Average Car Mileage UK - How Many Miles a Year?

The official figures

Average annual mileage per car, from the DfT's National Travel Survey (table NTS0901, England).

Average annual car mileage over time (DfT NTS0901)
Year	Average miles per car	Context
2002	9,200	The old 10-12k rule of thumb wasn't far off back here
2019	7,400	Two decades of gradual decline, pre-pandemic
2020	6,800	The Covid dip
2024	7,100	The latest published figure, still well below 2002

The long fall is mostly business and commuting mileage disappearing: business miles per car have roughly halved and commuting has never returned to pre-2020 levels. Weekend and leisure driving has held up far better.

Average mileage by fuel type

From the same National Travel Survey table, England, 2024. The differences are bigger than most people expect.

Average annual mileage by fuel type (DfT NTS0901, England)
Fuel	Average miles per year
Battery electric	8,900
Diesel	8,300
Hybrid	8,000
Petrol	6,200

Diesels and electric cars are bought by high-mileage drivers, petrol cars dominate the short-trip end. So a used diesel with a big total isn't unusual, and a petrol car with a huge total is more remarkable than the same figure on a diesel. Company cars skew the averages up too: they cover roughly double the miles of privately owned ones.

What counts as low, average and high?

The trade has no official definition, so treat these as the working bands buyers and dealers actually use today.

Annual mileage bands, as the used-car trade reads them
Miles per year	Reads as
Under 5,000	Low. Check the car still got regular use and servicing; long idle spells cause their own problems
5,000 to 10,000	Normal for a modern car
10,000 to 15,000	The high side of normal, typical of commuters and diesels
Over 15,000	Genuinely high annual use, usually motorway miles

Using the average when you buy a used car

Multiply the car's age by about 7,000 and compare. A 2018 car showing 90,000 miles has lived a harder life than average; the same car on 35,000 has been barely used. Neither is automatically good or bad, but each should shape the questions you ask.

Motorway miles wear a car far more gently than the same distance around town, and a well-serviced high-mileage car routinely outlasts a neglected low-mileage one. Our guide to good mileage on a used car goes through the judgement in detail.

Whatever the advert says, verify it. Every MOT records the odometer, so the free MOT check shows the real mileage trail, and a reading that ever goes backwards is the classic sign of clocking.

The £5.00 report puts the trail on a chart and flags anomalies, and mileage feeds straight into what a car is worth, which our depreciation calculator can show you.

Average mileage: common questions

What is the average car mileage per year in the UK?

About 7,100 miles, according to the Department for Transport's National Travel Survey for 2024, the latest published year. That is the average across all cars in England, private and company together, and the figure has been falling for two decades.

Is 10,000 miles a year still "average"?

Not any more. The old 10,000 to 12,000 rule of thumb dates from when cars really did cover that: the average was 9,200 miles back in 2002. Today anything around 7,100 is typical, 10,000 is on the high side of normal, and 15,000-plus is genuinely high annual use.

Do diesel cars cover more miles than petrol?

Yes, by a wide margin. The DfT's National Travel Survey puts diesels at around 8,300 miles a year against 6,200 for petrol cars. Diesels are bought for big annual distances, which is worth remembering when you judge a used one's total mileage.

What counts as high mileage on a used car?

Compare the total against roughly 7,000 miles for each year of the car's age. A five-year-old car on 60,000 has worked hard; the same car on 25,000 has barely been used. How it was maintained matters more than the raw number, which is why the MOT record's mileage trail is worth reading before you buy.

Figures last checked against the official source on 25 August 2026. Check the source yourself.

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Average car mileage in the UK