NTS Analytics - Purpose shares
Back to Resource HubWhat is it?
This dataset shows why people travel and how they get around, using data from the National Travel Survey. It sets out the purpose of trips, such as work, education or leisure, and how these vary across different transport modes.
How is it useful?
It helps analysts understand the reasons behind travel and how this shapes demand. You can use it to assess how different types of trips might change, link patterns to mode choice and support transport planning. The data provides clear evidence to strengthen local plans and business cases.
Dataset code
01205
Licence
Open Government Licence 3.0
Limitations
NTS data is based on real-surveyed data and therefore has some limitations. The lowest geography in the data is Unitary Authority and cannot be reported any lower. Due to sample sizes the data is served across all available years and therefore shows an average. Most of the sample exists for car journies and other modes are less well represented. Very short distance active trips are often missed when users are filling out the survey (i.e. trips that are a walk to the corner shop)
Attributions
Cuts of NTS data are licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 (https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/) with the following attributions:
Source: Department for Transport. (2024). National Travel Survey, 2002-2023: Special Licence Access. [data collection]. 13th Edition. UK Data Service. SN: 7553, DOI: http://doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-7553-13