Active travel (National Survey for Wales): April 2024 to March 2025
A range of information collected through the National Survey for Wales about active travel by people during April 2024 to March 2025.
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In this page
Introduction
Information about active travel by people in Wales is collected through the National Survey for Wales. This report sets out the results from April 2024 to March 2025. Active travel is defined as walking for at least 10 minutes or cycling as a means of transport to get to a particular destination. It does not include walking or cycling done for pleasure, health reasons or training. Respondents were asked about the three months prior to their completing of the survey.
Additional results are available in the National Survey for Wales interactive results viewer.
Main findings
- 52% of people walked for active travel at least once a week, and 62% did so at least once a month.
- 7% of people cycled for active travel at least once a week, and 10% of people did so at least monthly.
- Men were more likely than women to undertake active travel. 66% of men walked for active travel at least monthly, compared with 59% of women. 14% of men cycled as a means of transport at least monthly, compared with 7% of women.
- Walking as a means of active travel was more common amongst people living in private rented housing (76%) than owner-occupiers (61%) and those in social housing (57%).
- People in south-east Wales are more likely to walk as a means of transport at least monthly than people in all other areas, with 68% of people in south-east Wales doing this.
- 50% of primary school children and 33% of secondary school children undertook active travel (either walking or cycling) to go to school.
Walking for active travel
People were asked how frequently they had walked for more than 10 minutes as a means of transport in the previous three months. 15% said they walked for more than 10 minutes every day, 17% stated they walked several times a week, and 19% once or twice a week. A further 10% walked once or twice a month and 38% said they walked less often or never.
Figure 1: frequency of active travel by walking, between 2018 to 2019 and 2024 to 2025
Description of figure 1: the chart shows that in the year April 2024 to March 2025, 52% of people actively travelled at least once or twice a week by walking, a similar proportion to April 2021 to March 2022, and April 2022 to March 2023, although lower than the earlier years.
Source: National Survey for Wales, Welsh Government
Note 1: The National Survey for Wales changed mode from face-to-face to telephone and online data collection for the April 2021 to March 2022 survey onwards, which may have affected results.
Note 2: Data not available for April 2020 to March 2021 due to changes in the National Survey for Wales as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and there was no survey carried out in the year April 2023 to March 2024.
Note 3: Confidence Intervals can be found in the interactive results viewer.
Factors linked to having walked for active travel
The relationship between walking for active travel and various factors was explored using statistical techniques (see quality and methodology information). When taking other factors into account, the following factors were independently linked to walking as a means of transport at least once a month.
- Being male
- Living in private rented housing
- Living in south-east Wales
- Living in an urban area
- Participating in sport three or more times a week
- Having good or very good health
- Not having a limiting long-term illness
- Not having a mental illness
- Having a higher level of education
- Being single
Each of these factors found to be independently linked to walking as a means of transport are discussed in turn below.
Other factors explored but not found to be linked were:
- age
- household type
- ethnicity
- religion
- sexual orientation
- carers
- Welsh speaking
- material deprivation
- life satisfaction
- whether life was worthwhile
- economic status
Figure 2: frequency of active travel by walking, by sex, April 2024 to March 2025
Description of figure 2: the chart shows that men are more likely to walk as a means of transport than women, as 66% of men walked at least once a month compared with 59% of women.
Source: National Survey for Wales, Welsh Government
The National Travel Survey, 2024 (Department for Transport (DfT)) for England looks at active travel in a different way and collects information on walking trips made during the year. Although the method of collecting is different, it appears to contradict the Welsh results in finding that women were more likely to undertake active travel than men. This difference appears consistently when comparing previous years of the two sources.
Figure 3: frequency of active travel by walking, by rurality, April 2024 to March 2025
Description of figure 3: the chart shows that 65% of people in urban areas walked for more than 10 minutes as a means of transport at least once a month, compared with 56% of people in rural areas. 17% of people in urban areas reported that they walked daily, compared with 12% in rural areas in the survey year April 2024 to March 2025.
Source: National Survey for Wales, Welsh Government
National Survey respondents were asked to rate their general health from ‘very bad’ to ‘very good’.
Figure 4: frequency of active travel by walking, by general health, April 2024 to March 2025
Description of figure 4: the chart show that 17% of people in very good or good health walked as a means of transport every day, compared with 13% in fair health and 7% in very bad or bad health. Only 33% of people in bad or very bad health walked as a means of transport at least once a month in in April 2024 to March 2025.
However, putting this into context only 9% of people said they had very bad or poor health, compared with 67% of people who said they had good or very good health.
Source: National Survey for Wales, Welsh Government
Figure 5: frequency of active travel by walking, for those who participate in sport three or more times per week, April 2024 to March 2025
Description of figure 5: the chart shows that 76% of people who participate in sport at least three times a week walked as a means of transport at least once a month. This compares with 59% for those who participated in sport less. There was a particularly large difference for those who actively walked every day: 21% for those who participated in sport at least 3 times a week, compared with 14% for those who participated less. There was also a large difference for those who walked once or twice a month: 15% for those participating in sport, compared with 9% for those who didn’t.
Source: National Survey for Wales, Welsh Government
Figure 6: frequency of active travel by walking, by tenure, April 2024 to March 2025
Description of figure 6: the chart shows that people in private rented housing are more likely to walk as a means of transport at least once a month (76%) compared with owner-occupiers (61%) and those in social housing (57%). Owner-occupiers are less likely to actively walk every day (12%) compared with private renters (24%) and those in social housing (23%).
Source: National Survey for Wales, Welsh Government
Figure 7: people who walked as a means of transport at least once a month, by economic area, April 2024 to March 2025
Description of figure 7: the chart shows that people in south-east Wales are more likely to walk as a means of transport at least once a month, with 68% of people in south-east Wales doing this. The lowest percentage of people actively walking is in south-west Wales, at 52%.
Source: National Survey for Wales, Welsh Government
Figure 8: frequency of active travel by walking, by limiting long-standing illness, April 2024 to March 2025
Description of figure 8: the chart shows that 67% of those with no limiting long-standing illness walked as a means of transport at least once a month, compared with 53% of those who had such an illness. People with a limiting long-standing illness were less likely to walk every day (13%) for more than 10 minutes than those without a limiting illness (19%). For context, 36% of the population aged 16 or more have a limiting long-standing illness.
Source: National Survey for Wales, Welsh Government
Figure 9: percentage of people that walked as a means of transport at least once a month, by education, April 2024 to March 2025
Description of figure 9: people with higher level qualifications were more likely to walk actively at least once a month (66%) than those with no qualifications (50%). For definitions of qualifications see terms and definitions.
Figure 10: percentage of people that walked as a means of transport at least once a month, by marital status, April 2024 to March 2025
Description of figure 10: the chart shows that single people were more likely to walk as a means of transport (69%) than all the other marital status groups.
Source: National Survey for Wales, Welsh Government
In a simple cross analysis, there is no significant difference between those with a mental illness (e.g. anxiety, depression) and those without such an illness, however a link was revealed once all the other factors are controlled for. The simple analysis shows that 38% of people without a mental illness walked as a means of transport in the previous month compared with 36% of those who had a mental illness.
Other factors
There were also factors that showed differences only when other factors were not taken into account. These differences are better explained by the factors listed above, but are worth some discussion in their own right.
People in the 16 to 44 age group were more likely to have walked as a means of transport at least once a month (71%) than those aged 45 to 64 (58%) and those in the 65 and over age group (54%).
Additionally, non-religious people were more likely to walk as a means of transport at least once a month (65%) compared with religious people (59%).
Cycling for active travel
When asked how frequently they had used a bicycle as a means of transport, 7% of people cycled at least once a week for active travel purposes and 10% of people cycled at least once a month.
Figure 11: proportion of people that travelled by cycling at least once a month, between 2018 to 2019 and 2024 to 2025
Description of figure 11: the line chart shows a time series of the proportion of people who cycled as a means of transport at least once a month, starting with the April 2018 to March 2019 survey. In the latest survey year, April 2024 to March 2025, 10% of adults cycled at least once a month for active travel purposes, which is broadly similar to previous years.
Source: National Survey for Wales, Welsh Government
Note 1: The National Survey for Wales changed mode from face-to-face to telephone and online data collection in the April 2021 to March 2022 survey onwards, which may mean that data from that point are not comparable with earlier years.
Note 2: Data not available for the survey year April 2020 to March 2021 due to changes in the National Survey for Wales, as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and there was no survey carried out in the year April 2023 to March 2024.
Note 3: Confidence Intervals can be found in the interactive results viewer.
Factors linked to having cycled for active travel
When taking other factors into account, the following were found to have an independent link to cycling as a means of transport at least once a month.
- Being male
- Not having a limiting long-term illness
- Being single
- Having good or very good health
- Not being religious
Each of these factors are discussed in more detail in turn below.
Other factors considered but not linked were:
- age
- household type
- ethnicity
- sexual orientation
- mental illness
- carers
- Welsh speaking
- participation in sport
- tenure
- material deprivation
- life satisfaction
- whether life was worthwhile
- qualification
- urban/rural classification
- economic area and economic status
Figure 12: proportion of people that travelled by cycling at least once a month, by sex, April 2024 to March 2025
Description of figure 12: the chart shows that men were more likely to cycle at least once a month, with 14% of men cycling as a means of transport at least once a month compared with 7% of women.
Source: National Survey for Wales, Welsh Government
The National Travel Survey, 2024 (DfT) for England looks at active travel in a different way and collects information on cycling trips made during the year. Although the data is collected in a different way, in this case it appears to support the Welsh figures with men cycling more than women. On average, males made 23 cycling trips and travelled 87 miles in the year, compared with females who made 8 cycling trips and travelled 19 miles.
Figure 13: proportion of people that travelled by cycling at least once a month, by limiting long-standing illness, April 2024 to March 2025
Description of figure 13: the chart show that people without a limiting long-standing illness (13%) were more likely to have cycled at least once a month compared with those with a long-standing limiting illness (6%). See definitions section for an explanation on terminology use.
Source: National Survey for Wales, Welsh Government
Figure 14: proportion of people that travelled by cycling at least once a month, by general health, April 2024 to March 2025
Description of figure 14: the chart shows that 12% of people of good or very good health cycled as a means of transport at least once a month compared with 7% of those in fair, bad or very bad health.
Source: National Survey for Wales, Welsh Government
Figure 15: proportion of people that travelled by cycling at least once a month, by marital status, April 2024 to March 2025
Description of figure 15: the chart shows that both single people (13%) and those married or in a civil partnership (10%) were more likely to have travelled by cycling than people with another marital status (7%).
Source: National Survey for Wales, Welsh Government
Figure 16: proportion of people that travelled by cycling at least once a month, by religion, April 2024 to March 2025
Description of figure 16: the chart shows that 13% of people with no religion actively cycled at least once a month, compared with 8% of those who said they identified with a religion. It is not really clear why this comes out as linked, but there is a significant difference which is not explained by the other factors that we took into account.
Source: National Survey for Wales, Welsh Government
Other factors
There were also several factors that showed differences only when other factors were not taken into account. These differences are better explained by the factors listed above but are also worth some discussion in their own right.
People in the 16 to 44 age group were more likely to have cycled as a means of transport at least once a month (13%) than those in the 65 and over age group (6%). 10% of people in the 45 to 64 age group also actively cycled at least once a month and was higher than the 65 and over age group, but not significantly different to the 16 to 44 age group.
Additionally, whilst not showing as being linked in the case of cycling as a means of transport, participation in sport and tenure do show differences. Of people who participated in sport at least 3 times per week, 14% actively cycled. This compares with 9% of people who participated in sport less. Also, as was the case with walking, people in private rented housing were more likely to cycle as a means of transport (16%), compared with owner-occupiers (10%) and social renters (9%).
Active travel to school
Figure 17: mode of travel to/from primary school, between 2018 to 2019 and 2024 to 2025
Description of figure 17: the chart shows that the percentage of children walking or cycling to primary school increased from 44% in April 2018 to March 2019 to 50% in April 2024 to March 2025. For definitions of categories see terms and definitions.
Source: National Survey for Wales, Welsh Government
According to the 2024 National Travel Survey (DfT) for England, 51% of 5 to 10 year olds walked or cycled to school, which is very similar to the Welsh figure for primary schools in April 2024 to March 2025.
Figure 18: mode of travel to/from secondary school, between 2018 to 2019 and 2024 to 2025
Description of figure 18: the chart shows that 33% of children walked or cycled to secondary school in April 2024 to March 2025 and has remained broadly similar since April 2018 to March 2019. This is similar to figures published by the School Health Research Network (Public Health Wales), where 33% of learners aged 11 to 16 reported walking or cycling to school in 2023. For definitions of categories see terms and definitions.
Source: National Survey for Wales, Welsh Government
The 2024 National Travel Survey for England shows that 39% of 11 to 16 year olds walked or cycled to school, which is larger than the figure for Welsh secondary schools mentioned above.
Factors linked to having used active travel to get to and from school
For in-depth analysis, active travel to school was defined as at least one child in the household undertaking active travel (walking or cycling) to go to primary or secondary school. Using this definition, children in 46% of households used active travel as a means of transport to school.
Certain protected characteristics were excluded from the analysis (e.g. sexual orientation) because this information was only available for the parent and not the child. Of those that were included, the only factor that was linked to active travel to school was the urban/rural classification of the area.
Factors that were considered but not found to be linked were age, sex, limiting long-term illness, mental illness, general health, marital status, ethnicity, religion, carers, participation in sport, material deprivation, household type, tenure, Welsh speaking, economic area, working households, qualifications, life satisfaction and whether thought life was worthwhile.
Figure 19: proportion of households where one or more child used active travel to get to school, split by urban and rural classification, April 2024 to March 2025
Description of figure 19: the chart shows that 53% of children in urban areas used active travel as a means of transport to get to school, compared with 32% of those in rural areas.
Source: National Survey for Wales, Welsh Government
In the National Travel Survey, 2024, for England, 50% of children aged 5 to 16 in urban areas walked or cycled to school, which is similar to the Wales figure.
Policy context
The Active Travel (Wales) Act 2013 (the Act) forms a central part of the Welsh Government’s wider ambitions for a greener, fairer and healthier Wales. Active travel is a core component of Llwybr Newydd – the Wales Transport Strategy, which prioritises modal shift away from private car use and towards sustainable transport. Investment in walking, wheeling and cycling reflects Welsh Government’s commitment to creating safe, inclusive, high‑quality active travel networks across all parts of Wales. Local authorities play a vital role in delivering the Act’s objectives. In line with their duties under the Act, they have developed Active Travel Network Maps, based on extensive consultation with communities, and created new and improved routes and facilities for walking, wheeling and cycling across Wales.
The Act places a statutory duty on Welsh Ministers to report annually on the extent to which people in Wales walk, wheel and cycle as a mode of transport. This bulletin fulfils that duty, analysing the latest available data from the National Survey for Wales on active travel behaviours across Wales, including detailed analysis by socio‑demographic and geographic characteristics. Additional information is also available in the Active Travel Monitoring Framework (Transport for Wales) and the Active Travel in Wales: Annual Report 2023-2024 - Active Travel Board (August 2024).
Quality and methodology information
The April 2024 to March 2025 National Survey for Wales was a large-scale, random-sample telephone survey covering adults aged 16+ across Wales.
Methodology
Addresses were selected at random, and invitations sent by post requesting that a phone number be provided for the address. A phone number could be provided via an online portal or a telephone enquiry line. Where no phone number was provided, telematching was undertaken with available databases of phone numbers to see if one can be found for the address.
The interviewer then called the phone number for the address, established how many adults live there, and selected one at random (the person with the next birthday) to take part in the survey. The selected person was interviewed by phone. Once they had completed the phone section, they were asked to complete an online section and details were sent to them.
If no number was obtained for the address then for a randomly-chosen 46% of such cases the interviewer made a visit to the address to select a respondent and either carried out an in-home, face-to-face interview with them or (if a phone interview is preferred) collected a phone number for them.
The survey lasted around 40 to 45 minutes on average and covers a range of topics. Respondents were offered a £15 voucher to say thank you for taking part. The achieved sample size each month was around 500 people on average, and the response rate was 18.7% of those eligible to take part.
Survey weighting
When comparing the unweighted achieved sample with the April 2022 to March 2023 unweighted achieved sample, the April 2024 to March 2025 sample has some differences such as: more Welsh speakers; fewer people aged 25 to 54; more people aged 75+; more people with higher-level qualifications; fewer people with no qualifications; fewer working people; and more people in rural areas. In terms of household type, there are more single-person households in the April 2024 to March 2025 sample and fewer couples (with or without children). There are fewer people in the areas of lowest income and employment, and more in areas where people have higher levels of qualification and skills. There is also a less even spread of interviews across the year (for example, proportionately fewer in February and March) compared with previous years.
Survey weights are used to bring the sample closer to the population in terms of age, sex, and local authority size, as well as to compensate for variation from target in the numbers of interviews in each health board within each quarter. The weights reduce but will not eliminate the effects of differences in the achieved sample compared with previous years and with the general population. As noted above, care should therefore be taken when comparing results with previous years, and any differences should be explored in the context of other sources.
Statistical analysis
This release uses regression analysis to allow us to look at the relationship with a given factor (e.g. actively walked at least once a month), while keeping other things constant (sometimes referred to as “controlling for other factors”). However, it does not mean that active travel is caused by these factors, or vice versa.
Where the text of this release notes a difference between two survey results, we have checked to ensure that the confidence intervals (sometimes called the “margin of error”) for the two results do not overlap. This suggests that the difference is statistically significant, i.e. that there is less than a 5% or 1 in 20 chance that the results are due to a quirk of the survey sample rather than reflecting a real difference in the wider population. Where no difference is noted, the confidence intervals do overlap.
The survey questionnaire is available on our web pages.
Detailed charts and tables of results are available in our interactive results viewer. For information on data collection and methodology please see our quality report and technical report.
Terms and definitions
Urban / rural
“Urban” includes settlements with a population of 10,000 or more and small towns and their fringes, where the wider surrounding area is less sparsely populated. “Rural” includes all other areas.
Qualification level
Respondents’ highest qualifications are coded by National Qualification Framework (NQF) levels, where level 1 is the lowest level of qualifications and level 8 is doctoral degree or equivalent. For reporting purposes, respondents are grouped into 5 categories, as follows.
- NQF levels 4 to 8: Higher education (Level 4+).
- NQF level 3: 'A' level and equivalent (Level 3).
- NQF level 2: GCSE grades A to C and equivalent (Level 2).
- Below NQF level 2: GCSE below grade C (below Level 2).
- No qualifications: No qualifications.
Transport to school
Bus
Includes children using either local or school buses.
Walking or cycling
This is used to determine children who use active travel to go to school and includes children who walk on their own, with other children, with adults or cycle.
Car
Includes children who went to school in a car from their own household or had a lift from others.
More information on the terms used in the National Survey for Wales are available in our terms and definitions report.
Statement of compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics
Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.
All of our statistics are produced and published in accordance with a number of statements and protocols to enhance trustworthiness, quality and value. These are set out in the Welsh Government’s Statement of Compliance.
These official statistics in development (OSR) demonstrate the standards expected around trustworthiness, quality and public value in the following ways.
Trustworthiness
All personal data underlying these statistics is processed in accordance with the requirements of the Data Protection Act 2018.
National Survey for Wales statistics are published in an accessible, orderly, pre-announced manner on the Welsh Government website at 9:30am on the day of publication. All releases are available to download for free.
All outputs adhere to the Code of Practice by pre-announcing the date of publication through the upcoming calendar web pages. Access to the data during processing is restricted to those involved in the production of the statistics, quality assurance and for operational purposes. Pre-release access is restricted to eligible recipients in line with the Code of Practice (UK Statistics Authority).
The published figures are compiled by professional analysts using the latest available data.
Quality
As noted above, the achieved sample size for the National Survey April 2024 to March 2025 (6,000 respondents) is smaller than originally planned. The smaller sample size is due to the contractor encountering fieldwork issues including response rates being lower than in previous years. There are also changes in the composition of the achieved unweighted sample compared with previous years.
In July 2025 we therefore requested and received from the OSR a temporary suspension of accredited official statistics status for this first release and for other outputs based on the April 2024 to March 2025 data. The temporary suspension reflects the fact that the April 2024 to March 2025 outputs generally do not provide sufficiently precise results for small geographic areas and other small subgroups, and that care should be taken in comparing some April 2024 to March 2025 results with those from previous years. All outputs based on April 2024 to March 2025 data are badged as official statistics in development.
It is still appropriate to use these statistics. At a national level, estimates continue to provide a reasonable indication of estimates for Wales, particularly if used alongside alternative sources. However, users should note the wider confidence intervals particularly for smaller geographies and population sub-groups.
All stages in the collection, validation and production of these statistics are led by professional statisticians and the statistics are produced free from any political interference. All statistics are quality-assured prior to publication.
Statistics published by Welsh Government adhere to the Statistical Quality Management Strategy which supplements the Quality pillar of the Code of Practice for Statistics and the European Statistical System principles of quality for statistical outputs.
Set-up work for a new online-first survey design is progressing well and mainstage fieldwork will begin in March 2026, with first results due in summer 2027. One key advantage of the new approach is that it will be possible to deliver much larger achieved sample sizes, and therefore much more precise estimates for small subgroups. Following the start of mainstage fieldwork under the new design for April 2026 to March 2027, we will request that accredited official statistics badging be reinstated by OSR for survey outputs from April 2026 to March 2027 onwards.
Value
These statistics are used in a variety of ways. Some examples of these are:
- providing advice to ministers
- to inform a wide range of policy decisions
The commentary and notes in this release have been developed to try to make the information as accessible as possible to users.
You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.
Well-being of Future Generations Act (WFG)
The Well-being of Future Generations Act 2015 is about improving the social, economic, environmental and cultural wellbeing of Wales. The Act puts in place seven wellbeing goals for Wales. These are for a more equal, prosperous, resilient, healthier and globally responsible Wales, with cohesive communities and a vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language. Under section (10)(1) of the Act, the Welsh Ministers must (a) publish indicators (“national indicators”) that must be applied for the purpose of measuring progress towards the achievement of the wellbeing goals, and (b) lay a copy of the national indicators before Senedd Cymru. Under section 10(8) of the Well-being of Future Generations Act, where the Welsh Ministers revise the national indicators, they must as soon as reasonably practicable (a) publish the indicators as revised and (b) lay a copy of them before the Senedd. These national indicators were laid before the Senedd in 2021. The indicators laid on 14 December 2021 replace the set laid on 16 March 2016.
Information on the indicators, along with narratives for each of the wellbeing goals and associated technical information is available in the Wellbeing of Wales report.
Further information on the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.
Indicator 48, Percentage of journeys by walking, cycling or public transport (Power BI) is related to active travel. The statistics included in this bulletin provide supporting narrative to this national indicator and could be used by public services boards in relation to their local wellbeing assessments and local wellbeing plans.
