Publication of The Young Persons’ Behaviour and Attitudes Survey (YPBAS) 2019 Travel to/from School Factsheet

The Young Persons’ Behaviour and Attitudes Survey (YPBAS) 2019 Travel to/from School Factsheet is now available.

This factsheet, produced by the Analysis, Statistics and Research Branch (ASRB) of the Department for Infrastructure (DfI), contains information from young people aged 11-16 about; how far they live from their school, what makes them feel unsafe when travelling to/from school and how they would like to travel to/from school. 

The publication is available on the ASRB website at:

• Young Persons' Behaviour and Attitude Survey 2019 - Travel to/from School

Key Points

Travel to and from school

Half (50%) of all young people (aged 11-16) travel to school by bus and 56% travel home by bus. Almost a third (32%) travel to school by car, and 20% travel home by car.

A higher proportion (22%) of young people walk home from school, than walk to school (16%).

• Over half of young people (56%) live less than 3km from school.
• A fifth (20%) of young people said they would like to walk to and from school;
• A further 8% said they would like to cycle, and
• A third (33%) said they would like to travel to and from school by bus. 
• The majority of children (96%) feel safe when travelling to and from school.

The main factors that would encourage young people to walk or cycle to school are:

• Living closer to school, better weather, not having things to carry, cycle lane on my route, someone else to walk with.
• Of those children who travel to school by car, almost three quarters (73%) travel with siblings and/or friends.

Notes to editors: 

Background

1. This factsheet presents key findings from the Young Persons’ Behaviour and Attitudes Survey (YPBAS), carried out by Central Survey Unit between September 2019 and February 2020. These results are based on data which has been weighted by year group, gender and religion in order to reflect the composition of the Northern Ireland post‐primary population. There were 3,892 respondents from 39 schools who answered questions on Travel to/from School.

Official Statistics

2. This is an Official Statistics publication and therefore follows the Code of Practice for Statistics.  You can find further information about the Code of Practice at: Code of Practice for Statistics.

Additional Information

For more information relating to this publication, including additional analysis, breakdowns of data, or alternative formats please contact:

• Telephone: (028) 9054 0865
• E-mail: asrb@nisra.gov.uk
• Website: DfI Statistics and Research

3. All media queries should be directed to the Department for Infrastructure Press Office at: press.office@infrastructure-ni.gov.uk. Out of hours please contact the duty press officer on 028 9037 8110.

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