The 'Travel to School by Children in Northern Ireland 2021/22' report is now available.
This report, produced by the Analysis, Statistics and Research Branch (ASRB) of the Department for Infrastructure (DfI), presents findings from the 2021/22 Continuous Household Survey (CHS).
The publication is available on the ASRB website.
Key Points
Travel to and from School in Northern Ireland
Primary School
- For main mode of travel, almost two thirds (65%) were driven to/from school by car and 26% usually walked. A further 7% took a bus, and 1% cycled to and/or from school.
- When compared to results from 2013/14, car travel has increased from 59% to 65% and conversely, the proportion of primary school pupils walking to and from school has decreased from 31% to 26%
- Of those who walked to school, 91% of primary school pupils walked all of the way to/from school. A third (33%) spent 10 minutes or less walking to and from school and almost half (46%) spent 11-20 minutes.
- Half (50%) of primary school pupils live a mile or less from school and of these, almost half were driven to school by car and 48% walked to school.
Post Primary School
- Amongst post-primary school pupils, 45% travelled to/from school by bus as their main mode of travel, and a further 35% travelled to/from school by car. Less than one in five (16%) pupils walked to/from school, while a small proportion took the train (1%).
- Since 2013/14, the proportion of pupils who walk to post primary school has decreased from 22% to 16% while the proportion who travel by bicycle, car and bus have remained around the same.
- Of those who walked to school, 89% of post primary school pupils walked all of the way to/from school. Just over one in ten (13%) spent 10 minutes or less walking to and from school, almost half (48%) spent 11-20 minutes and around a fifth (22%) spent 21-30 minutes.
- For post-primary school pupils, 54% lived between more than 4 miles from their school. Of these pupils, two thirds (66%) travelled by bus and 29% were driven by car.
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