Index of Services, UK: August 2026

• Services output for the three months to August 2026 was estimated to have increased by 0.9%, compared with the three months to May 2026.

• In the three months to August 2026, 10 of the 14 sectors saw a rise, with the main positive contributing sectors being “professional, scientific and technical activities’’ (up by 2.8%), “information and communication” (up by 2.8%), and ‘’administrative, support and service activities’’ (up by 3.0%).

• In the three months to August 2026, 3 of the 14 sectors saw a fall (one sector saw no growth (0.0%), with the main negative contributing sector being “wholesale and retail trade” (down by 0.1%).

• Monthly services output was estimated to have had no growth (0.0%) in August 2026; this follows increases in July 2026 (up by 0.5%) and June 2026 (up by 0.5%).

• There were monthly decreases in 9 of the 14 sectors in August 2026, with the largest negative contributions on the month coming from “administrative and support service activities” (down by 1.7%), “accommodation and food service activities” (down by 2.1%), and ‘’transportation and storage’’ (down by 1.3%).

• There were monthly increases in 4 of the 14 sectors (one sector saw no growth) in August 2026, with the largest positive contributions coming from “wholesale and retail trade” (up by 2.0%) and ‘’professional, scientific and technical activities’’ (up by 1.5%).

Response rates for August 2026

The response rates for August 2026 were 73.8%, based on forms returned. This accounted for 88.7% of total turnover coverage of the sample population. More information is available in our Current and historical Monthly Business Survey (MBS) (services) response rates dataset.

Data sources and collection

The Index of Services (IoS) is compiled using data from several different sources (share of overall economy based on latest gross value added (GVA) weights).

These include:

• the Office for National Statistics (ONS) MBS (36.0%)
• the ONS Retail Sales Inquiry (4.4%)
• the ONS Government Expenditure (15.9%)
• the ONS Households’ Expenditure (12.2%)
• the ONS Finance Expenditure (7.3%)
• the ONS Households and non-profit institutions serving households (1.7%)
• other (1.6%)

The MBS data are published alongside this release in our MBS turnover of services industries dataset.

More information on what is included within “other” is available in our Gross domestic product (GDP(o)) data sources catalogue.

The percentage of each data source is based on their gross value added weight.

Our IoS methodology provides more information on the data that underpin these statistics; of particular note is our GDP(o) data sources catalogue.

Value Added Tax (VAT) data are also included for small and medium-sized businesses to help inform estimates. More information is available in our Value Added Tax (VAT) turnover data in National Accounts: background and methodology.

Quality and methodology

The data reported in IoS bulletins and datasets are estimates that are subject to uncertainty, for example, sampling variability and non-sampling error. More information on these is available in Section 2 of our Uncertainty and how we measure it for our surveys methodology.

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

Accredited official statistics

These accredited official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in May 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 Services

This release includes revisions to July 2026 for the first time. It also incorporates revisions from January 1997 to June 2026, in line with our GDP quarterly national accounts, UK: April to June 2025, published on 30 September 2026. This is consistent with Blue Book 2026 and in line with Section 4 of our National Accounts Revisions Policy: updated January 2026.

Table 1 shows the revisions for January to July 2026 to Index of Services and its main sectors against our previous IoS release, published on 11 September 2026.

Seasonal adjustment

The monthly estimates of IoS are seasonally adjusted. Seasonal adjustment is the process of removing the variations associated with the time of year, or the arrangement of the calendar, from a data time series.

IoS estimates, as for many data time series, are difficult to analyse using raw data because seasonal effects dominate short-term movements. Identifying and removing the seasonal component leaves the trend and irregular components.

We use the X-13-ARIMA-SEATS approach to seasonal adjustment. Seasonal adjustment parameters are monitored closely and regularly reviewed. More information is available in our seasonal adjustment methodology.

In our IoS estimates, seasonal adjustment is applied at the industry level, and the seasonally adjusted series are aggregated to create estimates by sector and total IoS output. As part of our quality assurance approach, residual seasonality checks are regularly completed by our time series analysis team on both the directly seasonally adjusted series and also the indirectly derived aggregate time series.

Based on our quality assurance as part of this publication, there is no statistically significant residual seasonality in our aggregate estimates for IoS in the period from January 1997 to August 2026.

This topic is explored further in our methodology on assessing residual seasonality, published on 12 May 2026.

Since June 2026, we have published non-seasonally adjusted chained volume measure series in our updated Monthly GDP low level industry dataset. There are conceptual differences between indirect and direct seasonal adjustment. Indirect seasonal adjustment is the sum of the directly seasonally adjusted component series, typically chosen at an optimal level and depending on user needs.

For the National Accounts, GDP aggregates are created with indirect seasonal adjustment. Because of processing, which includes benchmarking and chain-linking, direct seasonal adjustment of the non-seasonally adjusted GDP aggregate will not give the same results as the indirect seasonally adjusted output.

Review of release times for market-sensitive economic statistics

We are reviewing the release times for our market-sensitive economic statistics, such as Index of Services. This review will consider whether the current arrangements continue to best serve the public good, support user needs and align with the principles set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics.

We are running a consultation to gather evidence on the impact of different release times. The consultation asks how you use market-sensitive economic statistics, your views on potential release time options, and any other considerations. Please note that this consultation will be closing on Friday 30 October 2026.

GDP monthly estimate, UK: August 2026
Bulletin | Released 15 October 2026
Gross domestic product (GDP) measures the value of goods and services produced in the UK. It estimates the size of the economy and its growth.

GDP quarterly national accounts, UK: April to June 2026
Bulletin | Released 30 September 2026
Revised quarterly estimate of gross domestic product (GDP) for the UK. Uses additional data to provide a more precise indication of economic growth than the first estimate.

Index of Production, UK: August 2026
Bulletin | Released 15 October 2026
Movements in the volume of production for the UK production industries: manufacturing, mining and quarrying, energy supply, and water and waste management.

Producer price inflation, UK: August 2026
Bulletin | Released 16 September 2026
Changes in the prices of goods bought and sold by UK manufacturers, including price indices of materials and fuels purchased (input prices), and factory gate prices (output prices).