National Travel Survey 2023 technical report

Last updated: 28 August 2024

How to use this Technical Report

This is the technical report for the 2023 National Travel Survey (NTS). This document contains:

• information about the survey design

• information on the sample selection and fieldwork, including how we responded to the Coronavirus pandemic

• details of the data processing conducted by the survey contractor NatCen

• explanations of the weighting methodology used within the survey

• an extensive glossary of terms related to the survey

• appendices containing the original letters, questionnaire, show-cards used in the interview, and tables of weighting model parameters

Where to find NTS 2023 statistical release and tables

To find the main statistical release, including data tables, notes and definitions, and background quality note, please visit the National Travel Survey 2023 page on GOV.UK.

For details of other years of the survey, please visit the main National Travel Survey page on GOV.UK.

A clean version of the NTS data is also archived with the UK Data Service, typically in the Autumn after the main publication.

Table of contents

1. Chapter 1: Introduction and background

2. Chapter 2: Sample selection

3. Chapter 3: Fieldwork procedures and response rate

4. Chapter 4: Data processing

5. Chapter 5: Weighting

6. Chapter 6: Glossary

7. Appendix A1: Introduction to questionnaire documentation 2023

8. Appendix A2: Questionnaire changes made in 2023

9. Appendix A3: NTS 2023 Questionnaire

10. Appendix A4: All questionnaire changes since 2002

11. Appendix B: Advance Letter

12. Appendix C: Non-Contact Letter

13. Appendix D: NTS leaflet

14. Appendix E1: Adult travel diary

15. Appendix E2: Young person travel diary

16. Appendix F: Memory jogger

17. Appendix G: Mileage chart

18. Appendix H: Show cards

19. Appendix I1: F2F thank you letter

20. Appendix I2: PB thank you letter

21. Appendix J: ‘Where do you work’ lookup table

22. Appendix K: Allocation of PSUs to quota months across major regional strata (International Territorial Level 2 (ILT2) areas)

23. Appendix L: Logistic regression model for household participation

24. Appendix M: Calibration weighting control totals: interview sample

25. Appendix N: Logistic regression model for removing households that did not fully respond

26. Appendix O: Calibration weighting control totals: fully responding sample

27. Appendix P: Logistic regression model for excluding non-present adults

28. Appendix Q: Calibration weighting control totals: CASI sample

How to use this bookdown file

This bookdown format has several features which we hope will be useful as you search for information about the survey.

How to open the sidebar

The sidebar on the left contains a full table of contents, as well as displays search results.

To open the sidebar, you can either:

• press ‘S’ on your keyboard when the bookdown page is active

• click on the button with 4 horizontal lines on the bar at the top of the page

How to search

To open the search feature built into bookdown, you can either:

• press ‘F’ on your keyboard when the bookdown page is active

• click on the magnifying glass on the bar at the top of the page

How to change the appearance of text and the background

Click on the letter ‘A’ on the bar at the top of the page. This will give options to:

• change between large and small text

• change the font type between serif and sans-serif

• change the background between ‘white’, ‘sepia’ and ‘dark mode’

Contact details

To get in contact with the National Travel Survey statistics team, please email national.travelsurvey@dft.gov.uk.

To hear more about DfT statistical publications as they are released, follow us on X at DfTstats.