Benchmark

Week 32 2025 High Streets & Town Centres: Insights from Footfall Retail

UK high streets & town centres record a modest week-on-week increase of 1.3% in footfall retail with a 3.6% year-on-year rise, reflecting robust footfall analytics across the market.

Joe Capocci

Head of Growth @ huq

August 21, 2025

2 min read

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Week 32 2025 High Streets & Town Centres: Insights from Footfall Retail

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Recent data for the week ending 17 August 2025 underscores a steady growth trajectory across UK High Streets and Town Centres. The overall average daily footfall reached 32,800, signifying a week-on-week increase of 1.3% and a year-on-year rise of 3.6%. Visitors are not only frequenting these retail hubs more often, but they are also spending additional time during each visit.

The average visit duration now stands at 99 minutes, a figure that has increased by 1% on a weekly basis and improved by 12.5% compared to the same period last year. These figures, derived from detailed footfall data and robust analytics, offer valuable insights into evolving customer engagement patterns.

Regional performance across the UK reveals some interesting trends:

• In Wales, average daily footfall hit 17,900 visitors, showing a week-on-week lift of 2.8% and a robust annual increase of 6.4%.

• Scotland exhibited particularly strong dynamics with an average of 30,100 daily visitors, accompanied by significant increases of 9.2% on a weekly basis and 11.3% over the past year. Despite this high activity, Scotland recorded a slightly lower average visit duration of 81 minutes, with both weekly and yearly decreases suggesting shorter engagement periods compared to other regions.

• England maintained a steady performance with healthy footfall figures of 33,500 daily visitors. The region saw a modest weekly uptick of 1%, with a comfortable year-on-year rise of 3.3%. Notably, England leads with an impressive average visit duration of 100 minutes—a standout improvement of 14.9% year-over-year.

The data presents a story of resilience and dynamic change in the UK retail landscape. Understanding these shifts can help retail planners and high street managers better tailor their strategies in a market that's rapidly evolving. With continuous monitoring and analysis, local governments and industry stakeholders are well-positioned to adapt to consumer behaviors, ensuring high streets and town centres remain vibrant hubs for commerce and community activities.

Media: For all media and press enquiries, please contact media@huq.io

Day Part Visitation
Dwell Time Data
Footfall Data

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Frequently Asked Questions

Clear answers to the most common questions about movement intelligence, retail expansion, and location analytics.

How does movement intelligence differ from traditional market research?
Traditional market research relies on surveys, demographics and historical reports. huq's movement intelligence uses real-world behavioural data to reveal where people go, how long they stay and how locations perform, giving teams a live picture of consumer activity.
Can movement data help benchmark locations against competitors?
Yes. Compare stores, shopping centres, town centres or developments against competing locations using consistent metrics such as footfall, dwell time, catchment, visit frequency and commercial performance.
How often is movement data updated?
huq refreshes behavioural intelligence daily, allowing organisations to monitor changes in visitor activity, market trends and location performance with near real-time visibility.
Which industries benefit from movement intelligence?
Retail, real estate, financial services, government, BIDs, investors and property owners all use huq to make smarter location, investment and regeneration decisions backed by behavioural evidence.
Can huq feed our models directly?
Yes. huq data is available through APIs, data exports and structured datasets, making it easy to integrate into internal dashboards, analytics platforms and quantitative research workflows.
What markets and history are covered?
huq provides extensive UK coverage with years of historical behavioural data and daily updates. Customers can analyse long-term trends, benchmark locations and monitor market changes with confidence.