Organisation: Department for Transport
Date of Launch: September 2026
Uploaded to Knowledge Centre: 23 September 2026
The National Travel Survey (NTS) 2025, published by the Department for Transport, provides a detailed picture of how people in England travel, based on interviews and seven-day travel diaries. The survey has been running continuously since 1988 and is used to monitor travel trends, understand how different groups travel and inform transport policy.
The latest results show that people in England made an average of 841 trips per person in 2025, equivalent to around 16 trips a week. This was 9% lower than in 2024 and 12% below the 2019 pre-pandemic level. Average travel distance also fell, to 5,605 miles per person, while people spent an average of 342 hours travelling during the year.
However, the Department for Transport warns that the year-on-year figures should be treated with caution. 2025 was the first year in which most travel diaries were completed digitally, with 74% of households using the new system. This appears to have resulted in some trips being under-recorded, particularly short walking journeys and car driver and passenger trips. Consequently, the apparent fall in overall travel should not necessarily be interpreted as a genuine change in travel behaviour.
Cars remained the dominant form of transport, accounting for 58% of all trips and 76% of distance travelled. Around 82% of people reported using a private car at least weekly. Shopping was the most common journey purpose, followed by commuting.
The survey also includes new analysis of travel patterns by personal characteristics, providing greater insight into differences in transport use between demographic groups.
Click the following link to access the full report:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/national-travel-survey-2025