flows on every link of the ‘A’ road and motorway network in Great Britain

Details of Ministers and officials who receive pre-release access to these statistics up to 24 hours before release can be found on the pre-release access page.

Instructions for printing and saving

Depending on which browser you use and the type of device you use (such as a mobile or laptop) these instructions may vary.

You will find your print and save options in your browser’s menu. You may also have other options available on your device. Tablets and mobile device instructions will be specific to the make and model of the device.

How to search

Select Ctrl and F on a Windows laptop or Command and F on a Mac

This will open a search box in the top right-hand corner of the page. Type the word you are looking for in the search bar and press enter.

Your browser will highlight the word, usually in yellow, wherever it appears on the page. Press enter to move to the next place it appears.

Contact details

Road traffic and vehicle speed compliance statistics

Email roadtraff.stats@dft.gov.uk

Media enquiries 0300 7777 878

To hear more about Department for Transport (DfT) statistical publications as they are released, follow us on X at DfTstats.

1. Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 ↩ ↩²