Index of Production, UK: February 2024

• Monthly production output was estimated to have risen by 1.1% in February 2024; this follows a revised fall of 0.3% (revised down 0.1 percentage points) in January 2024.

• The monthly increase in output for February 2024 resulted from a rise in three of the four production sectors, with the largest contribution from "manufacturing" (1.2%) and smaller contributions from "water supply and sewerage" (1.9%) and "electricity and gas" (0.5%); this was partially offset by a fall in "mining and quarrying" (0.8%).

• Monthly manufacturing output rose by 1.2% in February 2024 and saw a positive profile of growth at the sub-level, with increases in 11 of its 13 sub-sectors.

• The largest positive contributing manufacturing sub-sector in February 2024 was "manufacture of transport equipment" (3.7%); within this sub-sector, the largest contribution came from "manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers" (5.3%).

• Production output growth is estimated to have risen by 0.7% in the three months to February 2024 when compared with the three months to November 2023.

• At the sector level, there were rises of 1.2% in both "manufacturing" and "electricity and gas" in the three months to February 2024; this was partially offset by falls in "mining and quarrying" (2.5%) and "water supply and sewerage" (2.0%).

All data related to the Index of Production (IoP) are available on our Related data page.

The Index of Production (IoP) uses data from a variety of sources. It is calculated by taking turnover and removing the impact of price changes, or by using direct volume estimates.

Most of these data are collected as "turnover values" through the Monthly Business Survey (MBS). In addition, direct volume series are collected by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), and the International Steel Statistics Bureau (ISSB) for steel industries.

The MBS is fully online. Business owners can log on from any location and submit their data at an appropriate time. Most other data in the IoP come from the DESNZ, so will be less affected than the survey data.       

From January 2018, Value Added Tax (VAT) data have also been included across 64 production industries for small- and medium-sized businesses. More information is available in our VAT turnover data in National Accounts: background and methodology article.

A comprehensive list of the IoP source data can be found in our Gross domestic product (GDP) data sources catalogue.

Response rates for February 2024

For February 2024, the response rates were 74.6% based on forms returned. This accounted for 83.8% of total turnover coverage of the sample population. For further information, see our current and historical Monthly Business Survey (MBS) (production) response rates.

Quality and methodology     

The data reported in IoP bulletins and datasets are estimates that are subject to uncertainty, such as sampling variability and non-sampling error. More information is available in our Uncertainty and how we measure it for our surveys web page.

More quality and methodology information (QMI) on strengths, limitations, appropriate uses, and how the data were created is available in our UK Index of Production QMI.

Revisions to IoP

In line with the National Accounts Revision Policy, this release provides data for February 2024 for the first time, with January 2024 also open for revision.

We have also included revisions to the monthly data from January to December 2023 as a result of revisions incorporated in the GDP quarterly National Accounts, UK: October to December 2023 release, published on 28 March 2024.

Early estimates of gross domestic product (GDP) are subject to revision (positive and negative). Please see our Why GDP figures are revised article for more information.

Underlying data sources that form the IoP are open to revision each period. For example, our Monthly Business Survey publishes revisions to the previously published 12 months.