Key points

Primary School

  • For main mode of travel, almost two-thirds of pupils (64%) were driven to/from school by car, 27% usually walked or cycled and a further 9% took a bus.

  • Of those primary school pupils who walked to/from school, 90% walked all the way. Three-fifths (61%) spent 10 minutes or less walking to and from school and a quarter (25%) spent 11-20 minutes.

  • Almost half (49%) of primary school pupils lived a mile or less from school and of these, 52% were driven to school by car and 48% walked or cycled to school.

Post-Primary School

  • Amongst post-primary school pupils, almost half (47%) travelled to/from school by bus as their main mode of travel, while 31% travelled by car. A further 18% of pupils walked or cycled to/from school.

  • Of those post-primary school pupils who walked to/from school, 90% walked all the way. One-third (33%) spent 10 minutes or less walking to and from school, 31% spent 11-20 minutes and 36% spent more than 20 minutes.

  • Half of post-primary school pupils (50%) lived 4 or more miles from their school. Under a quarter (23%) lived less than 1 mile from their school and, of those, 63% walked or cycled to/from school.

Infographic displaying key findings from the report

Introduction

How we travel has a really important impact on our physical and mental health and wellbeing – whether through social exclusion, poor air quality or the fact that we are not active enough. By increasing activity and reducing reliance on the private car for some shorter everyday journeys, active travel can contribute to sustainability, reducing the cost of travel, providing children with a better and healthier start in life, and helping to improve air quality while reducing our carbon footprint. The Department for Infrastructure (DfI) has responsibility for the development of sustainable travel throughout Northern Ireland and there is significant potential to increase the number of children walking, wheeling, and cycling to school.

Please note: The above introductory comments were provided by DfI policy colleagues and were not written by the NISRA statisticians who compiled the rest of this report.

Uses of the data

This report provides annual statistics on the main method of travel to/from school and the proportion of primary school and post-primary school pupils who walk and cycle to school. This information will be used to monitor the overall effect of the initiatives that are aimed at increasing the proportion of children who travel actively to school. As the data presented in this report are calculated from a representative sample of the Northern Ireland population, confidence intervals must be calculated to estimate the level of uncertainty in the sample estimate. These confidence intervals can be found in Appendix C of this report.

1 Throughout the report ‘parent’ is used to refer to parent, guardian or caregiver.

2 Due to low numbers recorded in cycling as main mode of travel, the proportions of both walking and cycling have been combined to avoid issues with disclosure. This will be reviewed for subsequent publications.

Methodology changes due to COVID-19

Due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, data collection for the 2020/21 survey moved from face-to-face interviewing to telephone mode with a reduction in the number of questions. Telephone interviewing has remained in place for the 2021/22 survey; therefore caution should be used when interpreting trend data due to methodology and content changes during the 2020/21 survey period. In 2020/21, the output from the survey, in terms of the range and depth of topics covered, was reduced from that of previous years, with the subsequent capacity for detailed analysis constrained.

The Travel to school report was particularly impacted in 2020/21 with only one question on main mode of travel asked of parents. In 2021/22, the sample size for the CHS returned to normal and while the survey content was slightly impacted by the move to telephone interviewing, the usual number of questions were asked for this module. No comparisons have been made to the Pandemic Year 2020/21 as the achieved sample was smaller than usual.

More information is available on the NISRA website.

Part 1: MAIN MODES OF TRAVEL TO AND FROM SCHOOL

Respondents to the Northern Ireland Continuous Household Survey (CHS) were asked if children in the household attended primary school or post-primary school. Parents were then asked a set of questions on behalf of their children. These parents had a total of 841 children that were attending school. Of those children, 402 attended primary school and 439 attended post-primary school. The results of these questions are presented in this report. Respondents were asked to consider the main mode of travel their child used to travel to and from school, that is, the mode of travel used for the longest part of the journey.

a. Primary School

Figure 2: Main mode of travel to/from primary school by settlement type (%)

Base: Urban, 222; Post-primary, 180

Urban/Rural

In 2024/25, a higher proportion of primary school pupils living in rural areas (71%) travelled to/from school by car, van or taxi than those living in urban areas (59%). Similarly, a higher proportion of those living in rural areas (15%) took the bus to/from school, compared to urban areas (4%). However, 37% of primary school pupils in urban areas walked or cycled to school compared to 14% of those in rural areas.

b. Post-Primary School

Figure 3: Main mode of travel trends to/from post-primary school 2013/14 to 2024/25 (%)

Among post-primary school pupils 47% travelled to/from school by bus as their main mode of travel in 2024/25, while 31% travelled to/from school by car, van or taxi and 18% of pupils walked or cycled to/from school.

Over the longer term period between 2013/14 and 2024/25, there was no statistically significant changes in the proportion of pupils using any mode of transport to travel to school.

Figure 4: Main mode of travel to/from post-primary school by settlement type (%)

Base: Urban, 264; Post-primary, 175

Urban/Rural

In 2024/25, post-primary school pupils living in urban areas (28%) were more likely to walk or cycle to/from school than those living in rural areas (3%). Those living in rural areas (65%) were more likely to take the bus than those living in urban areas (36%). There was no statistically significant difference in the proportion of pupils who live in urban or rural areas who travelled to school by car, van or taxi.

Part 2: ALL MODES OF TRAVEL TO AND FROM SCHOOL

Respondents were asked to indicate all modes of travel their children normally used to travel to and from school (respondents could select more than one option). Please note that this question was not asked in 2020/21 due to a shortened questionnaire in response to the Covid Pandemic.

a. Primary School

b. Post-Primary School

Figure 6: All modes of travel trends to/from post-primary school 2013/14 to 2024/25 (%)*

*Percentages may sum to more than 100 due to multiple responses

In 2024/25, 50% of post-primary school pupils used the bus to travel to and from school, 40% travelled by car, van or taxi, 21% walked or cycled to/from school, and 3% used the train or other forms of transport to get to/from school.

Part 3: WALKING

Those who indicated that their child normally walked to/from school were subsequently asked whether their child walked all or part of the way, how long they spent walking, and how many days per week that they walked.

Walking all or part of the way to/from school

Figure 7: Proportion of pupils who walk all of the way to/from school (%)

Base: Primary, 120; Post-primary, 90

Of both primary and post-primary school pupils who normally walked to school, 90% walked all of the way.

Time spent walking to/from school

Figure 8: Time spent walking to and from school per day (%)

Base: Primary, 120; Post-primary, 89

About three-fifths (61%) of primary school pupils spent 10 minutes or less to walk to school compared to a third (33%) of post-primary school students. In contrast, 4% of primary school pupils spent 30 or more minutes to walk to school compared to 17% of post-primary school students.

Days per week walking to/from school

Figure 9: Proportion of pupils who walked to and from school five days per week (%)

Base: Primary, 120; Post-primary, 89

Of primary school pupils who walk to/from school, 88% walk to and home from school. Of post-primary pupils who walk to/from school, 81% walk to school and 82% walk from school.

There was no statistically significant difference in the proportion of primary and post-primary students who walk to/from school 5 days per week.

Part 4: DISTANCE FROM HOME TO SCHOOL

All parents and guardians were asked to estimate the distance from their home to their child’s school (to the nearest whole mile*).

Distance from pupils home to school

Figure 10: Distance from pupils home to school (to the nearest whole mile) (%)

Base: Primary, 402; Post-primary, 439

Of primary school pupils, 49% lived 0-1 mile from their school, 38% lived between 2-3 miles and 13% lived 4 or more miles from their school. Of post-primary school pupils, 23% lived 0-1 mile from their school, 27% lived between 2-3 miles and 50% lived 4 or more miles from their school.

In 2024/2025, there were 781 primary schools and 190 post-primary schools in Northern Ireland3. Therefore, it is likely that children will live closer to primary schools than post-primary schools and these results are not unexpected. Older children may also be more likely to travel further to attend a post-primary school of their choice.

Main Mode of travel to and from school (by distance)

a. Primary School

Figure 11: Main mode of transport used by distance from pupils’ home to primary school (%)

(0-1 miles) Base: 196 (2-3 miles) Base: 152 (4+ miles) Base: 54

Of those primary school pupils who lived between 0-1 miles from their school 52% were taken to school by car, van or taxi, while 48% walked or cycled and 0% travelled by bus.

Of those who lived between 2-3 miles from their school, 80% travelled by car, van or taxi, while 14% travelled by bus and 7% walked or cycled.

Of those who lived 4 or more miles from their school, 67% travelled by car, van or taxi, 28% travelled by bus and 6% walked or cycled.

b. Post-Primary School

Figure 12: Main mode of transport used by distance from pupils’ home to post-primary school (%)

(0-1 miles) Base: 101 (2-3 miles) Base: 119 (4+ miles) Base: 219

For post-primary school pupils who lived 0-1 miles from school 28% were taken to school by car, van or taxi, while 63% walked or cycled and 5% travelled by bus.

Fifty-four percent of post-primary pupils who lived between 2 and 3 miles from their school were driven to and from school by car, van or taxi, 31% travelled by bus and 14% walked or cycled to/from school.

Of those who lived 4 or more miles from their school, 21% travelled by car, van or taxi and 76% travelled by bus.

PART 5: CYCLING

Due to the small numbers of pupils cycling, it is not possible to present any further analysis or breakdown of cycling to school.

This is similar to previous reports regarding the proportion of children cycling to school. If number or sample increases allow further analysis on cycling will be included in future reports.

Contact information

Appendices

Appendix A: Technical Notes

The Northern Ireland Continuous Household Survey

Data Collection

The information presented in this publication derives from the Northern Ireland Continuous Household Survey (CHS), a Northern Ireland wide household survey administered by Central Survey Unit (CSU), Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA).

It is based on a sample of the general population resident in private households and has been running since 1983. The survey is designed to provide a regular source of information on a wide range of social and economic issues relevant to Northern Ireland. The Active and Sustainable Travel in Northern Ireland questions which were commissioned by DfI are included in Appendix C of this report. Questions related to method of travel to/from school were commissioned for the first time in 2013/14 and have been included in the CHS every year since then. Therefore this is the twelfth time that they have been asked.

The 2024/25 survey was based on a random sample of 8,940 domestic addresses drawn from the Land and Property Services list of addresses and interviews were sought with all adults aged 16 and over in these households. The questions relating to school travel are included in Appendix D of this publication.

The travel to school module dataset contains the records for 968 children of which 841 attended a primary or post-primary level school at the time of interview and whose parents provided a response. These records are based on the responses to the DfI Household Module answered by the Household Reference Person or Spouse.

Data Quality

Data were collected by CSU and various validation checks were carried out as part of the processing. CSU is the leading social survey research organisation in Northern Ireland and is one of the main business areas of NISRA, an Agency within the Department of Finance. CSU has a long track record and a wealth of experience in the design, management and analysis of behavioural and attitude surveys in the context of a wide range of social policy issues. CSU procedures are consistent with the Official Statistics Code of Practice.

The CHS sample was assessed and considered to be a representative sample of the Northern Ireland population at the household level.

Whilst data quality is considered to be very good, note that all survey estimates are subject to a degree of error and this must be taken account of when considering results. This error will be reasonably small for the majority of Northern Ireland level results but care should be taken when looking at results based on smaller breakdowns.

Multiple Response Questions

Multiple response questions are those for which respondents can give more than one response if they wish. For example, in the first question in this report, parents were asked to list all of the modes of transport their child used to travel to or from school. In such questions, when individual percentages are summed they may add to more than 100%. Therefore, the footnote “Percentages may sum to more than 100% due to multiple responses” has been included under the relevant charts within the main body of this publication and under the appropriate data tables in Appendix B.

Rounding Conventions

Percentages have been rounded to whole numbers and as a consequence some percentages may not sum to 100.

0% may reflect rounding down of values under 0.5.

Significant Difference

Any statements in this report regarding differences between groups such as males and females, different age groups, dependant status, etc., are statistically significant at the 95% confidence level. This means that we can be 95% confident that the differences between groups are actual differences and have not just arisen by chance. Both the base numbers and the sizes of the percentages have an effect on statistical significance.

Therefore on occasion, a difference between two groups may be statistically significant while the same difference in percentage points between two other groups may not be statistically significant. The reason for this is because the larger the base numbers or the closer the percentages are to 0 or 100, the smaller the standard errors. This leads to increased precision of the estimates which increases the likelihood that the difference between the proportions is actually significant and did not just arise by chance.

Confidence intervals

No sample is likely to reflect precisely the characteristics of the population it is drawn from because of both sampling and non-sampling errors. An estimate of the amount of error due to the sampling process can be calculated. For a simple random sample design, in which every member of the sampled population has an equal and independent chance of inclusion in the sample, the sampling error of any percentage, p, can be calculated by the formula: s.e. (p) = √(p*(100 – p)/n where n is the number of respondents on which the percentage is based. The sample for the Continuous Household Survey is drawn as a random sample, and thus this formula can be used to calculate the sampling error of any percentage estimate from the survey

Urban and rural areas Urban and rural areas have been classified using the statistical classification of settlements defined by the Inter-Departmental Urban-Rural Definition Group.

  • Bands A to E are classified as Urban. This includes Belfast Metropolitan Urban Area (Band A), Derry Urban Area (Band B) and large, medium and small towns (Bands C-E) with populations greater than or equal to 5,000 people.
  • Bands F to H are classified as rural. This includes intermediate settlements (Band F), villages (Band G) and small villages, hamlets and open countryside (Band H) with populations of less than 5,000 people and including open countryside.

Sampling error

No sample is likely to precisely mirror the characteristics of the population it is drawn from due to both sampling and non-sampling errors. An estimate of the amount of error due to the sampling process can be calculated. For a simple random sample design, the sampling error (s.e.) of any percentage, p, can be calculated by the formula: s.e. (p) = √(p*(100-p)/n) where n is the number of respondents on which the percentage is based.

Other notes

The following should be noted when interpreting figures and tables:

  • Detailed tabulations are not provided where the number of respondents is too small to allow meaningful analysis.

  • The base number of responses to each question, which is shown in each table, is the unweighted count. The base may vary due to some respondents not answering certain questions.

  • Primary School Children For the CHS, parents have indicated if their child attends a primary or a post-primary school. For the Census and the TSNI, children aged between 4-11 are considered to be at primary school.

  • Post-Primary School Children For the CHS, parents have indicated if their child attends a primary or a post-primary school. For the Census and the TSNI, children aged between 12-18 are considered to be at post-primary school.

  • Mode of travel journeys can consist of stages e.g. walk to bus stop and take the bus to school. The modes of travel are the different forms of travel used for the different stages of a journey.

  • Main Mode of travel Journeys can consist of stages e.g. walk to bus stop and take the bus to school. The main mode of travel is the form of travel used for the greatest length of the journey.

Accompanying tables are available on the DfI website.

Appendix B: Comparison data

Table 1: Comparison with Census 2021 Method of Travel to Study for Northern Ireland Results for all Primary and Post-Primary School Children

Infographic displaying confidence intervals

Appendix C: Confidence intervals

A confidence interval represents the range of values in which the true population value is likely to lie. It is based on the sample estimate and the confidence level.

As the percentages are calculated from a representative sample of the Northern Ireland population, a confidence interval can be calculated to estimate the level of uncertainty in the sample estimate.

95% confidence intervals were calculated for the headline figures for walking and cycling to school. Table 5 summarizes the confidence intervals for Main Method of Travel to/from School in NI.

Table 2: Confidence Intervals for Key points of Travel to/from School in Northern Ireland.

Measure Estimate (%) Sample (n) 95% Confidence Range +/- Confidence Interval
% of primary school pupils whose main mode of travel to/from school is by car/van/taxi. 64 402 4.7 59.5-68.9%
% of primary school pupils who walked all the way to and from school (of those who walked). 90 120 5.4 84.6-95.4%
% of primary school pupils who spent 10 minutes or less walking to/from school (of those who walked). 61 120 8.7 52.1-69.6%
% of primary school pupils who live 1 mile or less from their school. 49 402 4.9 43.9-53.6%
% of post-primary school pupils whose main mode of travel to/from school is by car/van/taxi. 31 439 4.3 27.1-35.8%
% of post-primary school pupils who walked all of the way to/from school (of those who walked). 90 90 6.2 83.8-96.2%
% of post-primary school pupils who spent 10 minutes or less walking to/from school (of those who walked). 33 89 9.7 22.8-42.3%
% of post-primary school pupils who live 1 mile or less from their school. 23 439 3.9 19.1-26.9%

Appendix D: Travel to/from school in Northern Ireland Questionnaire

TRAVEL TO SCHOOL

[MODE] Which of the modes of transport listed does CHILD normally use to get to and from school? RUNNING PROMPT - CODE ALL THAT APPLY Please consider both journeys and include all modes of transport. If CHILD walks PART of the way in conjunction with some other form of transport (e.g. walks to or from a bus stop or after being dropped off) only include walking if CHILD has to walk for 10 minutes or more.

  1. Walking (all or part of the way)
  2. Bicycle
  3. Car/van
  4. Bus
  5. Train
  6. Taxi
  7. Other → [MODEOTH]

[MODEOTH] Please specify the other mode of transport If more than one option selected for [MODE]

[MAIN] And which of these do you consider is CHILD’s main mode of transport to and from school? INTERVIEWER: IF MORE THAN ONE MODE SELECT THE MODE WITH THE LONGEST JOURNEY RUNNING PROMPT

  1. Walking (all or part of the way)
  2. Bicycle
  3. Car/van
  4. Bus
  5. Train
  6. Taxi
  7. Other
  8. Cannot distinguish - equal number of journeys made with different modes (e.g car lift to school 5 days a week, walk home from school 5 days a week) → [MAINB]

[MAINB] Which modes have equal journeys made? RUNNING PROMPT

  1. Walking (all or part of the way)
  2. Bicycle
  3. Car/van
  4. Bus
  5. Train
  6. Taxi
  7. Other

ASKED IF WALKING IS MENTIONED AT MODE OF TRANSPORT TO SCHOOL [C2] You mentioned previously that CHILD normally walks either to or from school. Can I just check, is that walking all or part of the way to or from school?

  1. All of the way
  2. Part of the way

[C3] How many days per week does CHILD walk (all or part of the way) to school? 0..5

[C3a] How many days per week does CHILD walk (all or part of the way) home from school? 0..5

[C5] How long (in minutes) does CHILD spend in total walking to and from school on a daily basis? 1..180 INSTRUCTION: THIS IS TIME SPENT WALKING TO AND BACK FROM SCHOOL ON ONE TYPICAL SCHOOL DAY

ASKED IF CYCLING IS MENTIONED AT MODE OF TRANSPORT TO SCHOOL

[C4] how many days per week does CHILD cycle to school? 0..5

[C4a] how many days per week does CHILD cycle home from school? 0..5

[C6] How long (in minutes) does CHILD spend in total cycling to and from school on a daily basis? 1..120

ASKED ABOUT PERSON IN THE HOUSEHOLD WHO IS ATTENDING SCHOOL

[C7] How far is CHILD ’s school (to the nearest whole mile) from your home? 0..90

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