Economic activity and social change in the UK, real-time indicators: 9 May 2025

• Overall retail footfall increased by 6% in the week to 4 May 2025 compared with the previous week and increased by 4% when compared with the equivalent period of 2024; the largest increase was seen for high street footfall, which increased by 10% compared with the previous week, while shopping centre and retail park footfall increased by 3% and 1%, respectively (MRI OnLocation). 

• In our latest Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN), more people reported that their cost of living had increased during April 2025 (72%) than during March 2025 (66%); additionally around 1 in 4 adults (23%) reported that they would be unable to pay an unexpected but necessary expense of £850 between 2 April and 27 April 2025, this was broadly unchanged from March 2025 (initial findings for April 2025 from our OPN, publishing on 16 May 2025).

• In late April 2025, 17% of businesses with 10 or more employees reported that they expect to be impacted by the United States tariffs in the next month; the most-reported expected impacts were reduced demand and having to pass on additional costs to customers, both at 7% (final results from Wave 131 of the Business Insights and Conditions Survey from 21 April 2025 to 4 May 2025).

• In the week to 4 May 2025, the System Price of Electricity and the System Average Price (SAP) of gas decreased by 9% and 6%, respectively, compared with the previous week, but increased by 2% and 4%, respectively, when compared with the equivalent week of 2024 (Elexon, National Gas Transmission).

• The seasonally adjusted number of daily UK flights remained broadly unchanged in the week to 4 May 2025 compared with the previous week, but increased by 2% when compared with the equivalent week of 2024 (EUROCONTROL).

• The total number of visits to major UK ports for all ships increased by 4% in the week to 4 May 2025 compared with the previous week and increased by 6% for cargo and tanker ships; when compared with the equivalent week of 2024, both decreased by 6% (exactEarth).

• The total number of Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) for new and existing dwellings increased by 20% and 17%, respectively, in the week to 4 May 2025 compared with the previous week and in line with seasonal expectations; when compared with the equivalent week of 2024, total EPCs for new dwellings decreased by 10%, but increased by 8% for existing dwellings (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. Revolut adjustments to user count are at an aggregate level and as such age bands may not adjust evenly.  
3. Indicators with SA in the title have been seasonally adjusted.

This section lists a selection of data available in this publication. Please note that because of our data sharing agreement with MRI onLocation, we are unable to provide a dataset for our footfall metric. 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 1 May 2025.

• Automotive fuel spending dataset; updated 9 May 2025.

• Company incorporations, voluntary dissolutions and compulsory dissolutions dataset; updated 30 January 2025.

• Advanced notification of potential redundancies dataset; updated 9 May 2025.

• System Average Price of gas dataset; updated 9 May 2025.

• System Price of electricity dataset; updated 9 May 2025.

• Energy Performance Building Certificates (EPC) dataset; updated 9 May 2025.

• Weekly shipping indicators dataset; updated 9 May 2025.

• Daily UK flights dataset; updated 9 May 2025.

Monthly data release

• Monthly Direct Debit failure rate and average transaction amount dataset; updated 17 April 2025.

• Textkernel new online job adverts dataset; updated 25 April 2025.

• Value Added Tax (VAT) flash estimates dataset; updated 17 April 2025.

• Renter affordability for new tenancies dataset; updated 9 May 2025.

Quarterly data release

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

Discontinued data series

• UK credit and debit card payments; updated 5 December 2024.

Please note, these estimates are no longer being updated following a review of our real-time indicator (RTI) processes, sources and systems. This is to ensure timely official statistics in development are provided, with published estimates unaffected. Please see the Bank of England's Guide to the UK spending on credit and debit cards experimental data series for further information about these estimates.

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.