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National Travel Survey 2021: Travel by disabled people and people with mobility difficulties

Published 31 August 2022

Applies to England

About this release

The National Travel Survey (NTS) is a household survey of personal travel by residents of England travelling within Great Britain, from data collected via interviews and a seven-day travel diary, which enables analysis of patterns and trends. This release covers the main findings from these travel behaviours during 2021. The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic from March 2020, has had a substantial impact on travel trends in 2020 and 2021 and has affected the operation of this survey.

Fieldwork for the NTS 2021 survey continued to be impacted by the coronavirus restrictions from March 2020, with data collection combining the approach used in 2020 with interviews being conducted via telephone (push-to-telephone approach) instead of face-to-face, and to increase response rates, doorstep recruitment by trained interviewers with interviews being conducted over the telephone (knock-to-nudge approach).

Response rates to the survey in 2021 were halfway between 2019 levels (14,356 individuals) and 2020 levels (6,239 individuals) with 9,971 individuals participating in the survey, an increase of 60% compared to 2020, but a decrease of 31% compared to 2019. Consequently, caution is needed when interpreting these results for 2020 and 2021 as they are likely to be less representative of residents of England compared to previous years. Please see our technical note for more details.

Travel trends by disabled people

Chart 31: Average trips per adult (aged 16+) per year, by disability status: England, 2021 (NTS0711)

Adults who report that their disability or illness affects them a lot in their ability to carry out day-to-day tasks reported lower trip rates (on average, 452 per person in 2021) than those affected less, and those with no disability or illness lasting more than 12 months. Participants who report being affected a little reported 700 trips on average, and this increases to 891 trips on average for participants whose condition or illness had no effect on carrying out day-to-day tasks. In 2021 there were 815 trips per person for those who report no disability or illness expected to last more than 12 months.

Travel trends by people with mobility difficulties

Chart 32: Average trips per adult (aged 16+) per year by mobility status and main mode: England, 2021 (NTS0709)

The most common mode of travel for participants with a mobility difficulty was by car, with 177 trips per person as drivers, compared to 389 trips per person for those without a mobility difficulty. For those with a mobility difficulty, the average number of walking trips per person was around half (131 trips per person) the number reported by those without a mobility difficulty (243 trips per person).

Those with a mobility difficulty had more trips as car passengers with 119 trips per person, compared to 97 trips per person for those without a mobility difficulty in 2021. There were slightly more bus trips completed on average for those with a mobility difficulty with 28 trips per person in 2021 as opposed to 27 trips per person for those without a mobility difficulty. In 2021, there were very few participants with a mobility difficulty who completed rail trips with a trip rate of 2 trips per person, as opposed to 14 trips per person completed for those with no mobility difficulty.

Chart 33: Average trips per adult (aged 16+) per year by mobility status and purpose: England, 2021 (NTS0710)

The average number of trips completed by participants with a mobility difficulty in 2021 were lower for all journey purposes except personal business, compared with participants without a mobility difficulty. In 2021, there were 74 trips per person for the purpose of personal business by those with a mobility difficulty compared with 64 trips per person by those without a mobility difficulty. Personal business was the purpose with the second greatest number of average trips completed by those with a mobility difficulty in 2021. It is likely that trips for medical consultations or treatment in particular, within the trip purpose of personal business, could be the main reason for higher trips on average for those with a mobility difficulty.

The greatest number of average trips completed by those with and without a mobility difficulty in 2021 was for shopping with 139 and 163 trips per person respectively. The greatest difference amongst average trip purposes between participants with a mobility difficulty and without a mobility difficulty were for the purposes of commuting, followed by other including just walk. In 2021, those with a mobility difficulty completed 27 trips per person for commuting, this compares with 132 trips per person by those without a mobility difficulty. In 2021, those with a mobility difficulty completed 45 trips per person for the purpose of other including just walk, this compares with 122 trips per person by those without a mobility difficulty.

Travel trends by impairment type

Chart 34: Average trips and miles travelled by impairment type (aged 16+): England, 2021 (NTS0712)

Those respondents who answered yes to the question ‘do you have any physical or mental health condition or illness lasting or expected to last for 12 months or more’ were separately asked to provide more details on their impairment. In 2021, for respondents that reported one or more impairment type, the highest number of average trips completed were amongst those that reported an impairment of ‘other’ with 693 trips per person, followed by those reporting a mental health impairment with 654 trips per person. Respondents with these impairment types also made the longest trips with 3,706 miles per person by people with an impairment of other and 3,214 miles per person by people with an impairment of mental health.

The lowest number of average trips completed were for those who reported a social or behavioural impairment with 447 trips per person and the second lowest was for memory with 462 trips per person. For average miles travelled, the shortest distances travelled were for those who reported a speech impairment with 1,860 miles per person, and the second shortest was for those who reported a memory impairment with 2,432 miles per person.

In 2021, there were 642 trips made on average by respondents who reported at least one impairment, and they travelled 3,198 miles on average. This compares to 817 trips made on average by those with no declared impairment who travelled 5,014 miles on average in 2021.

Background information

The 2021 National Travel Survey (NTS) is the latest in a series of household surveys of personal travel by residents of England travelling within Great Britain, from data collected via interviews and a seven-day travel diary. The NTS is part of a continuous survey that began in 1988, following ad-hoc surveys from the 1960s, which enables analysis of patterns and trends.

Some key uses of the data include describing patterns, for example how different groups of people travel, monitoring trends in travel, including sustainable modes; assessing the potential equality impacts of different groups; and contributing to the evaluation of policies.

We always welcome feedback to help ensure that the survey meets the needs of users, and any feedback provided will help inform the future design and development of the survey. If you have any feedback, please email National Travel Survey statistics.

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The NTS statistics team are conducting a review of our publication to better meet users’ needs. This short survey invites NTS users to provide details of how NTS data are used, help us understand whether we can safely discontinue some publication content, and whether other information collected within the NTS questionnaire or travel diary would be useful to have regularly published. The information collected from this survey will form evidence for the discontinuation or the addition of regular published NTS statistics.

Please complete this short survey, which should take around 10 minutes to complete, for your chance to influence future NTS publication content.

National Statistics

These statistics are designated as National Statistics. National Statistics are produced to high professional standards as set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics. The Code of Practice for Statistics plays an essential role in ensuring that statistics published by government inspire the public confidence through demonstrating trustworthiness and providing high-quality statistics. These statistics were designated as National Statistics in July 2011. The continued designation was confirmed in September 2018.

Further information about these statistics is available, including:

• National Travel Survey statistics: data tables
• National Travel Survey statistics: notes and definitions
• National Travel Survey statistics: guidance and quality information
• National Travel Survey statistics: future developments

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