GDP quarterly national accounts, UK: January to March 2025

• UK gross domestic product (GDP) is estimated to have grown by 0.7% in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025, unrevised from the first estimate.

• In output terms, growth in Quarter 1 2025 was driven by an increase of 0.7% in the services sector, production also grew, by 1.3%, and the construction sector grew by 0.3%.

• In expenditure terms, growth in the latest quarter was driven by increases in gross fixed capital formation, net trade and household consumption.

• Nominal GDP is estimated to have increased by 1.5% in Quarter 1 2025, mainly driven by an increase in compensation of employees.

• Real GDP per head is estimated to have grown by 0.6% in Quarter 1 2025, revised up from the first estimate increase of 0.5%.

• Real household disposable income (RHDI) per head is estimated to have decreased in the latest quarter by 1.0% from a revised 1.8% increase in the previous quarter.

• The household saving ratio is estimated to have decreased by 1.1 percentage points to 10.9% this quarter; driven by a fall in the non-pension savings contributions.

UK real gross domestic product (GDP) is estimated to have increased by 0.7% in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025, unrevised from the first estimate (Figure 1). Real GDP is estimated to have increased by an unrevised 1.3%, compared with the same quarter a year ago.

Looking at our more timely monthly estimates, GDP was estimated to have fallen by 0.3% in April 2025, largely because of a decline in services output.

Early estimates of GDP are subject to revision (positive or negative). Previous analysis shows that the revision between the first quarterly GDP estimate, and the same quarterly estimate three years later is typically up to plus or minus 0.2 percentage points, when more detailed information becomes available through the comprehensive annual supply and use balancing process, as the data content increases. For more information, please refer to our GDP revisions in Blue Book: 2024 article. The GDP growth vintages from 2023 onwards are shown in Table 4. We give more information on uncertainty in Section 12: Data sources and quality.

In line with our National Accounts Revisions Policy, data for only Quarter 1 2025 are open to revision in this publication.

Real GDP per head is estimated to have grown by 0.6% in Quarter 1 2025 and is up 0.6%, compared with the same quarter a year ago. The population estimates for 2023 onwards have been updated to use the migration variant projection, as announced in our National Accounts Revision Policy: updated June 2025. This is in line with the recommendation made in our National population projections: 2022-based bulletin. 

See Section 6: Real GDP and real disposable income per head for more information.

Nominal GDP is estimated to have increased by 1.5% in Quarter 1 2025, revised down from the first estimate increase of 1.6%. Growth in the latest quarter was mainly driven by an increase in compensation of employees. Nominal GDP is estimated to have increased by 5.7%, compared with the same quarter a year ago.

The implied GDP deflator is the broadest measure of inflation in the domestic economy, reflecting changes in the price of all goods and services that make up GDP. The GDP deflator covers the whole of the domestic economy, not just consumer spending. It also reflects the change in the relative price of exports to imports. For more information on the implied GDP deflator, see our Measuring price changes of the UK national accounts: February 2023 article.

The implied price of GDP rose by an unrevised 0.8% in Quarter 1 2025, mainly driven by higher prices in household consumption. The GDP implied deflator grew by 4.4%, compared with the same quarter a year ago (Figure 2).

Output is estimated to have increased by an unrevised 0.7% in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025, following 0.1% growth in the previous quarter. Overall, there has been widespread growth in the latest quarter, with 14 out of 20 of the subsectors increasing, unrevised from the first estimate.

The services sector increased by 0.7% in the latest quarter. Construction output increased by 0.3% (revised up from no growth), while production increased by 1.3% (revised up from 1.1%).

Services

Services output increased by 0.7% in the latest quarter, unrevised from the first estimate. Services output is estimated to have increased by 1.4%, compared with the same quarter a year ago. Non-consumer-facing services (business-facing services) increased by 0.6% in Quarter 1 2025 (revised down from 0.7% growth), while consumer-facing services increased by 0.8% (revised down from 0.9% growth).

Figure 3 shows 9 of the 14 services sectors contributed positively to growth. The largest positive contributor to growth was administrative and support service activities, which increased by 3.7%. Within this subsector, all 6 industries contributed positively to growth, the largest contributor being services to buildings and landscape activities, which grew by 9.8%.

The second largest positive contribution to growth was wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, which increased by 1.6%. Within this subsector, all three industries contributed to growth.

The largest negative contributor to growth in Quarter 1 2025 was financial and insurance activities, which fell by 0.7%. This was largely driven by a 1.5% decline in financial service activities, except insurance and pension funding.

While total services are unrevised in the latest quarter, there are some revisions to underlying industries reflecting:

• late and updated Monthly Business Survey returns

• updated Financial Intermediation Services Indirectly Measured (FISIM) data

Production

The production sector is estimated to have grown by 1.3% in Quarter 1 2025, revised up from a first estimate growth of 1.1%, following falls in the previous three quarters. Production output is estimated to have shown no growth compared with the same quarter a year ago.

The growth in production in Quarter 1 2025 was largely driven by a 1.1% increase in manufacturing and a 4.0% increase in water supply: sewerage, waste management and remediation activities. Elsewhere, electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply increased by 2.5%, while mining and quarrying fell by 0.5%.

Manufacturing output grew by 1.1% in Quarter 1 2025 (revised up from a 0.8% growth), following a 0.6% fall in the previous quarter. Figure 4 shows there were increases in 10 out of 13 manufacturing subsectors in the latest quarter. The largest positive contributions were from the manufacture of transport equipment (which grew by 2.8%) and the manufacture of machinery and equipment n.e.c. (which grew by 4.0%). The growth in transport equipment was largely driven by manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers, although this industry remains 5.5% below its level a year ago. This is supported by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT: UK Car Manufacturing and Production Data).

Revisions to total production are mainly because of upward revisions in the manufacturing subsector, in particular:

• late and updated Monthly Business Survey returns, most notably in the manufacture of basic pharmaceuticals products and pharmaceutical preparations industry

• other updated source data, most notably in the manufacture of basic metals and metal products

Construction

Construction output is estimated to have grown by 0.3% in Quarter 1 2025, revised up from no change, following 0.3% growth in the previous quarter. The level of construction output is now 1.2% higher in Quarter 1 2025 compared with the same quarter a year ago, revised up from 0.9%.

Looking at the expenditure approach to measuring gross domestic product (GDP), growth in the latest quarter was driven by increases in gross fixed capital formation, net trade and household consumption (Figure 5).

Household consumption

There was an increase of 0.4% in real household expenditure in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025, revised up from the first estimate increase of 0.2%. Real household expenditure is now 0.9% higher compared with the same quarter a year ago. Within household consumption, growth was driven by housing, household goods and services, and transport.

Net tourism contributed positively to growth in household consumption in the latest quarter. Net tourism is offset within trade, so there is no impact on the GDP aggregate. Information on how we measure net tourism is provided in our National Accounts articles: Treatment of tourism in the UK National Accounts article. Excluding net tourism, domestic consumption grew by 0.3% in the latest quarter.

The upward revision in household consumption reflects updated source data on recreation and transport spending, as well as upward revisions to net tourism.

Consumption of government goods and services

Real government consumption expenditure fell by 0.4% in the latest quarter, revised up from the first estimate fall of 0.5%. Real government consumption is 1.5% higher, compared with the same quarter a year ago. The fall in government consumption in the latest quarter mainly reflects lower expenditure on health and education.

Gross capital formation

Within gross capital formation, revised estimates of gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) showed a 2.0% increase in Quarter 1 2025, revised down from the first estimate increase of 2.9%. GFCF is now up 3.5% compared with the same quarter a year ago. The increase in the latest quarter was mainly driven by a large increase in transport (mainly because of relative strength in aircraft investment), as well as increases in ICT equipment and other machinery and equipment.

Within GFCF, business investment is estimated to have increased by 3.9% in Quarter 1 2025, revised down from the first estimate increase of 5.9%. Downward revisions in GFCF and business investment reflect revised survey data, in particular in other machinery and equipment, and other buildings and structures.

Excluding the alignment adjustments, revised estimates show that real inventories increased by £7 billion in Quarter 1 2025 (Table 2). This was driven by higher stocks in manufacturing, specifically work in progress, and material, stores and fuel inventories.

Net trade

The UK's trade deficit for goods and services was 1.7% of nominal GDP in Quarter 1 2025. However, this includes non-monetary gold and other precious metals, which is an erratic series. It can be useful to exclude this from the trade balance. Excluding non-monetary gold and other precious metals, the trade deficit was 1.0% of nominal GDP in Quarter 1 2025 (Figure 6).

Export volumes increased by a revised 3.3% (previously a 3.5% increase), following three consecutive quarterly declines. The increase in the latest quarter was mainly driven by a 5.7% increase in goods exports and a 1.5% increase in services exports. The increase in goods exports was mainly caused by rises in exports of material manufactures, whereas growth in services exports was caused by rises in other business services and travel.

Import volumes increased by a revised 2.0% in the latest quarter (previously a 2.1% increase), driven by increases of 0.3% and 5.4% in goods and services imports, respectively. The increase in goods imports was driven by large movements in non-monetary gold and other precious metals. However, this series also appears within gross capital formation (GCF) as valuables, so the effect is GDP neutral. The increase in services imports were caused by increases in other business services and travel.

Nominal gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 1.5% in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025 (previously a 1.6% increase) and is up 5.7% compared with the same quarter a year ago. Growth in nominal GDP was mainly driven by increases in compensation of employees (Figure 7).

Compensation of employees

Compensation of employees increased by 2.0% in the latest quarter, revised up from the first estimate increase of 1.4%. Growth in the latest quarter was driven by an increase of 2.0% in wages and salaries, and a 1.9% increase in employers' social contributions.

Upward revisions in compensation of employees, including to National Insurance (NI) contributions, mainly reflect actual data replacing forecasts.

Early estimates of private sector wages and salaries are based on estimates of the number of employees in the economy from our Labour Force Survey (LFS) and average earnings from our average weekly earnings statistics. However, there is some additional uncertainty around the employee estimates used to derive our figures of wages and salaries, because of low response rates in the LFS. We have therefore used additional information from our Earnings and employment from Pay As You Earn Real Time Information UK bulletin to help improve the accuracy of the income measure of GDP.

Other income

Other income increased by 1.0% in the latest quarter. This was driven by growth in other gross operating surplus from government and mixed income, in particular from rental income.

Taxes less subsidies

Taxes less subsidies are estimated to have increased by 3.4% in Quarter 1 2025, revised up from a first estimate increase of 1.2%. There was a 3.7% increase in taxes (mainly Value Added Tax), which was partially offset by a 6.2% increase in subsidies, which contribute negatively to GDP.

Revisions are mainly because of updated Value Added Tax data.

Gross operating surplus

Total gross operating surplus (GOS) of corporations, excluding the alignment adjustment, fell by 0.1% in Quarter 1 2025 (Table 3). This is mainly because of a decline in private non-financial corporations.

There is uncertainty around estimates of non-financial corporations within the GOS of corporations. This is because we do not have up-to-date quarterly information on the gross trading profits of businesses. These data are collected from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and are available with a lag of approximately two years. We rely on contextual data from other sources to inform these quarterly estimates, as outlined in our Profitability of UK companies Quality and Methodology Information (QMI).

We produce estimates of gross domestic product (GDP) per head (or per capita), which divides UK GDP by the total UK population. This is one proxy indicator of welfare, rather than production, which reflects a country's living standards. It captures the volume of goods and services available to the average person. Further information on this is available in our Trends in UK real GDP per head: 2022 to 2024 article.

Real GDP per head is estimated to have grown by 0.6% in Quarter 1 2025 (Figure 8) and is up 0.6%, compared with the same quarter a year ago.

We estimate Real Household Disposable Income (RHDI) per head by dividing RHDI by the total UK population. RHDI per head has decreased by 1.0% in Quarter 1 2025, down from the revised 1.8% growth in the previous quarter. The components of this measure are further broken down in Section 7: Quarterly sector accounts.

The population estimates for 2023 onwards have been updated to use the migration variant projection, as announced in our National Accounts Revision Policy: updated June 2025. This is in line with the recommendation made in our National population projections: 2022-based bulletin.

Real household disposable income per head (seasonally adjusted)

Real household disposable income (RHDI) per head decreased by 1.0% in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025, down from 1.8% growth in the previous quarter.

The fall in RHDI is mainly because of an increase in the implied deflator (used to remove the effects of inflation), which rose by 1.5%. Within RHDI, nominal gross disposable income saw growth at 0.6%, down from 2.7% growth in the previous quarter. Growth in this quarter, which was driven by an increase of £5.9 billion in wages and salaries, was offset by a rise in taxes on income of £4.4 billion.

Households' saving ratio

The households' saving ratio is estimated to have decreased to 10.9% in the latest quarter, down from 12.0% in Quarter 4 2024. During Quarter 1 2025, non-pension saving contributed 6.2 percentage points to the saving ratio, with contributions of pension saving unchanged at 4.7 percentage points. In the previous quarter, non-pension saving contributed 7.3 percentage points to the saving ratio. The increase of 0.6% in gross disposable income was exceeded by the growth in final consumption expenditure of 1.8%. This growth in expenditure was driven by increases in the costs of fuel, rent and restaurant meals.

Non-financial account net lending and borrowing (seasonally adjusted)

In the non-financial accounts, non-financial corporations, financial corporations and general government were net borrowers, while households, non-profit institutions serving households, and rest of the world were net lenders in the latest quarter.

The UK's borrowing position with the rest of the world as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) is estimated to have increased to 3.2% in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025 compared with 3.1% of GDP in Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec) 2024.

Non-financial corporations net borrowing decreased to 1.6% of GDP in the latest quarter, from 1.8% of GDP in Quarter 4 2024. Within non-financial corporations, private non-financial corporations decreased their net borrowing to £12.4 billion in Quarter 1 2025, from net borrowing of £14.0 billion in the previous quarter. This decrease was driven by a rise in net property income of £2.6 billion and a fall in income taxes of £1.6 billion, partially offset by a £1.8 billion fall in gross operating surplus and a fall in net capital transfers of £1.8 billion.

Financial corporations switched to a net borrowing position of 0.2% of GDP in the latest quarter, from net lending 0.8% of GDP in Quarter 4 2024. This was driven by a decrease in net property income of £3.0 billion, fall in capital transfers of £1.7 billion, together with a £2.6 billion rise in the acquisition of valuables, partially offset by a £1.6 billion rise in gross operating surplus.

General government decreased their net borrowing to 5.7% of GDP in the latest quarter, from 6.1% of GDP in Quarter 4 2024. Within general government, central government decreased their net borrowing to £36.6 billion, following £43.1 billion in the previous quarter. This decrease was driven by increases in taxes on income and production.

Households decreased their net lending position to 4.4% of GDP in the latest quarter, from 4.5% of GDP in Quarter 4 2024. The drivers for this position are the same as those identified in the household saving ratio section.

Financial account net lending and borrowing (not seasonally adjusted)

In the latest quarter, in the financial accounts, non-financial corporations, financial corporations and general government were net borrowers, while households, non-profit institutions serving households and rest of the world were net lenders.

The UK's net borrowing position with the rest of the world as a percentage of GDP is estimated to have increased to 1.9% in Quarter 1 2025 compared with 1.5% of GDP in Quarter 4 2024.

Non-financial corporations have seen an increase in net borrowing as a percentage of GDP to 3.1% in the latest quarter, from 0.6% in Quarter 4 2024. Within this sector, private non-financial corporations increased their net borrowing to £23.8 billion in Quarter 1 2025, from £4.2 billion in the previous quarter. This was driven by a fall in currency and deposits of £19.8 billion, a fall in net loans of £8.0 billion and a fall in net debt securities of £5.3 billion. This was partially offset by rises in net other accounts of £11.1 billion, and equity and investment fund shares or units of £3.9 billion.

Financial corporations are net lenders at 1.3% of GDP in the latest quarter, up from 0.9% in Quarter 4 2024. The increase was because of rises in net equity and investment funds shares or units of £68.0 billion, net debt securities of £51.5 billion and net loans of £15.4 billion, partially offset by a fall in net currency and deposits of £128.2 billion.

General government decreased their net borrowing as a percentage of GDP to an estimated 1.8% in the latest quarter from 7.3% in Quarter 4 2024. Within general government, central government decreased their net borrowing to £6.4 billion, following £47.4 billion in the previous quarter. This decrease was driven by rises in net currency and deposits of £24.1 billion, as well as net debt securities of £19.1 billion and net loans of £6.8 billion.

Households decreased their net lending as a percentage of GDP in the latest quarter to an estimated 1.4% from 5.6% in Quarter 4 2024.  This was driven by a fall in currency and deposits of £22.4 billion, a rise in loans secured on dwellings of £6.2 billion and a fall in net other accounts of £4.1 billion. This was partially offset by a rise in net investment funds shares or units of £5.0 billion.

Early estimates of gross domestic product (GDP) are subject to positive or negative revision, as described in our Why GDP figures are revised article. For more information, please refer to our GDP revision in Blue Book: 2024 article. The GDP growth vintages are shown in Table 4.

In line with our National Accounts Revisions Policy, data for Quarter 1 2025 only are open to revision in this publication.

The three approaches to measuring GDP

There are three approaches to measuring gross domestic product (GDP): the output approach, the expenditure approach and the income approach. The data and data quality are different for each approach, and this dictates the approach taken in balancing quarterly data. There are more data available on output in the UK in the short term than in the other two approaches. To get the best estimate of GDP, our published figure, estimates from all three approaches are balanced to produce an average, except in the latest two quarters where the output data take the lead, because of the larger data content.

The three approaches to measuring GDP allow us to confront our data sources within the national accounts framework. Figure 12 shows that the three approaches to measuring GDP are closely aligned. However, there can still be uncertainty at the component level, at this stage in the production cycle for 2023 and 2024, until these data have been confronted through the supply and use tables (SUTs) framework. This uncertainty may be for various reasons and is further discussed in this section.

Output approach

In the output approach, we do not currently have final estimates for intermediate consumption (the value of goods and services purchased to be used up in the production of goods and services). This is outlined in our Blue Book 2024: advanced aggregate estimates article. Initially, we use turnover and output as a proxy for changes in gross value added. We assume that the intermediate consumption ratio by industry, calculated in 2022, holds constant into 2023 onwards. More information on this is provided in Section 11: Data sources and quality of our GDP quarterly national accounts, UK: April to June 2024 bulletin.

Expenditure approach

In the expenditure approach, we currently have lower response rates for areas, such as the Living Costs and Food Survey, which is one of many data sources that inform our estimates of household consumption. We therefore rely on additional indicators, such as our Monthly Business Survey, to quality adjust some of our estimates in the short term.

Income approach

In the income approach, we do not have up-to-date quarterly information on the gross trading profits of businesses. These data are collected from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and are available with a lag of approximately two years. We rely on contextual data from other sources to inform these quarterly estimates, as outlined in our Profitability of UK companies Quality and Methodology Information (QMI). There is currently more uncertainty around the compensation of employees figures in this release because of lower response rates in our Labour Force Survey (LFS), as described in our LFS: planned improvements and its reintroduction methodology. We have used additional information from our Earnings and employment Pay As You Earn Real Time Information, UK: January 2025 bulletin to help inform the estimates.

Reaching the GDP balance

Quarterly GDP is a balanced measure of the three approaches. The GDP monthly estimate focuses on gross value added (GVA) and output as a proxy for GDP. This results in data differences, in both levels and growth terms, between our quarterly bulletins (average GDP) and our GDP monthly estimate bulletins (output approach to GDP). Quarterly GDP is the lead measure of GDP because of its higher data content and inclusion of variables, which enable the conversion from a GVA concept to a GDP basis.

Information on the methods we use is in our Balancing the output, income and expenditure approaches to measuring GDP report.

Alignment adjustments, found in Table M of our GDP data tables, have a target limit of plus or minus £3,000 million on any quarter. However, in periods where the data sources are particularly difficult to balance, larger alignment adjustments are sometimes needed, as explained in our Recent challenges of balancing the three approaches of GDP article. Our standard practice is to prefer that the alignment adjustment be out of tolerance rather than over-adjust individual GDP components to achieve a balance. This is most likely to occur in the latest quarter, where the constraints are larger, and where we must align to the output estimate for the change in GDP, and where the data content is at its lowest.

To achieve a balanced GDP dataset through alignment, we apply balancing adjustments to the components of GDP where data content is particularly weak in each quarter because of a higher level of forecast content. The balancing adjustments applied in this estimate are shown in Table 7. The resulting series should be considered accordingly.

Net trade

Since the UK left the EU on 31 January 2020, the arrangements for how the UK trades with the EU changed. HMRC implemented some data collection changes following Brexit, which affected statistics on UK trade in goods with the EU. We have made adjustments to our estimates of goods imports from the EU in 2021 and 2022 to account for these changes. However, a structural break remains in the full time series for goods imports from, and exports to, the EU from January 2021.

We advise caution when interpreting and drawing conclusions from these statistics. More detail is in our Impact of trade in goods data collection changes on UK trade statistics: summary of adjustments and the structural break from 2021 article.

International Trade in Services estimates

From September 2025 until early 2027, International Trade in Services (ITIS) data (which accounts for approximately 50% of total Trade in Services) will be processed once each quarterly period. During this period, the data will be based on a robust survey response rate of between approximately 60 and 70%. This will enable more focus on improving processing systems and ensuring methods and quality in the future. Users should be aware that until September 2025, when estimates will be revised in line with the National Accounts revisions policy, ITIS-based estimates for periods between Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec) 2024 and Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025 are based on forecasts. Meanwhile, ITIS-based data in Trade in Services estimates at first quarterly estimate will be forecast until early 2027.

The International Passenger Survey (IPS), which is the source of travel services estimates (accounting for approximately 8% of total trade), is being transformed as part of our Improving our travel and tourism statistics project, and travel services estimates have been forecast since Quarter 1 2024. In our September 2025 quarterly national accounts release, we will update Quarters 1 and 2 2024 to be based on survey data. For later periods, estimates will be forecast during the period of the Travel and tourism transformation.

Pausing of producer prices publications

Business prices data with corrected chain linking methods have been used in this release for producer price indices (PPI), import prices indices (IPI) and export price indices (EPI). In line with the National Accounts revision policy, updated data have only been used from January 2025 onwards.

Corrected service producer price indices (SPPI) have not been included. Further analysis will be made on the corrected SPPI dataset and we provisionally intend to include this in the GDP monthly estimate, UK June 2025 and GDP first quarterly estimate, UK: April to June 2025 on 14 August.

The full implementation of updated business prices data will be managed in line with the national accounts revision policy with the full time series update being included in our GDP quarterly national accounts, UK: April to June 2025 release on 30 September 2025 and Blue Book 2025 publication.

Further information on the chain linking error in the producer prices dataset are detailed in our producer prices publications update.

Strengths and limitations

The UK National Accounts are drawn together using data from many different sources. This ensures that they are comprehensive and provide different perspectives on the economy, for example, sales by retailers and purchases by households. Further information on measuring GDP can be found in our Guide to the UK National Accounts. More quality and methodology information is available in our GDP quality and methodology information (QMI).

Seasonal adjustment

The headline estimates of quarterly GDP are seasonally adjusted. Seasonal adjustment is the process of removing the variations associated with the time of year, or the arrangement of the calendar, from a data time series.

GDP estimates, as for many data time series, are difficult to analyse using raw data because seasonal effects dominate short-term movements. Identifying and removing the seasonal component leaves the trend and irregular components.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) uses the X-13-ARIMA-SEATS approach to seasonal adjustment. Seasonal adjustment parameters are monitored closely and regularly reviewed. For more information, please see our seasonal adjustment methodology page.

In our quarterly GDP estimates, seasonal adjustment is applied at a low level and the seasonally adjusted series are aggregated to create estimates by sector and total output. As part of our quality assurance approach, residual seasonality checks are regularly completed by our time series analysis team on both the directly seasonally adjusted series and also the indirectly derived aggregate time series.

This topic is explored further in Section 5 of our Assessing residual seasonality in published outputs article published 9 May 2025.

Important quality information

There are common pitfalls in interpreting data series. These include:

• expectations of accuracy and reliability in early estimates are often too high

• revisions are an inevitable consequence of the trade-off between timeliness and accuracy

• early estimates are often based on incomplete data

Very few statistical revisions arise because of "errors" in the popular sense of the word. All estimates, by definition, are subject to statistical "error".

Many different approaches can be used to summarise revisions. The section on Accuracy and reliability in our GDP QMI analyses the mean average revision and the mean absolute revision for GDP estimates over data publication iterations.

Accredited official statistics

These accredited official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in October 2016. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled "accredited official statistics".