Index of Services, UK: April 2024

• We estimate that monthly services output increased by 0.2% in April 2024, following an increase of 0.5% in March 2024.

• The Index of Services (IoS) saw monthly increases in 9 of the 14 sectors in April 2024; the largest contributors to growth came from "information and communication" (2.3%), and "professional, scientific and technical activities" (1.2%).

• This monthly rise in April 2024 was mainly offset by a fall in "wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles" (down 2.0%).

• Services output is estimated to have grown by 0.9% in the three months to April 2024, when compared with the three months to January 2024; this is the strongest three-month on three-month IoS growth since January 2022 (0.9%).

• The IoS saw increases in 11 of the 14 sectors in the three months to April 2024, when compared with the three months to January 2024.

• Most of the increase in the three months to April 2024 came from five sectors; these were "professional, scientific and technical activities" (1.9%), "transportation and storage" (3.7%), "administrative and support services" (2.1%), "information and communication" (1.3%), and "human health and social work activities" (1.2%).

All data related to the Index of Services are available on our Related data page. 

Response rates for April 2024

For April 2024, the response rates were 72.7%, based on forms returned. This accounted for 86.8% of total turnover coverage of the sample population. For further information, see our Current and historical Monthly Business Survey (MBS) (services) response rates dataset.

Data sources and collection

The Index of Services (IoS) is compiled using data from several different sources (share of overall economy based on latest gross value added (GVA) weights). These include the:

• Office for National Statistics (ONS) MBS (34.1%)     

• ONS Retail Sales Inquiry (4.9%)     

• ONS Government Expenditure (14.8%)     

• ONS Households' Expenditure (11.5%)     

• ONS Finance Expenditure (5.7%)     

• ONS Households and non-profit institutions serving households (1.9%) 

• other (4.4%)

The MBS data are published alongside this release in our MBS turnover of services industries dataset.

Data relating to the retail industry are broadly comparable with our Retail sales, Great Britain: April 2024 bulletin, published on 24 May 2024. 

For further information on what is included within "other", please see our Gross domestic product (GDP(o)) data sources catalogue. 

The percentage of each data source is based on their gross value-added weight. Our GDP(o) methods and sources pages provide more information on the data that underpin these statistics; of particular note is the GDP(o) data sources catalogue.

Value Added Tax (VAT) data are also included for small and medium-sized businesses to help inform estimates. For more information, see our VAT turnover data in National Accounts: background and methodology page.

Quality and methodology

The data reported in IoS bulletins and datasets are estimates that are subject to uncertainty, for example, sampling variability and non-sampling error. For more information on these, see our Uncertainty and how we measure it for our surveys methodology.

More quality and methodology information (QMI) on strengths, limitations, appropriate uses, and how the data were created is available in our Index of Services QMI. Please note an update of this QMI is scheduled for release on 17 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 inthe Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled "accredited official statistics".

Revisions to IoS

In line with the National Accounts revision policy, this release provides data for April 2024 for the first time. There are no revisions for previous months in this month's publication.

Early estimates of GDP are subject to revision (positive and negative). Please see our Why GDP figures are revised article for more information.

Underlying data sources that form the Index of ServicesIOS are open for revision each period. For instance, our Monthly Business Survey publishes revisions for the previously published 12 months..