Index of Services, UK: March 2024

• We estimate that monthly services output increased by 0.5% in March 2024, following a revised increase of 0.3% (up 0.2 percentage points) in February 2024 and a revised increase of 0.4% (up 0.1 percentage points) in January 2024.

• The Index of Services (IoS) saw monthly increases in 10 of the 14 sectors in March 2024, with the majority of monthly growth coming from the five largest contributing sectors: "human health and social activities" (1.1%), "administrative and support service activities" (1.6%), "wholesale and retail trade" (0.9%), "accommodation and food service activities" (2.7%), and "professional, scientific and technical activities" (0.9%).

• This monthly rise in March 2024 was mainly offset by a fall in "arts, entertainment and recreation" (down 3.1%) and, to a lesser extent, "information and communication" (down 0.2%).

• Services output for Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2024 is estimated to have grown by 0.7% when compared with Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec) 2023; this is the first positive quarterly services growth since Quarter 1 2023 (0.2%).

• The Index of Services (IoS) saw increases in 11 of the 14 sectors in Quarter 1 2024, with the main positive contributing sectors being "transportation and storage" (3.7%) and "professional, scientific and technical activities" (1.3%).

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

Response rates for March 2024

For March 2024, the response rates were 66.1% based on forms returned, and this accounted for 80.9% 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: March 2024 bulletin, published on 19 April 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 IoS methodology page provides 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

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.

Revisions to IoS

In line with the National Accounts revisions policy, this release provides data for March 2024. January 2024 and February 2024 are also open for revisions.

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 Services are open for revision each period. For instance, our Monthly Business Survey (MBS) publishes revisions for the previously published 12 months.