Britain has gained 6,000 miles of new road in 20 years: there’s now enough to drive to the moon
The total length of all British roads combined grew two-and-a-half per cent in the last two decades to almost 250,000 miles
Yes, you read that headline correctly: Great Britain has enough tarmac to theoretically drive you all the way to the moon. And new statistics from the Department for Transport suggest that the nation’s road network is getting bigger and bigger.
As of the end of 2025, there are now 247,200 miles of road in Great Britain – that’s over 6,000 miles greater than in 2005. Admittedly, it only represents a 2.5 per cent increase over the past 20 years; there were 241,139 miles of road in Great Britain in 2005 which marked an 11 per cent increase over the prior two decades.
Yet while 65 per cent of the distance travelled by motorists on British roads is on the motorway and A-roads, these types of carriageways only represent 13 per cent of the total road network in terms of length; we have ‘just’ 2,300 miles of motorway in Great Britain, with 29,700 miles of A roads. In fact, on an average day one stretch of motorway receives 55 times the average traffic of an identically-sized section of B or C-road.
It’s England that takes the majority share of Great Britain’s network of roads, with 189,900 miles from motorways to local streets. In fact, the 37,200 miles and 21,100 miles of road in Wales and Scotland respectively account for less than a quarter of the total distance of roads in Great Britain.
We don’t expect Great Britain’s road network to expand all that much over the next decade; last year, the Government’s 10-year Infrastructure Strategy outlined how public funds will focus on improving the quality of the existing road network, rather than expanding it. This will probably come as a relief to many as it’s estimated that there are more than a million potholes littering UK roads, with the Asphalt Industry Alliance claiming that it’d cost as much as £16.8 billion to restore roads in England and Wales to an ideal condition.
If you’re looking to travel the length and breadth of Britain’s roads in a shiny new car, Auto Express’ Buy a Car service is home to fantastic deals for both finance and lease customers. You can also sell your old car through our Sell My Car service, where dealers battle it out to give you the best price.
