Road traffic: 2025

Road traffic statistics provide estimates of the vehicle miles travelled each year by vehicle type, road category.

This release presents road traffic statistics for Wales covering the calendar year 2025.

Following a review of our statistical outputs and feedback from our recent public consultation, this publication has been shortened and the accompanying StatsWales datasets stopped. To access the underlying data and for further information on road traffic in Wales, please see road traffic estimates published by Department for Transport (DfT).

• Road traffic volume in Wales in 2025 increased by 2.3% compared to 2024, to 30.9 billion vehicle kilometers (bvk).
• In 2025, traffic volume in Wales reached the highest level ever recorded, slightly higher than the previous high (before the coronavirus (COVID19) pandemic) of 30.7bvk in 2019.
• In 2025, the total volume of motorised traffic in Wales was 30.9bvk which is equivalent to 9,697 vehicle kilometers (6,025 miles) per person.
• Most of the traffic (64.4%) was on major roads (motorways or A roads). 
• Traffic volumes in 2025 increased by 2.6% on major roads and 0.9% on minor roads relative to the previous year.
• Cars and taxis were the dominant category on all classes of road traffic in 2025, accounting for 24.0bvk (77.7% of motor vehicle traffic), followed by Light commercial vehicles at 5.4bvk (17.5%) and Heavy good vehicles at 1.1bvk (3.6%).
• Cardiff, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Carmarthenshire, and Newport had the highest volumes of motor vehicle traffic with their combined volume representing 31.5% of total traffic in Wales.
• Torfaen, Isle of Anglesey, Blaenau Gwent and Merthyr Tydfil had the lowest volumes of motor vehicle traffic and their combined volume represented just 7.4% of total traffic in Wales.

• In 2025, the number of new vehicle registrations was 89,000, a decrease of 6.2% (6,000) compared to 2024.
• All but one of the vehicle categories experienced a decrease in new registrations in 2025, compared to the previous year.
• The largest annual decrease was in new registrations of buses and coaches. However, this likely reflects the high number of registrations in 2024, the highest in 18 years (635), with data for 2025 (333) returning to the pre‑2024 trend.
• The smallest decrease was in new registrations of cars, decreasing by 2.7% compared to the previous year.

Traffic volume is estimated using traffic counts data collected by the DfT. Data from manual traffic counts are combined with data from automatic traffic counters to calculate estimated annual average daily flows (AADF). These daily flows are combined with road lengths to calculate the number of vehicle miles travelled each year by vehicle type, road category and region. In this release, estimates are presented as bvk.

More detailed information is provided in the DfT’s road traffic estimates methodology note.

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 accredited official statistics demonstrate the standards expected around trustworthiness, quality and public value.

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. This release does not include any of the 46 national indicators.

Information on the indicators, along with narratives for each of the well-being 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.

The statistics included in this release could also provide supporting narrative to the national indicators and are used by public services boards in relation to their local wellbeing assessments and local wellbeing plans.

We welcome feedback on this shortened publication. This can be provided by email to stats.transport@gov.wales

Transport Statistics
Email: stats.transport@gov.wales

Media: 0300 025 8099

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