Index of Production, UK: January 2024

• Production output growth is estimated to have fallen by 0.2% in the three months to January 2024 when compared with the three months to October 2023.

• At the sector level, in the three months to January 2024, there were falls in "mining and quarrying" (3.3%), "electricity and gas" (1.6%), and "water supply and sewerage" (1.0%); this was partially offset by a rise in "manufacturing" (0.3%). 

• Monthly production output was estimated to have fallen by 0.2% in January 2024; this follows a rise 0.6% in December 2023.

• The monthly decrease in output for January 2024 resulted from a decline in two of the four production sectors, with "water supply and sewerage" being the main contributor to the monthly fall (2.2%) and a smaller negative contribution from "mining and quarrying" (1.3%); this was partially offset by a rise in "electricity and gas" (0.5%).

• Monthly manufacturing output remained flat (0.0%) in January 2024 but saw a mixed profile of growth at the sub-level with increases in 7 of its 13 sub-sectors.

• The largest positive contributing manufacturing sub-sectors on the month in January 2024 were "manufacture of transport equipment" and "other manufacturing and repair", which increased by 2.3% and 1.8%, respectively; this was partially offset by the largest contributing fall in "manufacture of basic pharmaceutical products and pharmaceutical preparations'', of 5.1%.

• Further analysis of our monthly Index of Production (IoP) estimate is available in our Gross domestic product (GDP) monthly estimate, UK: January 2024 bulletin, published 13 March 2024.

All data related to the 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. For more information, see 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 January 2024

For January 2024, the response rates were 73.1% based on forms returned and this accounted for 83.0% of total turnover coverage of the sample population. Historical information can be found in our IoP response rates.

Quality and methodology  

The data reported in IoP bulletins and datasets are estimates that are subject to uncertainty, for example sampling variability and non-sampling error. For more information on these issues, see our Uncertainty and how we measure it for our surveys.

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,  there are no revisions to the Index of Production, with January 2024 open for publication for the first time.

It is important to note that early estimates of GDP are subject to revision (positive and negative). Please see our Why GDP figures are revised article for more information.

Please note that underlying data sources that form the IoP, are open for revision each period. For instance, our Monthly Business Survey publishes revisions to the previously published 12 months.

Office for Statistics Regulation review of GDP     

The Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) completed a review of the practices around the preparation and release of information about revisions to estimates of GDP in our Impact of Blue Book 2023 article, released on 1 September 2023. This covers the following:

• processes and quality assurance in making revisions to GDP

• potential improvements to early estimates of GDP enabled through enhanced access to data

• communication of revisions to GDP, the story behind the most recent set of revisions in particular and uncertainty in early estimates of GDP

We published a response to the OSR review into GDP in January 2024, which was positively received by the OSR.