Index of Production, UK: December 2024

• Production output for Quarter 4 (October to December) 2024 was estimated to have decreased by 0.8% compared with Quarter 3 (July to September) 2024; this is the fifth consecutive quarterly decline in production output.

• In Quarter 4 2024, “manufacturing” (down 0.7%) was the main contributor to the fall, supported by smaller negative contributions from “mining and quarrying” (down 2.5%), and “electricity and gas” (down 0.7%); this was partially offset by an increase in “water supply and sewerage” (1.2%).

• Monthly production output was estimated to have increased by 0.5% in December 2024; this follows falls in both October and November 2024 (down 0.6% and down 0.5%, respectively).

• The rise in monthly output in December 2024 resulted from increases in “manufacturing” (0.7%) and “mining and quarrying” (1.5%); these reductions were partially offset by decreases in “electricity and gas” (down 0.6%) and “water supply and sewerage” (down 0.4%).

• The monthly increase in manufacturing output in December 2024 saw increases in 7 of its 13 subsectors; the largest positive contributions to manufacturing output in December 2024 came from, “basic pharmaceutical products” (5.1%), “machinery and equipment” (5.9%) and “other manufacturing and repair” (2.3%).

• Annual production output fell by 1.7% in 2024, with weakness across all four sectors; “mining and quarrying” and “manufacturing” provided the largest negative contributions, falling by 7.2% and 0.7%, respectively.

All data related to the Index of Production (IoP) are available on our Related data page.

The Index of Production (IoP) uses data from a variety of sources. It is calculated by taking turnover and removing the effect of price changes, or by using direct volume estimates.

Most of these data are collected as “turnover values” through the Monthly Business Survey (MBS). In addition, direct volume series are collected by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), and the International Steel Statistics Bureau (ISSB) for steel industries.

The MBS is fully online. Business owners can log on from any location and submit their data at an appropriate time.

From January 2018, Value Added Tax (VAT) data have also been included across 64 production industries for small- and medium-sized businesses. More information is available in our VAT turnover data in National Accounts: background and methodology article.

A comprehensive list of the IoP source data can be found in our Gross domestic product (GDP) data sources catalogue.

Response rates for December 2024

For December 2024, MBS response rates were 73.9%, based on forms returned. This accounted for 83.8% of total turnover coverage of the sample population. For further information, see our current and historical MBS (production) response rates dataset.

Quality and methodology    

The data reported in IoP bulletins and datasets are estimates that are subject to uncertainty, such as sampling variability and non-sampling error. More information is available in Section 2 of our Uncertainty and how we measure it for our surveys web page.

More quality and methodology information (QMI) on strengths, limitations, appropriate uses, and how the data were created is available in our Index of Production, UK QMI.

Accredited official statistics

These accredited official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in April 2014. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled “accredited official statistics”.

Revisions to Index of Production

In line with the National Accounts Revision Policy, this release gives data for December 2024 for the first time, with periods from January 2024 to November 2024 also open for revision.