Index of Production, UK: October 2024

• Monthly production output was estimated to have decreased by 0.6% in October 2024; this follows an increase of 0.5% in August 2024 and a decrease of 0.5% in September 2024.

• Monthly production output in October 2024 was at its lowest level since May 2020.

• The fall in monthly output in October 2024 resulted from decreases in "mining and quarrying" (down 3.1%) and "manufacturing" (down 0.6%); these reductions were partially offset by rises in "electricity and gas" (1.4%) and "water supply and sewerage" (0.5%).

• The monthly decrease in manufacturing output in October 2024 saw decreases in 7 of its 13 subsectors; the largest negative contribution to manufacturing output in October 2024 came from "basic pharmaceutical products" (down 2.6%).

• Production output for the three months to October 2024 was estimated to have decreased by 0.3% compared with the three months to July 2024; this is the sixth consecutive three-monthly fall since the three months to April 2024.

• There were decreases in "mining and quarrying" (down 2.0%), "electricity and gas" (down 1.2%) and "water supply and sewerage" (down 0.2%) in the three months to October 2024; in contrast, "manufacturing" remained flat at 0.0%.

All data related to the Index of Production (IoP) are available on our Related data page.

The Index of Production (IoP) uses data from a variety of sources. It is calculated by taking turnover and removing the effect of price changes, or by using direct volume estimates. Most of these data are collected as "turnover values" through the Monthly Business Survey (MBS). In addition, direct volume series are collected by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), and the International Steel Statistics Bureau (ISSB) for steel industries. The MBS is fully online. Business owners can log on from any location and submit their data at an appropriate time.    

From January 2018, Value Added Tax (VAT) data have also been included across 64 production industries for small- and medium-sized businesses. More information is available in our VAT turnover data in National Accounts: background and methodology article. A comprehensive list of the IoP source data can be found in our Gross domestic product (GDP) data sources catalogue.

Response rates for October 2024

For October 2024, MBS response rates were 74.5%, based on forms returned. This accounted for 83.6% of total turnover coverage of the sample population. For further information, see our current and historical MBS (production) response rates dataset.

Quality and methodology

The data reported in IoP bulletins and datasets are estimates that are subject to uncertainty, such as sampling variability and non-sampling error. More information is available in Section 2 of our Uncertainty and how we measure it for our surveys web page.

More quality and methodology information (QMI) on strengths, limitations, appropriate uses, and how the data were created is available in our Index of Production, UK QMI. This was last updated on 7 June 2024.

Accredited official statistics

These accredited official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in April 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 Production

In line with the National Accounts Revisions Policy, this release gives data for October 2024 for the first time with no previous periods open for revision.