Accredited official statistics

Transport Statistics Great Britain: 2024 Summary

Published 17 December 2025

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/transport-statistics-great-britain-2025/transport-statistics-great-britain-2024-summary

About this release

Transport Statistics Great Britain (TSGB) presents an annual summary of statistics for cross-modal transport topics, mostly relating to the calendar year 2024. This condensed set of highlights is complemented by other Department for Transport (DfT) releases presenting more detailed and recent statistics. See the Transport Statistics Finder to explore what other statistics are published by DfT.

Other cross-modal topics of TSGB, can be found in separate articles:

TSGB is an accredited official statistics publication and was independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in July 2010. For more information, see the About these statistics section.  

Overview of cross-modal transport statistics

Infographic 1: Overview of cross-modal transport statistics in 2024 by topic

Infographic 1 is a summary of the main points from the latest transport trends in Great Britain. This infographic shows that:

For domestic travel in 2024:

  • people travelled a total of 813 billion passenger kilometres, 2% higher than 2023 (TSGB0101)
    • 89% of all passenger kilometres travelled were by road
  • the average person, in England, completed 922 trips across all modes of transport, 1% higher than 2023 levels (TSGB0103), of which:
    • the majority of trips were completed using private modes of transport
    • buses were the most commonly used public transport mode
  • the most common reason for travel was shopping
  • the average commuting time in England was 28 minutes, down 1 minute from 2023 levels (TSGB0111)
    • this ranged from 15 minutes for walking to 64 minutes by National Rail

For international travel in 2024:

  • 258.5 million passengers travelled internationally to or from UK airports, 7% higher than 2023
  • 18.4 million passengers travelled internationally by sea, 3% more than 2023
  • most international short sea passenger movements were between the UK and France (SPAS0108)
  • 18.6 million rail passengers used the Channel Tunnel, 1% higher than 2023

For freight in 2024:

  • for domestic freight (TSGB0401)
    • around 206 billion tonnes of freight were moved in the UK, which was broadly similar to 2023 (207 billion tonnes)
    • 82% of domestic freight moved (168 billion tonne-kilometres) was by road
  • for UK international freight, sea accounted for transporting the most freight, accounting for 86% by weight and 54% by value

International freight figures have been calculated using DfT analysis of HMRC Trade data. More information can be found in the accompanying freight notes and definitions.

Use the Transport Statistics Finder to explore, download and view the statistical content published by the department.

Chapter section Related topics
Domestic travel Aviation
Buses
Light rail and tram
National Travel Survey
Rail
Sea passengers
International travel Aviation
Rail
Sea passengers
Freight Aviation
Port freight
Rail
Road freight
Shipping fleet

Background Information

We would welcome any feedback on these statistics by transport.statistics@dft.gov.uk. We will attempt to address any comments in a subsequent release.

Notes and definitions for each of the topics covered in TSGB are available.

About these statistics

The majority of the annual, official statistics in this release were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in July 2010. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled accredited official statistics. They undergo regular quality assurance reviews to ensure they meet customer needs.

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Contact details

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Email transport.statistics@dft.gov.uk

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