Updated 10 August 2026

How accurate is BritClock?

This site publishes hundreds of UK statistics. This page shows which of them we have checked against the original official source, which we have not yet got to, and every figure we updated this month. It is generated automatically and updated monthly.

live counters verified against a named official publication, as of 10 August 2026. The full picture:

Accuracy by section

Updated in August 2026

We updated 146 figures this month:

• UK population — was 68.3 million, updated to 69.5 million.
  Source: ONS provisional mid-2025 UK population estimate, published 27 November 2025
• England population — was 57.1 million, updated to 58.8 million.
  Source: ONS population estimates for England and Wales, mid-2025, published 29 July 2026
• UK total fertility rate — was 1.49 children per woman, updated to 1.39 children per woman.
  Source: ONS Births in England and Wales 2025 (provisional), published 27 May 2026
• UK births per year — was 605,000, updated to 653,000.
  Source: ONS provisional mid-2025 UK population estimate (year to 30 June 2025)
• Schools in England — was about 32,000, updated to 24,499.
  Source: DfE Schools, pupils and their characteristics 2025/26, published 4 June 2026
• Pupils in England — was 9.7 million, updated to 8.9 million.
  Source: DfE Schools, pupils and their characteristics 2025/26, published 4 June 2026
• Knife and sharp instrument offences — was 50,000, updated to 48,774.
  Source: ONS Crime in England and Wales, year ending March 2026, published 22 July 2026
• Shoplifting offences — was 430,000, described as record levels, updated to 507,086, down 4% from the record.
  Source: ONS Crime in England and Wales, year ending March 2026, published 22 July 2026
• Burglary offences — was 308,000, updated to 223,456.
  Source: ONS Crime in England and Wales, year ending March 2026, published 22 July 2026
• Police recorded crime (excluding fraud) — was 6.7 million, updated to 5.2 million.
  Source: ONS Crime in England and Wales, year ending March 2026, published 22 July 2026
• Crime Survey estimated total incidents — was 8.9 million, updated to 9.6 million.
  Source: ONS Crime in England and Wales, year ending March 2026, published 22 July 2026
• NHS England waiting list — was 7.3 million people, updated to 7.28 million treatment pathways, around 6.16 million patients.
  Source: NHS England Referral to Treatment statistics, May 2026. The waiting list counts pathways, not individual people, because one patient can be on more than one pathway
• UK national debt — was £2.85 trillion, updated to £2.99 trillion.
  Source: ONS Public Sector Finances, June 2026, released 21 July 2026
• Government borrowing — was £132 billion (initial estimate), updated to £129 billion (revised outturn).
  Source: ONS Public Sector Finances, June 2026, released 21 July 2026
• Live population counter base — was seeded from 67.6 million, updated to seeded from 69.5 million.
  Source: ONS provisional mid-2025 UK population estimate. The live counter was still running from a superseded base while the page text showed the current figure.
• Debt per person — was divided by 67.6 million people, updated to divided by 69.5 million people.
  Source: ONS provisional mid-2025 UK population estimate
• VAT receipts — was £168 billion, updated to £171 billion.
  Source: HMRC tax and NICs receipts, 2024-25
• Corporation tax receipts — was £90 billion, updated to £91.2 billion.
  Source: HMRC tax and NICs receipts, 2024-25
• Small boat arrivals — was 29,437 (a 2023 figure), updated to 39,000.
  Source: Home Office immigration system statistics, year ending March 2026, published 16 July 2026
• Sponsored study visas — was 490,000, updated to 410,000.
  Source: Home Office immigration system statistics, year ending March 2026, published 16 July 2026
• Sponsored work visas — was 341,000, updated to 253,000.
  Source: Home Office immigration system statistics, year ending March 2026, published 16 July 2026
• Family visas — was 130,000, updated to 62,000.
  Source: Home Office immigration system statistics, year ending March 2026, published 16 July 2026
• Asylum applications — was 84,000, updated to 94,000.
  Source: Home Office immigration system statistics, year ending March 2026, published 16 July 2026
• Asylum decisions and outcomes — was 100,000 decisions, 65,000 granted, updated to 128,000 decisions, 50,000 granted at the published 39% grant rate.
  Source: Home Office immigration system statistics, year ending March 2026, published 16 July 2026
• Citizenship grants — was 230,000, updated to 237,000.
  Source: Home Office immigration system statistics, year ending March 2026, published 16 July 2026
• GP appointments — was 388 million a year, updated to 385 million in the 12 months to June 2026.
  Source: NHS England, appointments in general practice
• NHS England funding — was £179 billion, updated to £195.6 billion.
  Source: Spending Review 2025, NHS England resource funding 2025/26
• New cancer cases a year — was 375,000, updated to 400,000.
  Source: Cancer Research UK, April 2026 — UK cases passed 400,000 for the first time
• Average UK house price — was £268,000, updated to £271,000.
  Source: ONS Private rent and house prices, 12 months to May 2026
• Households in temporary accommodation — was 105,000, updated to 132,410.
  Source: MHCLG statutory homelessness statistics, end June 2025
• Universal Credit claimants — was 7.4 million, updated to 8.4 million.
  Source: DWP Universal Credit statistics, January 2026
• State Pension expenditure — was £136.6 billion, updated to £138 billion.
  Source: DWP benefit expenditure tables, 2024/25
• A&E waits over 4 hours — was 4.5 million a year, updated to 7.15 million a year.
  Source: Derived from NHS Digital 2024-25: 73.9% of 27.4 million attendances were seen within 4 hours
• A&E waits over 12 hours — was 1.1 million, updated to 532,451.
  Source: NHS Digital 2024-25, measured from decision to admit — the basis this counter uses
• Average London house price — was £510,000, updated to £545,000.
  Source: ONS Private rent and house prices, London, May 2026
• Prescription items — was 1.2 billion, on an unclear basis, updated to 1.16 billion, community pharmacy dispensing.
  Source: NHSBSA 2024/25. The counter label was also made explicit so the number and the wording describe the same measure.
• Mental health referrals — was 4.5 million a year, updated to 5.2 million a year.
  Source: NHS England Digital mental health services statistics, 2024 (a record)
• PIP new claims cleared — was 800,000, updated to 766,900.
  Source: DWP PIP statistics, 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025
• Emergency food parcels — was 3.1 million (2023/24), updated to 2.9 million (2024/25).
  Source: Trussell, April 2024 to March 2025
• NHS agency staff spend — was £3 billion, updated to £2.07 billion.
  Source: NHS England — provider agency spend 2024/25, down from £3.5bn in 2022/23
• Children starting care — was 10,000 a year, updated to 29,630 a year.
  Source: DfE Children looked after in England, reporting year 2025
• Children adopted from care — was 2,800, updated to 2,740.
  Source: DfE Children looked after in England, 2024-25 — the lowest total since 2014-15
• Road deaths — was 1,602, updated to 1,538.
  Source: DfT Reported road casualties GB, final results 2025
• Road injuries — was 135,000, updated to 126,332.
  Source: DfT 2025 — 127,870 casualties of all severities, less fatalities
• Rail passenger journeys — was 1.9 billion, updated to 1.83 billion.
  Source: ORR passenger rail usage, April 2025 to March 2026 (a record)
• Workplace deaths — was 138, updated to 124.
  Source: HSE annual statistics 2024/25
• Workplace injuries reported — was 135,000, updated to 59,219.
  Source: HSE 2024/25 RIDDOR-reported employee injuries. Separately, around 680,000 workers self-report an injury — a different measure.
• Working days lost to sickness — was 148.8 million, updated to 148.9 million.
  Source: ONS sickness absence in the UK labour market, 2024
• Pigs slaughtered per day — was 130,000, updated to 27,614.
  Source: DEFRA slaughter statistics — 10,079,000 pigs a year. The old figure implied 47 million pigs a year, roughly 4.7 times the actual number.
• Cattle slaughtered per day — was 8,500, updated to 7,888.
  Source: DEFRA slaughter statistics — 2,879,000 cattle a year
• UK food waste — was 9.5 million tonnes, updated to 10.2 million tonnes.
  Source: WRAP UK Food Waste and Food Surplus, July 2025
• Food and drink imports — was £65 billion, updated to £66.9 billion.
  Source: UK trade in food, feed and drink, 2025 provisional
• Food and drink exports — was £25 billion, updated to £25.6 billion.
  Source: UK trade in food, feed and drink, 2025 provisional
• UK greenhouse gas emissions — was 371 million tonnes, updated to 367 million tonnes.
  Source: DESNZ provisional UK greenhouse gas emissions, 2025
• Wind electricity generation — was 83.3 TWh, updated to 87.1 TWh.
  Source: DESNZ Energy Trends — a record 30% of UK electricity in 2025
• Solar electricity generation — was 15 TWh, updated to 20 TWh.
  Source: DESNZ Energy Trends, 2025
• UK defence exports — was £9.2 billion, updated to £20 billion.
  Source: UK defence exports 2025 — a record, and the highest since records began in 1983
• Defence budget — was £60.2 billion, updated to £62.2 billion.
  Source: MoD departmental budget 2025/26
• Terrorism-related arrests — was 350 a year, updated to 255 a year.
  Source: Home Office, operation of police powers under the Terrorism Act 2000, calendar 2025
• Identity fraud cases — was 400,000, updated to 250,000.
  Source: Cifas National Fraud Database, 2024
• Alcohol-specific deaths — was 10,473, updated to 9,809.
  Source: ONS 2024 registrations. The old figure was the 2023 record; deaths fell 6.3% in 2024.
• Drug-poisoning deaths — was 4,907, updated to 5,565.
  Source: ONS 2024 registrations, England and Wales — the highest since records began in 1993
• Suicide registrations — was 5,600, updated to 7,147.
  Source: ONS suicides in the UK, 2024 registrations. The old figure was closer to the England-only count.
• Smoking-attributable deaths — was 76,000, updated to 80,000.
  Source: ASH/NHS England — around 80,000 deaths in England a year
• Judicial review applications — was 3,800, updated to 3,700.
  Source: MoJ court statistics 2025 — the highest since 2017
• Individual insolvencies — was 30,000 a year, updated to 126,240 a year.
  Source: Insolvency Service 2025 — the highest since 2010
• IVAs and bankruptcies — was 20,000 IVAs, 10,000 bankruptcies, updated to 71,957 IVAs, 7,574 bankruptcies.
  Source: Insolvency Service 2025 — IVAs are 57% and bankruptcies 6% of individual insolvencies
• Company insolvencies — was 25,000, updated to 23,938.
  Source: Insolvency Service 2025, seasonally adjusted
• Student loan debt — was £268.5 billion, updated to £294.6 billion.
  Source: Student Loans Company 2025/26 — up 10.5% in a year
• Teachers leaving and joining — was 40,000 left, 32,000 joined, updated to 40,800 left, around 41,700 joined.
  Source: DfE school workforce 2023/24 — slightly more entering than leaving
• Counter configuration consistency — was 22 figures still carried old values on 18 pages, updated to all pages carry the current values.
  Source: The counter config exists in two spacing variants; earlier updates had matched only one, leaving 432 stale values on salary and index pages.
• Religion — Christian and no religion figures were reversed — was 46% no religion, 37% Christian, updated to 46.2% Christian (27.5 million), 37.2% no religion (22.2 million).
  Source: ONS Census 2021, England and Wales. The page title, meta tags and counter cards had the two figures the wrong way round.
• Live birth and death counters — was 595,000 births and 569,000 deaths a year, updated to 653,000 births and 651,000 deaths a year.
  Source: ONS provisional mid-2025 estimate. The counters were still ticking from ONS 2023 figures on 89 pages, even though the surrounding text had been updated.
• Site navigation — was the Demographic Change section was missing from the menu on 39 pages, updated to every section appears in the menu on every page.
  Source: Internal link audit. Demographic Change is one of our most-read sections but was unreachable from the menu on 39 pages, including the immigration pages.
• UK social media users — was 57 million (stated as 85% of adults), updated to 47 million (85% of adults).
  Source: Ofcom Online Nation 2025. The old figure was internally impossible: 57 million would have been more than the entire UK adult population.
• Sexual offences — was 194,000, updated to 217,567.
  Source: ONS Crime in England and Wales, year ending March 2026
• Vehicle crime — was 400,000, updated to 312,250.
  Source: ONS Crime in England and Wales, year ending March 2026 — down 11%
• Airport passengers — was 310 million, updated to 302 million.
  Source: Civil Aviation Authority, 2025 — a record year
• Bus journeys — was 5 billion, updated to 3.7 billion.
  Source: DfT annual bus statistics, England, year ending March 2025
• New electric car registrations — was 310,000, updated to 473,348.
  Source: SMMT, 2025 — up 23.9%, and 23.4% of all new cars
• Water leakage — was 3 billion litres a day, updated to 2.87 billion litres a day.
  Source: Ofwat, 2024-25
• UK GDP — was £2.7 trillion, updated to £3.04 trillion.
  Source: ONS — UK GDP in cash terms, 2025
• Total tax revenue — was £1.1 trillion, updated to £1.23 trillion.
  Source: ONS/OBR public sector current receipts, 2025/26
• Income tax receipts — was £275 billion, updated to £302.8 billion.
  Source: HMRC tax and NICs receipts, 2024-25
• Debt interest — was £100 billion, updated to £111.2 billion.
  Source: OBR, 2025-26 — over 8% of all government spending
• Trade deficit — was £70 billion, updated to £39 billion.
  Source: ONS UK trade 2025 — £969bn imports less £930bn exports. The old figure did not reconcile with our own import and export numbers.
• Exports and imports — was £870bn exports, £940bn imports, updated to £930bn exports, £969bn imports.
  Source: ONS UK trade, 2025
• Cyber crimes against businesses — was 2.4 million, updated to 5.19 million.
  Source: DSIT Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025/26
• Tech sector contribution — was £184 billion, updated to £207 billion.
  Source: techUK — digital and tech sector GVA
• Equipment procurement — was £12 billion a year, updated to £28.86 billion a year.
  Source: MoD equipment plan, £288.6bn over 2023-2033
• Armed forces personnel leaving — was 15,000, updated to 13,500.
  Source: MoD quarterly service personnel statistics, 12 months to December 2025
• Legal aid expenditure — was £1.8 billion, updated to £2.2 billion.
  Source: Legal Aid Agency, 2024-25
• Divorces — was 113,000, updated to 102,678.
  Source: ONS divorces in England and Wales, 2023
• Typical household energy bill — was £1,690, updated to £1,663.
  Source: Ofgem price cap, July to September 2026
• Council tax collected — was £40 billion, updated to £43.7 billion.
  Source: MHCLG council tax collection rates, England 2025-26
• Foreign aid — was £12 billion, updated to £13 billion.
  Source: FCDO statistics on international development, 2025
• Violence against the person — was 1.8 million, updated to 1.34 million.
  Source: ONS Crime in England and Wales, year ending March 2026
• Hate crime — was 147,000, updated to 115,990.
  Source: Home Office hate crime statistics, year ending March 2025
• Drug offences — was 194,000, updated to 203,950.
  Source: Home Office police recorded crime, 2024/25
• Economic and social cost of crime — was £50 billion, updated to £78 billion.
  Source: Home Office, Economic and social costs of crime
• Antidepressant items — was 89 million, updated to 96 million.
  Source: NHSBSA, 2025-26
• NHS staff sick days — was 75 million, updated to 27 million.
  Source: NHS England / Nuffield Trust
• Elective activity — was 11 million operations, updated to 17.4 million elective pathways.
  Source: NHS England annual report 2023/24. Counter relabelled to match the published unit.
• Cigarettes smoked — was 35 billion a year, updated to 28.6 billion a year.
  Source: UCL / Cancer Research UK, 2025
• Alcohol-related hospital admissions — was 920,000, updated to 1,018,986.
  Source: NHS Digital statistics on alcohol, 2023/24
• Gambling yield — was £14 billion, updated to £16.8 billion.
  Source: Gambling Commission, year to 31 March 2025
• Alcohol cost to the NHS — was £3.5 billion, updated to £4.9 billion.
  Source: Institute of Alcohol Studies — part of £27.4bn total alcohol harm in England
• Cost of drugs to society — was £20 billion, updated to £19 billion.
  Source: Home Office independent review of drugs
• Plastic packaging — was 2.5 million tonnes, updated to 2.3 million tonnes.
  Source: DEFRA UK statistics on waste, 2024
• Plastic bottles used — was 13 billion, updated to 14 billion.
  Source: Environmental Audit Committee / Water UK
• Air pollution deaths — was 40,000, updated to 30,000 (best available).
  Source: Royal College of Physicians 2025. Published estimates range 28,000-43,000 and no official statistic records air pollution as a cause of death, so this is labelled best available rather than verified.
• Drink-driving convictions — was 57,000, updated to 36,415.
  Source: MoJ, England and Wales, 2024
• Marriages — was 250,000, updated to 231,949.
  Source: ONS marriages and civil partnerships, England and Wales, 2023
• Cost of workplace injury and ill health — was £18 billion, updated to £22.9 billion.
  Source: HSE, 2023/24
• Fish landed by UK vessels — was 600,000 tonnes, updated to 719,000 tonnes.
  Source: MMO UK Sea Fisheries Statistics, 2023
• Counter-terrorism policing funding — was £3.5 billion, updated to £1.16 billion.
  Source: Home Office police funding, year to 31 March 2026
• Payment fraud losses — was £2.3 billion, updated to £1.28 billion.
  Source: UK Finance Annual Fraud Report 2026
• Trees planted — was 13 million, updated to 10.4 million.
  Source: Forestry Commission, England 2024-25 — the highest rate in over 20 years
• Non-electric new cars — was 1.2 million, updated to 1.53 million.
  Source: Derived from SMMT 2025 registrations less battery-electric
• UK energy consumption — was 1,700 TWh, updated to 1,490 TWh.
  Source: DESNZ Energy Consumption in the UK, 2024
• Defence Nuclear Enterprise spending — was £2.5 billion, updated to £12.3 billion.
  Source: MoD / Commons Library, 2025/26 — about 20% of all defence spending
• Online retail sales — was £260 billion, updated to £127.41 billion.
  Source: ONS retail sales, 2024
• Working days lost to strikes — was 1.6 million, updated to 1,858,000.
  Source: ONS labour disputes, 12 months to 31 March 2024
• UK household debt — was £2.3 trillion, updated to £2.0 trillion.
  Source: Bank of England Money and Credit, early 2026 — £1,746bn mortgages plus £253bn consumer credit. Student loans are counted separately.
• Bicycle thefts — was 297,000, updated to 66,960.
  Source: ONS police recorded bicycle theft, England and Wales 2023/24
• Cycling journeys — was 1.5 billion, updated to 0.9 billion.
  Source: DfT walking and cycling statistics, England 2023
• SEND high needs funding — was £10 billion, updated to £10.7 billion.
  Source: DfE / NAO, 2024-25
• Affordable homes delivered — was 65,000, updated to 64,762.
  Source: MHCLG affordable housing supply, England 2024-25
• Permanent exclusions — was 10,000, updated to 10,900.
  Source: DfE suspensions and permanent exclusions, England 2023/24
• Student loans issued a year — was £20 billion, updated to £20.7 billion.
  Source: Student Loans Company, 2024-25
• Cost of road collisions — was £36 billion, updated to £55 billion.
  Source: DfT 2024 value of prevention estimate, up 30%
• Property transactions — was 1.1 million, updated to 1,175,000.
  Source: HMRC monthly property transactions, 2025
• Social cost of problem debt — was £9 billion, updated to £8.3 billion.
  Source: StepChange
• Cost of financial exclusion — was £4.9 billion, updated to £7.1 billion (best available).
  Source: Derived from about 7.1 million financially excluded adults paying an estimated £1,000 poverty premium. No official statistic exists, so this is labelled best available.
• Working-age welfare spending — was £70 billion, labelled as the cost of Universal Credit, updated to £145 billion, relabelled as working-age and children’s welfare.
  Source: DWP/OBR 2025/26. No Universal-Credit-only expenditure figure is published in this form, so the counter now describes the measure that is published.
• Cost of domestic abuse — was £56 billion, updated to £84 billion.
  Source: Home Office economic and social cost of domestic abuse, in 2024-25 prices
• PIP claims refused — was 300,000, updated to 429,000.
  Source: Derived from DWP: 766,900 new claims cleared at a 44% award rate
• Households owed a homelessness duty — was 350,000, updated to 298,430.
  Source: MHCLG statutory homelessness — prevention plus relief duties
• Ministry of Justice spending — was £10 billion, labelled cost of the legal system, updated to £13 billion, relabelled as MoJ spending.
  Source: MoJ Main Estimate 2025-26. The counter now names the budget that is actually published.
• Criminal court cases — was 2,000,000 labelled cases heard, updated to 1,619,941 cases received.
  Source: MoJ Criminal Court Statistics 2026 Q1, Tables M1 and C1 — 1,499,312 magistrates plus 120,629 Crown Court receipts in 2025.
• Small claims — was 600,000 labelled cases filed, updated to 97,825 small claims track allocations.
  Source: MoJ Civil Justice Statistics, Table 1.3, 2025. Claims are only allocated to a track once defended, so filings and allocations are different measures.
• Judicial reviews — was 500 labelled won against government, updated to 445 granted permission.
  Source: MoJ Civil Justice Statistics, Table 2.2, 2025 — 445 of 3,646 applications. Permission to proceed is not the same as winning.
• Employment tribunal claims — was 200,000, updated to 39,918 single claims.
  Source: MoJ Tribunal Statistics Q4 2025/26, Table ET_1_R, covering 89,679 jurisdictional complaints.
• Reported road collisions — was 100,000, updated to 101,525.
  Source: DfT Reported Road Casualties GB, Table RAS0101 — 2025
• Mobile phone driving offences — was 94,000, updated to 47,713.
  Source: Home Office fixed penalty notice statistics, offence 804b, 2024 — 40,723 outside the Met plus 6,990 in the Met
• Legal aid grants — was 800,000, updated to 384,246.
  Source: MoJ Legal Aid Statistics — 184,341 magistrates plus 105,202 Crown Court grants plus 94,703 civil certificates, 2024-25

How the check works

Every week an automated check runs against this site. It re-reads each tracked figure from its official source, confirms the number on the page still matches, confirms the same number appears consistently everywhere else it is cited, and watches the ONS and DfE release calendars for newer data.

Where a source has moved, the change is flagged for a person to verify against the published bulletin before anything on this site is edited. We deliberately do not let the automated process rewrite a statistic on its own: a machine-readable data series can lag the bulletin it comes from by months, and an automated "update" can therefore replace a correct figure with a stale one.

Sources: Office for National Statistics, DfE Explore Education Statistics, NHS England, National Records of Scotland and NISRA. See also our methodology and about pages.

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