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National Travel Survey 2021: Travel by region and rural and urban classification of residence

Published 31 August 2022

Applies to England

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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.

Chart 35: Average trips made, and miles travelled per person per year by rural and urban classification of residence: England, 2021 (NTS9903 and NTS9904) [footnote 2]

People living in rural areas in England made more trips and travelled further than those living in urban conurbation areas in 2021. People living in rural villages, hamlets and isolated dwellings made the most trips on average with 769 trips per person, and travelled the furthest distance on average with 6,449 miles per person in 2021. People living in urban conurbations made the fewest trips on average with 748 trips per person and travelled the shortest distance on average compared with those living in other rural and urban areas with 3,661 miles per person in 2021.

Chart 36: Household car ownership, by rural and urban classification of residence: England, 2021 (NTS9902) [footnote 2]

Households living in rural areas are more likely to own a car than urban residents. In 2021, 33% of households living in urban conurbations have no car, however, only 5% of households living in rural villages, hamlets and isolated dwellings have no car. The proportion of households with one car is fairly equal amongst households in urban and rural areas. Households living in the most rural areas are more likely to own two or more cars, with 58% of households living in rural villages, hamlets and isolated dwellings having two or more cars, more than twice that of those living in urban conurbations (23%) in 2021.

Chart 37: Average trips per person, by mode and rural and urban classification of residence: England, 2021 (NTS9903) [footnote 2]

The difference in overall trip rates by rural or urban classification of residence is mainly associated with differences in levels of car use. In 2021, people living in the most rural areas made fewer walking trips and more car trips than the overall average. People living in the most rural areas rely more on the car, which accounted for 75% of all their trips in 2021. By comparison 51% of trips by residents of urban conurbations (including London residents) were made by car in 2021.

People living in urban conurbations made more use of buses (45 trips per person, with 22 of these trips in London) and rail (18 trips per person, excluding London Underground) than people living in other types of areas. Bus and rail trips combined accounted for 8% of trips by residents in urban conurbations, compared to 1% of trips by residents in the most rural areas.

People living in urban conurbations walked and cycled more on average compared to the most rural areas with 253 walking trips per person and 18 cycling trips per person, compared to 152 walking trips per person and 13 cycling trips per person by people living in the most rural areas in 2021.

Chart 38: Average trips made, and miles travelled per person per year by mode and region of residence: England, 2021 (NTS9903 and NTS9904) [footnote 2]

People living in the East of England travelled the furthest with 5,053 miles per person in 2021, making on average 834 trips. This was followed by people living in the South East with 4,823 miles per person and in the West Midlands with 4,782 miles per person. London residents travelled the shortest distance on average with 3,369 miles per person, and made the fewest trips on average with 682 trips per person in 2021.

Residents in London made the most walking trips on average with 267 trips per person, the second longest walking trips on average with 250 miles per person. Residents in the North East walked the greatest distance with 272 miles per person. Residents in the West Midlands walked the shortest distance and made the fewest walking trips on average compared to other areas with 170 miles per person and 178 trips per person.

Residents in the East of England travelled the furthest by car (driver and passenger) with 4,420 miles per person. The highest average number of bus trips were completed by residents in London (56 trips per person) but residents in Yorkshire and the Humber travelled the longest distance by bus (290 miles per person). For both cycling and rail, London residents made the most trips and travelled the furthest with 26 and 34 trips per person respectively and 108 and 723 miles per person respectively in 2021.

Chart 39: Average trips per person by selected purposes and rural/urban classification of residence: England, 2021 (NTS9906) [footnote 2]

In 2021, the number of shopping trips was highest amongst people living in urban cities and towns with 138 trips per person, and residents in rural towns and fringes made the fewest shopping trips with 115 trips per person. Commuting trips were highest amongst residents in urban conurbation areas compared with more rural areas, where residents in urban conurbations made 107 trips per person in 2021 compared with residents in rural villages, hamlets and isolated dwellings who made 82 trips per person for this purpose. Likewise, for education trips, more education trips were completed by residents in urban conurbation areas with 61 trips per person, compared to 42 trips per person by people living in the most rural areas.

For the trip purposes of visiting friends at home, personal business, holiday or day trips, sport or entertainment and business, people living in rural villages, hamlets and isolated dwellings made more trips on average compared to people living in other areas (75, 78, 58, 45 and 18 trips per person respectively). Residents in urban cities and towns made the fewest trips visiting friends at home and for personal business (64 and 58 trips per person respectively), residents in urban conurbation areas made the fewest holiday or day trips and business trips (33 and 12 trips per person respectively) and residents in rural towns and fringes made the fewest sport or entertainment trips (37 trips per person). Other including just walk trips were greatest amongst people living in rural towns and fringes and urban cities and towns with 120 trips per person in 2021, and the fewest trips for this purpose were from residents in urban conurbation areas with 88 trips per person.

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.

Have your say in influencing future NTS regularly published content through this short user consultation survey!

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:

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  1. These statistics are usually presented as two years combined; however, these statistics are presented as a single year for 2021. This is due to changes in the methodology of data collection, changes in travel behaviour and a reduction of data collected during 2021, as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Such changes prevent combining data for 2021 with another year to create a two-year figure. Care should be taken when interpreting this data and comparing to other years, due to the small sample sizes. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

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