DOI: 10.5255/ukda-sn-5340-15
title: National Travel Survey, 2002-2024
title: National Travel Survey, 1972-
title: NTS

description: The &lt;I&gt;National Travel Survey&lt;/I&gt; (NTS) is a series of household surveys designed to provide regular, up-to-date data on personal travel and monitor changes in travel behaviour over time. The first NTS was commissioned by the Ministry of Transport in 1965. Further periodic surveys were carried out in 1972/73, 1975/76, 1978/79 and 1985/86 (the UK Data Service holds data from 1972 onwards). Since July 1988 the NTS has been carried out as a continuous survey with field work being carried out in every month of the year, and an annual set sample of over 5,000 addresses. From 2002, the NTS sample was increased approximately threefold, to approximately 15,000 per year. The advantage of the continuous study is that users will be able to discern seasonal and cyclical movements as well as trend changes over time. The NTS is carried out primarily for the purposes of government. The most fundamental use of the National Travel Survey within the Department for Transport (DfT) is as core base data for key transport models. These are critical to the assessment and appraisal of transport scheme proposals (national and local), transport policy proposals, and contribute to the development of our long-term strategy. The NTS data is used to develop consistent sets of transport policies. Because it relates travel to travellers, it makes it possible to relate policies to people and to predict their impact. The survey provides detailed information on different types of travel: where people travel from and to, distance, purpose and mode. The NTS records personal and socio-economic information to distinguish between different types of people, and the differences in the way they travel and how often they do so. The NTS is the only source of national information on subjects such as walking which provide a context for the results of more local studies.&lt;br&gt;
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Further information may be found on the gov.uk &lt;a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-travel-survey-statistics" title="National Travel Survey"&gt;National Travel Survey&lt;/a&gt; webpage.&lt;br&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;End-User Licence, Special Licence and Secure Access NTS data&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br&gt;
The UK Data Archive holds three versions of the NTS:&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;the End User Licence (EUL) versions (SNs 5340 and 6108) contain a comprehensive range of NTS data at Government Office Region geographic level and should be sufficient for most research needs. EUL data are available to registered users of the UK Data Service (see the Administrative and Access section below for details).&lt;/lI&gt;&lt;li&gt;The Special Licence versions (SNs 7553 and 7804) contain more detailed travel (including accidents), demographic and socio-economic data, and the geographic level is Local Authority/Unitary Authority. Special Licence data are subject to more restricted access conditions.&lt;/lI&gt;&lt;li&gt;The Secure Access version (SN 7559) contains more detailed information and postcode sector geographies. Secure Access data are subject to further restricted access conditions, including the completion of a training course.&lt;/lI&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;Full information about the variables contained at each level are available in the NTS Table Structures spreadsheet, available in the documentation.&lt;br&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;Changes to the methodology in 2002 mean that there are some inconsistencies with data for previous years. Most notably, an under-recording of short walks in 2002 and 2003 affects trends over this period, particularly in the number of trips per person.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;2020 and 2021 Disclaimer&lt;/span&gt;: Due to changes in the methodology of data collection, changes in travel behaviour, and a reduction of data collected during 2020 and 2021 as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, care should be taken when interpreting this data and comparing it to other years due to the small sample sizes. Please see the background documentation for further details of these changes.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;2023 sample size: &lt;/i&gt;From January 2023 the number of households invited to take part in the National Travel Survey was increased, resulting in an increase to the sample size. For more information please see the technical report.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;Data labels&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;br&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;Users should note that the SPSS and Stata files for 2024 have been converted from CSV format and do not currently contain variable or value labels. Complete metadata information can be found in the Excel Lookup table files and the NTS Data Extract User Guide within the documentation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Latest edition information&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For the nineteenth edition (November 2025), data and documentation for 2024 have been added to the study.&lt;/p&gt;