Walking is a major part of everyday travel across the UK, but the available figures are not one single UK-wide measure. England reports trips, stages and miles through the National Travel Survey; Scotland combines transport, household and census measures; Wales reports active travel and school travel; and Northern Ireland reports journeys through its travel survey. The definitions and measurement periods therefore matter as much as the headline percentages.
Contents
- Walking volume and distance in England
- Why people walk in England
- Who walks most in England
- Walking for travel and school in Scotland
- Active travel and walking in Wales
- Walking routes and school travel in Wales
- Walking journeys in Northern Ireland
Walking volume and distance in England
People in England made an estimated 19 billion walking stages in 2023, according to Walking and cycling statistics, England: 2023. A stage is one part of a journey, so this measure is not directly interchangeable with a complete walking trip.
The NTS 2024: Active travel recorded an average of 267 walking trips per person in England in 2024. On the stages measure, the average was 339 walking stages per person. Walking made up 29% of all trips and 33% of all travel stages, while accounting for 4% of distance travelled.
Distance gives a different perspective from frequency. The average person in England walked 230 miles in 2024, the highest recorded level since 2002. That total includes walks of different lengths and purposes. For walks of at least one mile, the average person made 81 walking trips and 89 walking stages, travelling 129 miles.
| England measure | 2024 average or share |
|---|---|
| Walking trips per person | 267 |
| Walking stages per person | 339 |
| Share of all trips | 29% |
| Share of all travel stages | 33% |
| Share of distance travelled | 4% |
| Walking miles per person | 230 |
| Trips of at least one mile | 81 |
| Miles on walks of at least one mile | 129 |
These figures describe England in 2024 and should not be treated as a direct estimate for the whole UK. They also show why “how much people walk” depends on whether the measure is a trip, a stage or distance.
Why people walk in England
Walking is not limited to recreational outings. In England in 2024, simply walking rather than travelling to a specific destination was the purpose of 32% of walking trips. Education, including escorting someone to education, accounted for 18%, and shopping accounted for another 18%. Leisure accounted for 16%. These categories describe the stated purpose of walking trips in the NTS 2024: Active travel.
The figures place everyday errands and education alongside purposeful exercise. They also explain why a walking statistic based on travel surveys is broader than a count of countryside walks: a trip to a shop, a school escort and a walk with no specific destination can all appear in the walking total, depending on the survey definition.
Safety is one reported factor that could encourage more walking. In 2023, 20% of respondents in England selected safer roads as something that would encourage them to walk more. This is a response measure, not a count of walking journeys, and it comes from the 2023 information cited in NTS 2024: Active travel.
Who walks most in England
In 2024, females in England averaged 282 walking trips, compared with 252 for males. Average walking distance was also higher for females: 234 miles, compared with 226 miles for males. The difference in the trip measure and the difference in the distance measure are separate comparisons and do not establish a reason for either gap.
Age patterns vary by sex. Females aged 30 to 39 made 355 walking trips per person, the highest rate among females. Females aged 21 to 29 travelled 290 walking miles per person, the longest distance among females. Among males, those aged 60 to 69 made 276 walking trips per person, the highest male rate, and travelled 274 walking miles per person, the longest male distance.
| Group in England | Walking trips per person | Walking miles per person |
|---|---|---|
| Females, all ages | 282 | 234 |
| Males, all ages | 252 | 226 |
| Females aged 30–39 | 355 | — |
| Females aged 21–29 | — | 290 |
| Males aged 60–69 | 276 | 274 |
The missing cells are not zeroes; the cited figures identify the highest trip or distance group for each sex, not both measures for every age band. All of these England comparisons refer to 2024 and the NTS 2024: Active travel.
Walking for travel and school in Scotland
Scotland’s measures use a different reference period and definition. In 2023, 66% of adults made a journey of more than a quarter of a mile on foot to go somewhere during the previous seven days. In the same seven-day period, 70% walked for pleasure or to keep fit at least once. These are separate measures: one concerns going somewhere, while the other concerns pleasure or fitness.
There was a clear age range in the travel measure. Among adults aged 20 to 29, 78% made a journey of more than a quarter of a mile on foot during the previous seven days. Among adults aged over 80, the figure was 39%. For walking for pleasure or fitness, 77% of adults aged 20 to 39 did so during the previous seven days, compared with 40% of adults aged 80 or over. The source for these figures is Chapter 11 - Personal and Cross modal.
Walking was the usual means of travel to work for 13% of Scotland’s working population in 2023, excluding people working at home. The comparable figure was 12% in 2012, while the 2022 census recorded 11%, using the same exclusion for people working at home. These years come from different statistical contexts, so the figures are best read as reported measures rather than a single uninterrupted series.
School travel was also prominent: 53% of children in full-time education in Scotland usually walked to school in 2023. This school measure is not the same as the adult seven-day travel measure.
Active travel and walking in Wales
For Wales, active-travel statistics often use walking for more than 10 minutes as a means of transport. In the period April 2022 to March 2023, 51% of people aged 16 and over walked at least once a week for active travel. The Active travel (walking and cycling): April 2022 to March 2023 report also recorded 17% walking for more than 10 minutes every day as transport, 18% doing so several times a week, 16% once or twice a week and 8% once or twice a month. A further 41% walked less often or never.
Location was associated with a different reported frequency. In urban Wales, 62% of people walked for more than 10 minutes as a means of transport at least once a month in 2022–23. In rural Wales, the figure was 52%. These are population shares for the stated period, not estimates of the number of walking journeys.
The same Welsh report recorded a difference by limiting long-standing illness, disability or infirmity. Thirteen percent of people with such a limitation walked for more than 10 minutes every day as transport, compared with 19% of people without a limiting long-standing illness. This is a descriptive comparison and does not identify why the rates differ.
Walking routes and school travel in Wales
Welsh active-travel reporting also measures routes and school travel. The Active Travel in Wales: Annual Report 2023-2024 states that Wales created 90 km of active-travel routes in 2022–23. The active-travel network reached 3,129 km in that period.
For the latest published school information cited in the 2023–24 report, 48% of primary school children were estimated to walk, wheel or cycle to school. Among secondary school young people, 34% were estimated to walk or cycle. The age groups and active-travel definitions differ, so these percentages should not be compared as though they measured identical populations.
The Wales Travel to School Hands Up Survey in June 2023 recorded 53% active travel among primary pupils. It recorded active travel above 72% in Cardiff and just above 23% in Ceredigion. The source warns that these Hands Up results are not representative nationally, so the local figures should be read as survey results for the participating context rather than national estimates.
A Welsh secondary-school survey recorded 35% of respondents reporting walking or cycling to school in 2021, the same percentage reported for 2019, and 33.8% in 2017. These are legacy figures retained with their reported years; they should not be presented as independently rechecked current estimates. The school and route figures come from Active Travel in Wales: Annual Report 2023-2024.
Walking journeys in Northern Ireland
In Northern Ireland, people made an average of 181 walking journeys per person in 2023. Walking represented 22% of all journeys, down from 24% in 2022. The figures are from Public transport accounts for just 4% of all journeys made in 2023.
For context, Northern Ireland residents made 828 journeys per person on average in 2023 and travelled 5,640 miles per person. The walking total is therefore a journey count, while the 5,640-mile figure is total travel distance, not walking distance.
The same 2023 report records 296 leisure and other journeys per person, equal to 36% of all journeys, and 162 commuting and business journeys per person, equal to 20%. Those purpose categories provide travel context but are not stated as walking-only categories. They should not be added to the 181 walking journeys.
Across the four nations, the consistent message is that walking is measured in several ways: England’s 2024 average was 267 walking trips and 230 miles per person; Scotland reported seven-day participation and usual travel-to-work modes; Wales reported active-travel frequency, routes and school travel; and Northern Ireland reported 181 walking journeys per person in 2023. Because the surveys use different definitions, periods and populations, each figure is most useful when kept with its original geography and measurement context.