Economic activity and social change in the UK, real-time indicators: 30 October 2025

In the UK in the week to 26 October 2025:

• Total Revolut debit card expenditure decreased by 2%, compared with the previous week, but increased by 10% when compared with the equivalent week of 2024 (Revolut).
• Total UK retail footfall decreased by 2%, compared with the previous week, and decreased by 4% when compared with the equivalent week of 2024 (BT Active intelligence). Section 3: Consumer behaviour.
• The System Average Price (SAP) of gas decreased by 4%, compared with the previous week, and decreased by 26% when compared with the equivalent week of 2024 (National Gas Transmission).
• The total number of ship visits to major UK ports decreased by 7%, compared with the previous week, and decreased by 11% when compared with the equivalent week of 2024 (exactEarth).
• The seasonally adjusted number of daily UK flights remained broadly unchanged, compared with the previous week, but increased by 4% when compared with the equivalent week of 2024 (EUROCONTROL).
• The number of Energy Performance Building Certificates (EPCs) lodged in England and Wales for new dwellings decreased by 5%, compared with the previous week, but increased by 28% when compared with the equivalent week of 2024 (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government).

Notes:

1. Card spending over time is pushed upwards by the impacts of both inflation on value of transactions and cash-to-card conversion.
2. Indicators with "SA" in the title have been seasonally adjusted.
3. Existing Energy Performance Building Certificate (EPC) data can show sudden spikes when housing associations lodge multiple expired EPCs at once.

UK retail footfall

In this release, we are introducing BT Active Intelligence retail footfall data. This is generated from aggregated and anonymised data from the EE network covering 24 million devices. The data capture footfall of UK and international visitors to retail areas. Details of the methods used to compile these data are available in the BT Active Intelligence methodology.

Our previous real-time footfall estimates were provided by MRI OnLocation. These data were gathered using different methods and therefore are not directly comparable with the new data from BT Active Intelligence.

In this bulletin, our leading metric is indexed UK retail footfall. This represents the latest levels of footfall across the UK, compared with the average level of footfall for 2023. These data have been aggregated to both weekly and monthly values, as shown in Figures 1, 2 and 3.

Retail footfall can also be classified into three different retail location types. These are:

• town and city centres
• retail parks
• district or local centres

In the week to 26 October 2025, UK retail footfall decreased by 2% compared with the previous week. Footfall also decreased by 4% when compared with the equivalent week of last year.

Looking at monthly values for September 2025, we see that UK retail footfall decreased by 3% when compared with August 2025 and decreased by 4% when compared with September 2024. When looking at the last 14 months, footfall was at its lowest during January and February 2025. This likely reflects the seasonal pattern that exists in footfall data.

Footfall decreased for 10 regions in September 2025; it remained broadly unchanged for one region and increased for one region, when compared with September 2024. The largest decreases were seen in Northern Ireland (10%) and in Wales, North West England and South East England (6%). East England remained broadly unchanged (0%), and the increase was seen in the West Midlands (2%).

Figure 3: Retail footfall decreased in all but two UK regions in September 2025, when compared with September 2024

Change in retail footfall by region, UK, September 2025, non-seasonally adjusted

Notes:

1. BT Active Intelligence retail footfall data are an estimate of UK retail footfall. The data exclude those who work and live in retail areas and only count visitors to these locations. 
2. The data are available from July 2024 onwards. This back series is not long enough to perform seasonal adjustment of the data, so caution is advised when assessing seasonal impacts.

Retail footfall decreased in all three retail location types in the week to 26 October 2025, when compared with the previous week. District or local centres decreased by the most (3%), followed by town and city centres (2%) and retail parks (1%).

In September 2025, decreases were seen in town and city centres (5%) and in retail parks (3%), compared with August 2025. District or local centres footfall remained broadly unchanged.

When compared with September 2024, footfall in towns and city centres increased (4%), but decreased in retail parks (4%), and in district or local centres (10%).

More information on how these data are derived and the methodology used can be found in the BT Active Intelligence methodology.

Data are available in further detail, broken down by region and site type, in our accompanying UK retail footfall dataset.

This section lists a selection of data available in this publication. For the full list of available datasets, please see our accompanying dataset page.

Real-time indicator

A real-time indicator provides insights into economic activity using close-to-real-time big data, administrative data sources, rapid response surveys or experimental estimates, which represent useful economic and social concepts.

Seasonal adjustment

Seasonal adjustment is the identification and removal of consistent and systematic variation in time series associated with the time of year. For more information on seasonal variation, and how we implement seasonal adjustment, see Section 2 of our Economic activity and social change in the UK, real-time indicators methodology article.

Official statistics in development

These statistics are labelled as official statistics in development. Until September 2023, these were called “experimental statistics”. Read more about the change in our Guide to official statistics in development.

We are developing how we collect and produce the data to improve the quality of these statistics. Find out more in our Economic activity and social change in the UK, real-time indicators methodology article.

Once the developments are complete, we will review the statistics with the Statistics Head of Profession. We will decide if the statistics are of sufficient quality and value to be published as official statistics, or if further development is needed. Production may be stopped if they are not of sufficient quality or value. Users will be informed of the outcome and any changes.

We value your feedback on these statistics. If you would like to get in touch, please email realtime.indicators@ons.gov.uk.

Dataset release dates and intended release frequency

Latest release dates and intended release frequency of our associated datasets are available in this section. Please note that there may be some change to the intended release frequency for a variety of reasons, such as data availability. If you would like further information about any of these datasets, or previous release dates, please email realtime.indicators@ons.gov.uk.

Weekly data release

• Revolut spending on debit cards dataset; updated 30 October 2025.
• Automotive fuel spending dataset; updated 16 October 2025.
• UK retail footfall dataset; updated 30 October 2025.
• Advanced notification of potential redundancies dataset; updated 30 October 2025.
• System Average Price (SAP) of gas dataset; updated 30 October 2025.
• System Price of electricity dataset; updated 30 October 2025.
• Energy Performance Building Certificates (EPC) dataset; updated 30 October 2025.
• Weekly shipping indicators dataset; updated 30 October 2025.
• Daily UK flights dataset; updated 30 October 2025.
• Company incorporations, voluntary dissolutions and compulsory dissolutions dataset; updated 30 January 2025.

Monthly data release

• Monthly Direct Debit failure rate and average transaction amount dataset; updated 9 October 2025.
• Textkernel new online job adverts dataset; updated 23 October 2025.
• Value Added Tax (VAT) flash estimates dataset; updated 23 October 2025.
• Renter affordability for new tenancies dataset; updated 9 October 2025.

Quarterly data release

• Sales and jobs in small businesses dataset; updated 7 November 2024.

Strengths and limitations

These statistics have been produced to provide timely indicators of the effect of developing world events on the UK economy and society. We use close-to-real-time big data, administrative data sources, rapid response surveys, or official statistics in development.

The data presented in this bulletin are reviewed and refreshed on a regular basis. Indicators are swapped in and out of the publication based on their suitability and availability.

Seasonality

Seasonal fluctuations are likely to be present in many of these indicators, so caution must be applied when interpreting changes in series that are not seasonally adjusted.