Travel to and from School – Young Persons’ Behaviour and Attitudes Survey (YPBAS) 2025 Factsheet, published.
Topics:
Date published:
The Travel to and from School – Young Persons’ Behaviour and Attitudes Survey (YPBAS) 2025 Factsheet, has been published today.
The publication is available on the Department for Infrastructure website.
Key Points:
Travel to and from school
- Just under half (45%) of all young people (aged 11-16) travel to school by bus and half (50%) travel home by bus. Over a third (36%) travel to school by car, and just over a quarter (26%) travel home by car.
- A higher proportion (21%) of young people walk home from school, than walk to school (15%).
- Over half of young people (62%) live less than 3km from school.
- Almost one-fifth (18%) of young people said they would like to walk to and from school; a further 5% said they would like to cycle; and almost a third (29%) 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 to school are living closer to school, better weather, and not having things to carry.
- Of those children who travel to school by car, over two thirds (69%) travel with siblings and/or friends.
Notes to editors:
- Official Statistics - The statistical report has been produced in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics, complying with the pillars of Trustworthiness, Quality and Value. You can find further information about the Code of Practice on UK Statistics Authority website.
- This release, 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 school, how they travel to/from school, their preference of travel, if pupils feel safe travelling to school and what makes them feel unsafe or would encourage them to walk or cycle to/from school.
- The information presented in this publication may be used by the Department to inform and understand the story behind current trends and to assist in any future policy discussion and development.
- This release has been produced in addition to the 'Travel to and from school' publication from the Continuous Household Survey, also produced by the Analysis, Statistics and Research Branch (ASRB) in the Department for Infrastructure (DfI), which is available to view on the ASRB webpage.
- This release presents key findings from the ninth round of the Young Persons’ Behaviour and Attitudes Survey (YPBAS), carried out between September 2025 and February 2026. 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.
- All 190 post-primary schools in Northern Ireland were contacted and invited to participate, with 90 schools agreeing to participate in the study. One class from each year group (Year 8 to Year 12) was then randomly selected to take part in the study. A total of 8,875 pupils aged 11 - 16 years took part in the survey. Three versions of the questionnaire were created to accommodate demand for topics on the 2025 survey. Questions on travel to/from school were included in version C, which contained responses from 2,830 pupils.
- For more information relating to this publication, including additional analysis, breakdowns of data, or alternative formats please contact:
Analysis, Statistics and Research Branch, First Floor, James House, Cromac Avenue, Belfast, BT7 2JB
Telephone: (028) 9034 6270 E-mail: asrb@nisra.gov.uk
Website: https://www.infrastructure-ni.gov.uk/topics/dfi-statistics-and-research
- All media queries should be directed to the Department for Infrastructure Press Office at: press.office@infrastructure-ni.gov.uk
- The Executive Information Service operates an out of hours service for media enquiries only between 1800hrs and 0800hrs Monday to Friday and at weekends and public holidays. The duty press officer can be contacted on 028 9037 8110.
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