Regional gross domestic product: January to March 2022

Gross domestic product (GDP) measures the value of goods and services produced in the UK. It estimates the size of and growth in the economy.

These are experimental statistics and should be treated with caution. The data can be volatile, and quarterly movements should normally be considered alongside the long-term trend.

Main points

Change over the shorter term

• GDP in Wales was unchanged in January to March 2022 compared with the previous quarter (October to December 2021); this compares to an increase of 0.6% in quarter 4 2021. 
• Scotland, England, and Northern Ireland all saw increases over the same time period (up 0.9%, 0.8% and 0.6% respectively).
• For the UK as a whole, GDP increased by 0.7%.
• The construction sector saw an increase of 2.2%, the service sector was unchanged and the production sector saw a decrease of 1.1%.

Change over the longer term

• GDP in Wales increased by 11.1% in January to March 2022 compared with the same quarter the previous year. GDP for the UK increased by 10.8% over the same time period.
• All four countries in the UK showed positive growth in GDP over the longer term. Wales saw the second largest increase (11.1%), while Scotland had the largest increase (12.8%).
• All regions and countries of the UK had larger annual growth in Quarter 1 2022 when compared with annual growth between Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec) 2021 and the same quarter a year earlier. It should be noted, however, that the estimates here are likely to still be reflecting effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
• The construction and services sectors showed strong growth of 13.4% and 13.6% respectively. The production sector also increased by 1.8%.

Note

This release incorporates revisions to previous estimates published on 1 September 2022 as the underlying current prices data and the year of 2020 are now aligned with the new GDP quarterly national accounts published on 30th September 2022. Estimates are no longer aligned in 2020 with Annual regional accounts as the year 2020 was provisional when published on 30 May 2022. This is the first release of the data produced with the new methods of constraining to UK GDP to incorporate GDP estimates by industry as well as region so will include revisions resulting from the new methods and the aligning to UK GDP.