ONS publishes UK regional GDP back to 1998, down to local authority
Serguey Asael Shinder2 min readThe Office for National Statistics released Regional economic activity by gross domestic product, UK: 1998 to 2024 on 23 September 2026 at 9:30am.
It carries annual estimates of economic activity by UK country, region and local area, in both current market prices and chained volume measures, including a full industry breakdown of balanced regional gross value added, GVA(B).
Three companion datasets ship with it:
- Revisions triangles — revisions to annual levels and growth rates for GVA in current basic prices, by ITL1, ITL2 and ITL3 regions;
- City and enterprise regions — balanced regional GDP for combined authorities, city regions and other economic areas that do not match ITL boundaries;
- Local authorities — annual balanced regional GDP at local authority level.
What it means
The revisions triangles are the part a careful reader opens first. A triangle shows how each year's estimate has moved with every subsequent vintage — so it answers the question that regional data usually leaves hanging: how much of the gap between two regions is a measured difference and how much is within the range this series has historically revised by. Published alongside the numbers, it is the ONS telling you how far to trust them.
The city and enterprise regions dataset exists because of a boundary problem, and that is itself the interesting fact. International Territorial Levels are a statistical geography; combined authorities and city regions are a political one, and they do not line up. Devolution has created bodies with budgets and mandates whose economic footprint no standard statistical area describes — so the ONS now publishes a second cut for them. Anyone comparing a mayoral region's GDP with a neighbouring ITL2 area is comparing two different constructions.
📌 This is a data release, not a finding. We are not quoting a growth rate from it: the series runs to 2024, the geography is the point, and any figure taken out of it belongs next to its own revisions triangle.