Reach-owned Scottish newspaper the Sunday Mail was the only paid-for title to see any minor circulation growth in October, according to the latest public ABC figures.

The Sunday Mail’s average weekly circulation was up 0.5% month-on-month in October to 44,382.

However it still saw year-on-year decline of 16%, joining the rest of the Reach-owned national newspapers which all saw annual decline of 15-20%.

Of the rest of the publicly audited national newspapers, the Mail on Sunday saw the smallest month-on-month decline of -0.1% to 568,734 and the biggest was at Scottish title the Daily Record, down 1.6% to 46,128.

DMGT-owned newspapers Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and the i all kept their annual print circulation declines in single digits in October, as did the Financial Times.

The Daily Mail, with an average daily print circulation of 667,662 in October, and the Mail on Sunday both saw year-on-year drops of 8%.

The i was down 4% to 123,155 while the Financial Times saw a drop of 3% to 108,964 (of which 29% were bulk copies distributed for free in locations like airports and hotels).

National newspaper circulations in October 2024 (ABC) with monthly and yearly changes – this page will be updated monthly:

Read more: Widening gulf between weekday and Saturday UK newspaper sales revealed

The column for bulks refers to copies which are circulated for free at venues such as airports and hotels.

The above figures do not include the Sun, Times and Telegraph titles which have all chosen to keep their ABC circulations private since the start of 2020. The Guardian and Observer joined them in September 2021.

The last ABC figures we have for these titles are as follows:

• The Sun: 1,210,915 (March 2020)
• The Sun on Sunday: 1,013,777 (March 2020)
• The Sunday Times: 647,622 (March 2020)
• The Times: 365,880 (March 2020)
• Daily Telegraph: 317,817 (December 2019)
• Sunday Telegraph: 248,288 (December 2019)
• The Observer: 136,656 (July 2021)
• The Guardian: 105,134 (July 2021)

If these titles have fallen in line with rest of the industry their current circulations as of February 2024 would be as follows:

• The Sun: 700,000
• The Sun on Sunday: 600,000
• The Sunday Times: 322,000
• The Times: 180,000
• Daily Telegraph: 190,000
• Sunday Telegraph: 125,000
• The Observer: 80,000
• The Guardian: 60,000

2022 in focus

These charts show UK national newspaper circulation over the 12 months to March 2023.

2000-present

We have also charted the longer-term change in ABC circulation over the past 20 years across the UK press.

These charts show the extent of the print decline from The Sun reaching 3.76m in 2000 and the Sun on Sunday's launch in February 2012 with a short-lived 3.21m before dropping to just above 2m.

Meanwhile, though the Daily Mirror and Daily Mail once were competitive in print reach at around 2.3m-2.4m in 2000, the Mail now has a circulation three times the size of its former rival.

The Sunday tabloids all saw a spike in 2011 after the closure of the News of the World but few retained the readers – the Sunday People and Sunday Mirror did best at doing so, but largely lost them when the Sun on Sunday launched.

Continue reading for previous months' coverage of the UK's most popular newspapers:

September 2024

The circulation of the Financial Times was up 5% between August and September, the latest ABC figures show.

The FT had a circulation of 109,966, marking a drop of 2% compared to September 2023 - the smallest annual decline among the publicly audited national newspapers.

However the FT has the largest proportion of bulks (copies given away for free at locations like airports and hotels) which were on 31,491 or 29% of its total circulation, and non-UK copies which made up 52% of its ABC total (57,358 copies).

The next smallest annual circulation decline was at the i, down 4% to 124,075 of which 3% were bulk copies.

The biggest annual decline was at Reach tabloid the Sunday People, down 20% to an average of 50,394 weekly copies sold. The Daily Star Sunday (64,645) and Scottish title Sunday Mail (44,144) were both down 18%.

On a monthly basis, the FT was the only title to see growth although free papers Metro (951,154) and City AM (68,144) both stayed steady.

The biggest monthly drops were at the Daily Mirror (212,300), Daily Star Sunday and Sunday Mail, all down 4%.

August 2024

The Daily Star Sunday now has a smaller circulation than the free City AM for the first time since the business newspaper launched 19 years ago.

The average Daily Star Sunday weekly circulation fell by 2% month-on-month and 16% year-on-year in August to 66,994.

London-only title City AM stayed steady compared to July on 68,144 and grew by 5% compared to August last year, with an average of 68,144 on Mondays to Thursdays.

The majority of the paid-for newspapers in our monthly ABC circulation round-up saw a double-digit year-on-year drop in August, led by fellow Reach tabloid the Sunday People which was down 20% to 51,961.

The only paid-for newspaper not to fall on an annual basis was the Financial Times, which stayed steady on 104,826. Of these 31,324 are bulk copies (which are given away for free at locations like airports and hotels).

Compared to July, the Daily Record was narrowly the only paid-for title not to see a drop, staying steady on 48,472.

The Evening Standard began its transition away from being a daily newspaper at the end of July when it dropped its Monday and Friday editions. Nonetheless it dropped its distribution by only 1%, albeit 10% year-on-year, to 273,631.

July 2024

The Sunday People suffered the biggest decline in print circulation among the UK's national newspapers in July.

The weekly Reach tabloid's ABC circulation was down by 20% year-on-year and 2% month-on-month to 52,350.

The only national newspaper to see year-on-year growth in July was the Financial Times, which was up 2% to 108,070 despite seeing the joint biggest month-on-month decline of 2%.

Compared to last July, the FT's newsstand sales were down but paid subscriptions, bulk copies (which are given away for free at locations like airports and hotels) and non-UK copies were up.

Among the rest, the smallest annual decline was at the i, which was down 3% to 127,526. The i also had the biggest month-on-month growth, of 2%.

July marked the Evening Standard's final month printing five days a week as it phases out its daily edition ahead of going weekly. It dropped its Monday and Friday editions at the end of the month.

Across the month the Standard had an average print distribution of 276,885 - up 1% month-on-month but down 9% year-on-year.

June 2024

The average daily print circulation of the i is now higher than the Daily Star's for the first time in its history.

The change comes two months after the i's circulation was also higher than the Sunday Express for the first time as the DMGT-owned title's print readership has stayed relatively steady for several months.

In June the i reported an ABC print circulation of 125,545 - narrowly edging above the Daily Star on 125,525.

The i, which launched in October 2010, saw growth compared to May of 1% and and annual decline of 14%.

Meanwhile the Daily Star reported a month-on-month drop of 1% and year-on-year fall of 15%.

Pre-Covid, in the first half of March 2020, the Daily Star had an average circulation of 276,453 - at the time 28% higher than the i on 215,640.

The biggest circulation drops in June were at the Sunday People (20% down to 53,501), Daily Star Sunday (18% down to 68,003) and Sunday Mail (18% down to 46,794).

As well as the i, the Financial Times was the only paid-for newspaper to grow its circulation, up 2% month-on-month and steady year-on-year at 110,736. Although the FT's paid newsstand sales were up marginally (to 12,534) its subscription copies were down 1% (to 9,069).

Free London daily City AM upped its distribution year-on-year by 1% to 68,112 and stayed steady compared to May.

May 2024

The Evening Standard dropped its distribution by 12% in May compared to the previous year as it announced plans to end its daily publication and go weekly in print.

This was a 12% year-on-year drop for the second month running although its distribution stayed steady between April and May.

The Standard distributed an average of 275,683 copies per day in May, according to the latest ABC figures.

As recently as October 2022 the Standard was distributing more than 400,000 copies a day. It has been below 300,000 since October 2023.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic it was distributing around 800,000 copies per day.

Meanwhile, every paid-for national newspaper saw their print circulation decline in May - although it should be noted that the year-on-year comparison is affected by the boost several Sunday newspapers saw last year from the King's coronation.

Reach tabloid the Sunday People saw the biggest drop compared to May 2023, with its average circulation down by 24% to 54,150.

Also dropping by more than a fifth year-on-year were fellow Reach weeklies the Sunday Express (down 22% to 124,581) and Daily Star Sunday (down 21% to 69,200).

The only paid-for newspapers to fall by less than 10% year-on-year were the i (down 5% to 124,904) and Financial Times (down 1% to 108,824).

On a month-by-month basis, the Sunday Mail in Scotland was the only title to see growth compared to April, as its circulation was up 1% to 48,292.

The biggest month-on-month decline was of 4% at the Daily Mirror (to 225,983), Daily Record (to 49,673) and Sunday Post (to 34,581).

Free newspaper Metro kept its distribution steady both month-on-month and year-on-year while London free business newspaper City AM grew marginally year-on-year and stayed steady from April into May.

April 2024

The i's print circulation is now higher than the Sunday Express for the first time in its history, according to the latest ABC data.

In April the circulation of the i, which launched in 2010, stayed steady compared to the previous month and fell by 5% year-on-year to 126,266.

The Sunday Express fell by 2% month-on-month and 17% year-on-year to 125,990, resulting in it falling one place down our monthly table.

The biggest year-on-year print circulation decline was again at the Sunday People, down 21% to 55,526. The largest month-on-month drop was of 4% at the Daily Star Sunday, to 69,766.

The Financial Times was, as in March, the only paid-for newspaper not to see annual decline, staying steady compared to April last year. Its average circulation was 109,868 made up of 12,068 newsstand copies, 9,365 subscriptions, 31,155 bulk copies (distributed for free in locations like airports and hotels) and 57,280 copies in other countries.

Of the rest of the paid-for newspapers, the i was the only one to see single-digit decline. Its DMGT stablemates the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday each declined by 10% year-on-year to 699,240 and 586,187 respectively.

March 2024

The Mail on Sunday's average print circulation fell below 600,000 in March, according to ABC.

The Sunday newspaper's circulation fell by 1% compared to February and 10% versus March 2023, reaching 594,414.

The Mail on Sunday's circulation is now about half of where it was in October 2017 - six and a half years ago.

However, in that time there has been a notable shift in its circulation mix with subscriptions making up a greater slice of the pie: newsstand sales are down 5% to 524,545 but paid subscriptions are up 404% to 69,869.

Meanwhile in Scotland the Sunday Mail, owned by Reach, fell below a circulation of 50,000 - reaching 48,597 following a month-on-month decline of 3%. This is more than half of its pre-Covid circulation of 104,608.

Also in March, the Daily Star grew its average circulation by 3% month-on-month to 134,924 while the Daily Mirror (237,233) and Financial Times (109,181) were up 1%. Others were steady or down by up to 3%.

The ABC figures are average per issue, meaning they should not be skewed by the fact March was a longer month than February, with one extra weekend.

The biggest year-on-year decline was at the Sunday People, down 21% to 57,163, followed by the Sunday Mail and Sunday Post (35,848) each down 17%. The only paid-for title not to see decline was the Financial Times, which stayed steady compared to March last year.

The Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday's digital editions stayed steady month-on-month, with active views per issue of 88,176 and 89,639 respectively.

February 2024

The Financial Times saw the biggest month-on-month drop in print circulation among the publicly audited national newspapers in February.

The FT had an average circulation of 108,125 in February according to ABC, down 6% compared to January - although it lost just 0.4% compared to a year earlier.

Subscriptions (9,255) were down 12% month-on-month to 9,255 while newsstand sales (12,227) were down 7% to 12,227 and global circulation (55,781) was down 8% to 55,781. But bulks (free copies distributed at locations like airports and hotels) were steady on 30,862.

The FT also had a digital edition circulation of 16,403, up 5% month-on-month.

The Daily Mail digital edition had average actively-viewed copies of 88,346 in February, up 1% month-on-month and 3% year-on-year.

The Mail on Sunday’s digital edition was on 90,062, up 1% and 2% respectively.

The Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday are top of the table among the paid-for newspapers that have their ABC circulations published, with circulations of 705,311 and 600,311 respectively.

Their next rival in the public table, the Daily Mirror, is several hundred thousand behind on 234,492.

Reach tabloid the Sunday People again reported the biggest annual decline, down 22% to 57,670 - the only drop in this set of figures of more than a fifth. It was followed by sister title Daily Star Sunday, down 18% to 72,363.

Free London title City AM was the only newspaper to grow its distribution year-on-year in February, upping its print run by 1% to 68,009. Month-on-month it was up by the same percentage and was joined by fellow free title the Evening Standard, which had a circulation of 277,238. The Standard, however, was down 11% compared to the year before.

January 2024

The Sunday People was the only national newspaper to see a print circulation decline of more than a fifth in January 2024.

The Reach tabloid had an average weekly circulation of 58,831 in January - down 22% year-on-year and 3% month-on-month.

Sister Reach titles the Daily Star Sunday, Daily Star, Sunday Mail, Daily Record and Sunday Express all saw their circulations down by 15 to 17% year-on-year, as did DC Thomson's Sunday Post.

The only paid-for newspaper to stay steady year-on-year was the Financial Times, on 115,118. Its newsstand sales were down 14% but subscriptions were up 3%, bulk copies (those distributed in locations like hotels and airports) were up 1% and non-UK readership was up 4%.

The FT's actively purchased sales in the UK and Ireland averaged 24,000 with the rest of the circulation in Europe, Asia and the US.

The free Metro (953,856) and City AM (67,215) papers also kept their circulations about the same as in January 2023.

Month-on-month, the Daily Star Sunday saw the biggest decline of 8% to 73,103. The FT was up 1% as was free London paper the Evening Standard (277,238).

The Mail titles also report their digital edition readership numbers: the Daily Mail’s digital edition had an average circulation of 87,571 in January, up 1% month-on-month and 2% year-on-year. The Mail on Sunday's digital edition was up 2% month-on-month and 1% year-on-year to 89,326.

The FT published a digital edition figure of 15,594, down 6% year-on-year but up 12% month-on-month. This figure includes FT Premium and FT e-paper subscribers and customers through distributors Barnes and Noble, Media Carrier and Gold Key Media.

December 2023

December was a reasonable month for print circulation among the UK's national newspapers, with some experiencing monthly growth.

Scottish weekly the Sunday Mail saw the biggest growth compared to November, up 5% to 52,842, followed by the Financial Times (up 4% to 114,338), Daily Star Sunday (up 3% to 79,218) and the Daily Mail (up 2% to 733,577).

The Sunday Post and Daily Express also grew by up to 1% while the Daily Mirror and the i fell by less than 1%.

Decline continued across the board when compared to December 2022, however, but it was lower than usual at some titles.

Often several newspapers see their circulation fall by about a fifth year-on-year but in December the only newspaper down that much was the Sunday People (a fall of 19% to 60,470).

Behind that, the Daily Star (136,909) and Daily Record (54,379) were both down by 14%.

The smallest annual circulation decline was at the i, down 7% to 128,110.

The Telegraph, which no longer publishes its total circulation (see below), has revealed it had an average weekly subscription number of 1,035,710 in December, made up of 117,586 in print, 688,012 in digital, and 230,112 across Telegraph Wine Cellar, Telegraph Puzzles and Chelsea Magazine Company.

The Mail titles also report their digital edition readership numbers: the Daily Mail's digital edition had an average circulation of 86,744 in December (up 2% month-on-month and 5% year-on-year) while the Mail on Sunday was on 87,910 (up 1% and 3% respectively).

November 2023

The i was the only UK national newspaper to avoid month-on-month print circulation decline in November.

The DMGT-owned newspaper stayed steady, growing 0.1% compared to October to an average circulation of 128,566.

The i also saw the second-smallest year-on-year drop of 7.4%, behind only the Financial Times which fell by just 0.3% to 110,220.

[Read more: As digital subs overtake print at i, editor Oliver Duff explains why future is bright for title]

The FT's newsstand sales (12,822) and paid subscriptions (9,373) were both down but the newspaper increased its bulk copies given away at locations like airports and hotels (32,001) and global distribution (56,024).

Free London newspaper City AM also stayed steady both month-on-month and year-on-year, with an average distribution of 67,940.

The biggest month-on-month declines were at the Sunday Post (down 2.7% to 38,160), the Sunday Mirror (down 1.9% to 182,978), the Sunday Mail (down 1.9% to 52,104) and the FT (down 1.7%).

The biggest annual drops were at the Sunday People (down 20.3% to 61,570), the Sunday Post (down 18.1%) and Daily Star Sunday (down 17.4% to 76,868).

October 2023

The Financial Times saw the smallest change in its print circulation in October, according to the latest monthly analysis of UK national newspapers.

The business newspaper grew by 0.4% month-on-month and declined by 0.3% in October to an average daily circulation of 112,139.

This included a slight increase (2% month-on-month and 6% year-on-year) in bulk copies distributed for free at locations like airports and hotels. These made up 29% of the FT's circulation in October.

The i, where bulks make up 1% of its circulation, had the next smallest annual decline in October of 8% to 128,494.

No other paid-for UK national newspapers that continue to publicly report their circulation figures still distribute bulk newspapers.

The biggest year-on-year circulation declines among paid-for titles were at Reach tabloids with a 22% drop at the Sunday People to 62,143 and a 19% fall at the Daily Star Sunday to 78,051.

Free title the Evening Standard saw the biggest drop overall, with its distribution down 27% compared to October 2022 to 293,663. This is the first time its distribution has gone below 300,000 since October 2009 when it became a free newspaper.

September 2023

Many UK national newspapers reported steeper-than-usual annual print circulation declines in September due to comparisons with the previous year when the death of The Queen appeared to lead to an uptick in sales.

The Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday both saw their circulation fall by 17% year-on-year in September - up from an average decline of mostly somewhere between 10% and 13% each month in the year so far.

The biggest year-on-year decline among paid-for nationals was at the Sunday People (down 24% to 62,712) followed by sister Reach title Daily Star Sunday (down 22% to 79,198).

Meanwhile the i, also owned by Mail publisher DMG Media, saw its average circulation fall below 130,000 in September to 129,133. Its earliest available ABC figures for January 2011, three months after its launch, show it was then on 133,472.

The Financial Times was the only newspaper to avoid a month-on-month circulation decline, growing by 7% to 111,738. It also reported the smallest drop compared to September last year, down 2%.

August 2023

Annual declines in print national newspaper circulations across the board continued in August.

The biggest year-on-year drops were at the Daily Star Sunday (down 22.4% to 80,124) and the Sunday People (down 21.8% to 64,605).

The smallest annual decline was at the Financial Times, down 1% to 104,423 – of which 30,616 were bulk copies given away at locations like airports and hotels.

London business newspaper City AM did increase its free distribution by three-quarters compared to last summer, with an average of 64,729 copies distributed each Monday to Thursday in its first month of ownership by online retailer THG. It fell by 4% month-on-month.

The Daily Record was marginally the only paid-for title not to see a month-on-month drop in circulation. All others fell by up to 2% compared to July.

July 2023

Every national newspaper saw a year-on-year print circulation decline in July, according to the latest ABC figures.

The smallest annual decline was at the Financial Times, which fell by 1% to 106,038. The biggest drop was at the Sunday People, with the Reach tabloid falling by 22% to 65,460, followed by sister title the Daily Star Sunday down 20% to 80,847.

Free London newspaper the Evening Standard saw the biggest drop to its distribution overall, down 24% to 302,602. Fellow free London title, City AM, did see growth, increasing its distribution by 81%, compared to a dip last summer, to 67,600.

The FT did, however, have the biggest month-on-month decline of 4%. Three titles grew their circulations by a fraction of a percent compared to June: the Mail on Sunday, the i and City AM.

June 2023

The Sunday Mirror's print newspaper circulation fell below 200,000 for the first time in June.

In January 2000, the earliest data available on the ABC website, the Sunday Mirror had a print circulation of two million. By January 2020, just before the Covid-19 pandemic began, the paper was on 367,244.

Also in June, the Sunday People, sister title to the Sunday Mirror, saw its sales move below the free distribution of London business newspaper City AM.

City AM fell by 15% year-on-year to 67,602, staying steady month-on-month compared to May, while the Sunday People fell by 21% and 6% respectively to 66,950.

The smallest year-on-year declines were at the i and the Financial Times, which both saw their circulations fall by 5% to 130,945 and 111,014 respectively.

The biggest declines were of the Evening Standard's free distribution (down 29% year-on-year to 308,874) and the Sunday People.

Month-on-month, the FT's circulation was up 1% compared to May while Metro and City AM both kept their free distributions steady. The biggest drops were at the Sunday Express and Mail on Sunday, both down 9% to 145,543 and 637,437 respectively.

May 2023

The Sunday Express rose above the Daily Star's print circulation in May as several Sunday newspapers saw a month-on-month boost, likely as a result of souvenir coverage of King Charles III's coronation.

Charles and Camilla officially became King and Queen on Saturday 6 May, with many Sunday titles producing souvenir editions with extra pages and wraparound front covers on the following day.

The Queen's death and funeral in September similarly led to a boost in audience both in print and online.

In May, the Mail on Sunday grew by 7% month-on-month, the Sunday Express was up 6%, the Sunday Mirror by 3%, the Sunday People by 2%, and the Daily Star Sunday by 1%. All continued to fall on a year-on-year basis, however, although by a lower percentage rate than the monthly reports frequently show.

At the Mail on Sunday, paid single copies grew by 7% to 622,360 and subscriptions rose by 8% to 75,585. However at the Sunday Express the boost primarily came from newsstand sales, which were up by 6% to 150,909, whereas subscriptions, on which the title relies less, were up by only 1% to 9,182.

The boost at the Sunday Express took it above the Daily Star's circulation for the first time since January 2021 and May 2020, both anomalous months. Before May 2020, the daily title had been higher in our ranking since December 2011.

April 2023

Print circulation decline continued across the board at the UK's national newspapers in April.

The biggest drop among paid-for nationals was at the Sunday People, down 22% to 69,990. London's free Evening Standard, however, saw a greater fall of 31% to 311,216.

The smallest decline was at the FT, which dropped 2% year-on-year to an average monthly circulation of 109,637. It is the only ABC-audited newspaper to distribute a significant number of bulk free copies at locations such as airports and hotels as part of its circulation, but these fell by 9% so the smaller decline cannot be attributed to that portion of its circulation.

The only newspapers to grow by 1% between March and April were the Daily Mirror and the free City AM. The biggest month-on-month drop was of 3% at the Sunday People.

March 2023

The i reported the smallest annual print circulation decline among the UK’s national newspapers in March, according to the latest ABC figures.

The i’s circulation was down 7% in March compared to a year before, reaching 131,825. It was the only annual decrease under 10%.

The biggest decline was at the Evening Standard, where its free distribution was down by 31% year-on-year to 310,236.

The biggest paid-for drop was at the Sunday People, down by 21% to 72,091 – the only newspaper with an annual decline of more than a fifth in March.

Every newspaper publicly audited by ABC saw their circulation between February and March change by a narrow margin of between -2% (Daily Star Sunday, Sunday People, Sunday Post) and 1% (Financial Times, Daily Star).

The highest circulation paid-for print newspaper remains the Daily Mail, on 777,586 (down 11% year-on-year and 1% month-on-month). Metro, distributed for free in 50 UK cities, was on 952,424 (down 11% and 0.4% respectively).

February 2023

The Evening Standard has dropped its distribution by almost a third in a year.

The newspaper reported an average distribution of 311,485 for February, meaning it is nearing its circulation from before it went free – its final ABC report as a paid-for newspaper was 256,229 in September 2009.

December was the only month since then that it has been lower, on 310,933, than February’s total. Pre-Covid in February 2020 it was distributing an average of 787,447 copies per day.

The biggest print circulation decline of the UK’s paid-for national newspapers in February was Reach tabloid the Sunday People, which fell by 23% to 73,875. Reach told staff in January the People would begin to share most content with the Sunday Mirror, which itself was down 18% to sales of 209,197.

Fellow Reach title the Daily Express was the only other title aside from the People to fall by more than a fifth, going down by 21% to 173,372.

The smallest annual declines were at the i, which was down 8% to 132,222, and the Financial Times, down 9% to 108,562.

However the FT reported the biggest month-on-month drop of 5%.

Metro and City AM both kept their free distributions steady compared to January, and while the Daily Star Sunday was the only paid-for newspaper to see no month-on-month decline the Daily Star and Sunday Mail each fell by less than 1%.

January 2023

The Daily Mail's print circulation fell below 800,000 for the first time in January, according to the latest ABC data.

The newspaper reported an average circulation of 797,704, a dip of 12% year-on-year or 2% month-on-month. The Sun, traditionally its rival for the top of the table, is among the newspapers that no longer make their print circulations public.

In March 2020, the last time it published its ABC total, The Sun was on a circulation of 1,210,915 versus 1,132,908 for the Mail. The Mail then overtook The Sun for the first time in 42 years in May that year with a circulation of 980,000 and continues to be the UK's best selling daily.

The only newspaper to report growth in January compared to the same month last year was the Financial Times, up by 1% to 114,685, although it also saw the biggest month-on-month decline of 11% due to a decrease in non-UK circulation, bulk copies distributed in locations such as airports and hotels, and newsstand sales.

The biggest year-on-year decline was at the free Evening Standard, which reduced its distribution by 30% to 314,285, followed by the paid-for Reach tabloid Sunday People, down 23% to 75,521.

The Daily Star Sunday, Daily Express, Sunday Post, Sunday Mirror, Sunday Mail and Sunday Express all saw their circulations decline year-on-year by 20%. However all except the Daily Star Sunday and Daily Express stayed steady or grew month-on-month. All are owned by Reach, except the Sunday Post which is owned by DC Thomson.

The biggest month-on-month growth was at City AM, which stopped putting out newspapers on Fridays in January due to low commuter numbers on that day. Editor Andy Silvester said at the time that distribution on Mondays to Thursdays had almost reached pre-pandemic levels.

December 2022

Free newspapers Evening Standard and City AM suffered the biggest drops in their print distribution in December compared to the previous year.

The titles appeared to be distributing fewer copies as publishers suffer rising paper and energy costs amid continued changes to working patterns that see fewer commuters on Mondays and Fridays in particular. Subsequent to these figures, in January City AM has dropped its Friday print edition - but its editor Andy Silvester said the paper was "thriving" on the other four days of the working week.

The Evening Standard's distribution in December was down by 30% year-on-year to 310,933 - its lowest since before it went free in October 2009.

Meanwhile City AM was down 25% to 58,664 and also saw the biggest month-on-month decline, down 14% from November.

Fellow free newspaper Metro also dropped its print distribution, but by a much lesser margin: in December it was down 6% year-on-year and 1% month-on-month to 965,960.

Among the paid-for newspapers whose circulations are published by ABC, several Sunday titles published by Reach all lost more than a fifth of their circulations year-on-year: the Sunday People was down 24% to 74,601, the Daily Star Sunday was down 23% to 88,434, the Sunday Mirror was down 21% to 208,794 and the Sunday Express was also down 21% to 153,377. DC Thomson's Sunday Post in Scotland was also down 22% to 44,038.

These five titles, plus the Sunday Mail in Scotland, also posted the largest paid-for circulation declines month-on-month ranging between 6% and 3% down from November.

The smallest annual decline was at the i (down 5% to 137,039) followed by the Financial Times (down 8% to 128,794).

Two newspapers posted month-on-month growth: the Financial Times (up 17%) and the Daily Mail (up 2% to 812,106 - stopping it from dropping below 800,000 for the first time).

November 2022

Print decline across the board continued among the UK's national newspapers in November.

The smallest drop was at the i, which saw its print circulation decline by 3% year-on-year to 138,782.

The biggest was at the free Evening Standard, which dropped its distribution by 27% to 319,485. Among paid newspapers, it was Reach tabloid the Sunday People, down to to 77,300 - a 23% drop compared to November 2021.

The only newspaper not to report decline month-on-month was the Sunday Post in Scotland, which grew by 88 copies, or 0.2%, on average.

The Daily Mail remains the biggest paid-for print newspaper of those that publicly release their ABC circulations, staying just above 800,000. The free title Metro had an average distribution of 977,077 in November.

October 2022

No UK national newspapers saw print circulation growth, whether year-on-year or month-on-month, in October.

The latest ABC figures show the smallest declines among paid-for newspapers were at the i (down 3% year-on-year to 140,196 – the only single-figure annual decline) and the Financial Times (down 1% month-on-month to 112,478).

Many national newspapers saw month-on-month growth in September, likely down to appetite for souvenir editions following the death of the Queen.

The biggest drops between September and October, possibly indicating the newspapers with the biggest boost from the national mourning period, were at the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and Daily Express, which all fell by 8% month-on-month.

The biggest annual declines were at DC Thomson’s Sunday Post in Scotland and Reach tabloid the Sunday People, down 22% and 21% respectively.

The Daily Express, FT, Sunday Mail and Daily Star Sunday all saw year-on-year falls of 19%.

September 2022

A strong appetite for print newspapers and souvenir editions following the death of the Queen appears to have led to month-on-month circulation growth almost across the board at the UK's national newspapers.

But the uplift was not high enough for most to report annual growth.

Of the eight publicly audited paid-for titles that saw month-on-month growth - the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, Daily Express, Sunday Express, i and Financial Times - there was an average uplift of 4%. This growth was the same when factoring in the free distributions of Metro and the Evening Standard.

Including every newspaper in our ABC table, excluding City AM which appears to be an anomaly with its free distribution boosted by 37% following a severe slump, there was average month-on-month change of 2%.

The biggest month-on-month change was at the Financial Times, up by 8% to 113,992, followed by the Mail on Sunday (749,960) and i (147,609) which both grew by 5%.

However, annual decline continued at every newspaper except the Financial Times and the i. Although both are the only newspapers that still put bulk copies into locations like airports and hotels, making up 27% of the FT's circulation and 4% at the i, more of their annual growth was down to newsstand sales than this strategy.

The i was in fact at its highest level since December 2020, when it had a circulation of 148,927.

The biggest annual declines were at the Sunday People (down 20% to 82,275) and Sunday Post (down 19% to 48,938).

Scroll down or click here for new graphs charting the ups and downs of the UK national press in the past 20 years.

August 2022

The Financial Times saw marginal year-on-year growth in circulation in August, with every other newspaper continuing to decline.

The FT had a circulation of 105,748 in August compared to 105,213 the year before. Its newsstand sales and non-UK circulation grew although paid subscriptions and bulks (copies distributed for free at locations such as airports and hotels) were down.

Month-on-month, the only newspapers to see growth were the Daily Star Sunday, up 2% to 103,200 and the Scottish title Daily Record which was up by 1% to 69,316. Both are owned by Reach.

The Evening Standard also upped its free distribution, although by less than 1%. Its print readership in July was its lowest since before it went free in October 2009, with August the second lowest. Its year-on-year decline of 19% was one of the biggest in our table.

Fellow London free title City AM is also at its lowest distribution (36,640) since its 2005 launch. Its print edition was paused for 18 months during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Reach-owned Sunday People's circulation was down the most, by 22% to 82,597, with DC Thomson's Sunday Post down by 20% to 48,943.

July 2022

Every publicly audited UK national newspaper recorded a year-on-year decline in circulation in July.

Even the Financial Times, which has seen year-on-year growth every month since July 2021, was down by a few hundred copies compared to the year before. This was the smallest annual decline among the audited newspapers.

The Metro distributed less than one million copies for the first time since May 2021, when it trumpeted making it back over that milestone following the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The biggest year-on-year decline was a drop of 22% at the Sunday People.

Month-on-month, however, there was growth of 2% at the i largely down to an increase in paid subscriptions.

The biggest decline from June to July was at City AM, where free distribution more than halved to 37,369.

June 2022

Every publicly ABC audited UK national newspaper saw circulation decline from May to June with the exception of the i which saw growth of 0.2%.

Compared to June 2021, the Financial Times was the only paid-for newspaper to report growth, of 8% to 116,498.

Since the Covid-19 lockdowns ended the FT's circulation increases have largely been put down to the return of the distribution of free bulk copies at locations like airports and hotels. But in June a 17% year-on-year increase in bulk copies to 35,094 was also accompanied by 9% growth in paid newsstand sales to 15,612 (alongside a 4% decline in subscriptions to 9,076).

The smallest (4%) annual decline was at the i, which had a circulation of 137,964 and is the only other paid-for newspaper to still be shored up with free bulk copies - although they only account for 4% of its current total.

The biggest month-on-month decline was at the Sunday Mail in Scotland (down 5% to 66,469) while the biggest annual drop was at the Sunday People (down 23% to 85,212). Both are owned by Reach.

The free Metro was the only national newspaper other than the FT to grow year-on-year (by 3%) as it has upped its distribution this year compared to the Covid-hit 2020 and 2021.

May 2022

The Metro and Financial Times were the only national newspapers to grow their print readerships from last May to this year.

Metro had an average free distribution of 1,074,594 in May, staying steady month-on-month but growing by 17% since last year due to putting out more copies as people have returned to offices and public transport since the final Covid-19 lockdown.

The only paid-for newspapers to grow their circulations month-on-month in May were the Financial Times, up 4% to 116,747 as growth in subscriptions, non-UK sales and bulk copies distributed in locations like airports and hotels offset a drop in newsstand sales, and the Sunday Mail in Scotland, up 0.2% to 69,923. The Sunday Mail did, however, fall by 17% year-on-year.

The FT was the only paid-for paper to grow its circulation compared to May 2021, in large part because it has increased its distribution of bulk copies post-Covid from 25,361 last year to 34,661.

London's free business newspaper City AM has also continued its post-Covid growth, reaching its highest distribution level since returning in September from an 18-month hiatus.

Editor Andy Silvester told Press Gazette's Future of Media Explained podcast this month that the paper's return to pre-pandemic levels "probably proves a lot of sceptics wrong". In May City AM's average free distribution was 82,455, down 4% on February 2020 but up 1% month-on-month.

The biggest month-on-month declines were at the Daily Mirror and Daily Star, both down 4%, while the biggest annual drop was at the Sunday People, down 24%. All three are Reach titles.

April 2022

The Daily Mail and Daily Mirror both marginally grew their print circulations in April compared to March, bucking the industry's usual downward trend.

The Daily Mail was up 1% month-on-month to 879,102 while the Daily Mirror also grew by 1% to 327,341.

However both fell by 11% compared to April 2021 and both figures were still their second-lowest respectively since ABC auditing began.

The Daily Mail's digital edition had a readership of 76,315 in April.

Free newspapers Metro, Evening Standard and City AM all also saw month-on-month growth, increasing their print distributions.

After an 18-month Covid-enforced hiatus, free business newspaper City AM returned to print in September and has now upped its distribution for three months in a row. It is now at 81,713, its highest since February 2020 when it was on 85,738.

Metro remains the most-distributed newspaper in the UK, putting out 1,074,889 copies for free in April.

The Sun, Times, Telegraph and Guardian titles no longer publish their ABC print circulations, having opted to take them private and focus on other metrics - for example, online subscriptions for The Telegraph and Times.

The Financial Times saw an 8% decline month-on-month to 112,344 but grew by 12% on April last year, making it the only paid-for newspaper to grow year-on-year. This is largely because it is putting out more bulks - free copies in locations such as airports and hotels - than it did for much of the Covid-19 pandemic (now 33,849 compared to 22,487 last year) while it has also roughly tripled subscriptions in a year (to 9,776).

March 2022

The Mail on Sunday under editor David Dillon had a circulation of 748,965 in March.

Similar to its competitors, the newspaper's circulation has been in steady decline over several years. In March, it fell by 14% year-on-year and 2% compared to the month before. It is down a fifth from 952,914 two years earlier in March 2020, before the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

The Mail on Sunday is currently in the centre of a sexism row around a story reporting that Deputy Labour Leader Angela Rayner had been accused of crossing and uncrossing in the House of Commons to distract Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Dillon refused to meet Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle, saying journalists should “not take instruction from officials of the House of Commons, however august they may be”.

The Mail on Sunday's circulation remains behind the Daily Mail on 875,125 but a long way ahead of its next ABC-audited paid competitor, the Daily Mirror on 325,271.

The Sun, Times, Telegraph and Guardian titles all no longer publish their ABC-audited circulations.

The Financial Times was once again the only paid-for newspaper to see year-on-year growth, due to putting out more bulk copies in locations like airports and hotels than in March 2021. It was up 21% on the same time last year, to 121,490 - of which a third (40,958) were bulks.

However its circulation was higher in October to December last year, and its last pre-pandemic figure was 146,373 in March 2020. At that time about a fifth were bulk copies.

City AM's free distribution rose above 80,000 for the first time since it resumed printing in September after an 18-month Covid-enforced hiatus. It distributed an average of 80,440 copies in March compared to 85,738 in February 2020.

The Metro remains the most-distributed newspaper in the UK, putting out 1,073,993 copies for free in March.

February 2022

The Daily Mail's print circulation has fallen below 900,000 for the first time in more than 100 years.

In February the newspaper sold an average of 896,455 copies each day - or 767,021 on weekdays and 1,449,049 on Saturdays - following a month-on-month drop of 1% and year-on-year decline of 7%.

The Daily Mail launched in 1896 with sales of 397,215. Within its first few years it surpassed one million and, despite a brief drop in 1915 in a row with the Government over troops' munition supplies, remained above that mark until the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sister title Mail on Sunday had an average circulation of 767,756 in February, down 2% month-on-month and 10% year-on-year.

The Sun, for many years the Daily Mail's closest ABC rival, no longer publishes its circulation - but the Mail overtook the red-top for the first time in 42 years in 2020.

The most-circulated national newspaper remains the free Metro, with a distribution of 1,066,327 that was up compared to both the month and year prior.

By contrast, fellow free newspaper the Evening Standard was down 9% year-on-year to 448,043.

The biggest annual declines were at Reach's Sunday People (95,637, down 20%) and Daily Star Sunday (107,478, down 19%).

January 2022

The Daily Mail was the only paid-for national newspaper to grow its circulation from December to January.

It reported 1% growth month-on-month, while its year-on-year decline of 5% to 909,201 was the smallest among the paid-for newspapers that don't use bulk copies.

The Financial Times grew by 17% year-on-year to 113,817 while the i grew by 1% to 142,598. Excluding bulk copies given away for free at locations such as airports and hotels, the FT grew by 3% to 79,446 and the i stayed steady on 137,483.

The biggest year-on-year decline was at Reach's Daily Star Sunday, which fell by 19% to 110,133. Month-on-month, the biggest decline was at the FT, which dropped by 18%.

Metro stayed steady between December and January but reported a 72% year-on-year jump. It built back its free distribution, which was massively scaled back in the early pandemic, and crossed the 1m mark once again in May last year.

December 2021

The Daily Star’s circulation has fallen below 200,000 for the first time in its 43-year history.

The tabloid had an average daily readership of 197,998 in December, according to the latest ABC figures, following a 2% month-on-month drop and a 14% decline since a year earlier.

The figures show continuing print readership decline as the lowest the Star’s circulation had gone during the first Covid-19 lockdown was 219,275 in April 2020.

It follows Reach stablemate Sunday People’s circulation falling below 100,000 in November.

In December the Daily Star Sunday and Sunday People saw the biggest annual circulation drops of 20% and 19% respectively.

The only paid-for newspaper to grow year-on-year was the Financial Times, which has upped the number of bulk copies given away for free since last year. However it still fell 2% month-on-month with bulk copies, newsstand sales and subscriptions all down in December.

The only newspaper to see month-on-month growth was City AM, which returned to print in September and in December was distributing an average of 78,418 copies each day compared to 85,738 in February 2020.

November 2021

The first ABC figures for London freesheet City AM since it returned to print in September show distribution is down 9% since February 2020.

Meanwhile, in November the Sunday People's circulation dropped by 21% to 99,915 - the first time since ABC records began in 2000 that its average circulation was below 100,000, even during the earlier Covid-19 lockdowns.

City AM distributed an average of 77,959 copies each weekday between 8 and 28 November, compared to 85,738 in February 2020.

Chief executive Jens Torpe told Press Gazette in September he hoped to reach pre-pandemic levels of distribution within about a month of relaunching.

According to the newspaper's ABC certificate it has hugely boosted its number of distribution points from 913 in February 2020 to 3,632. The business paper struck a deal to be found in all WeWork’s London locations and new offices, and went further out into the commuter belt to compensate for changing travel patterns as many City workers stuck with flexible working.

Average pagination has gone from 28 in February 2020 to 26, with editorial content up from 70% to 72%.

Nationally-published free newspaper Metro, which continued distributing throughout the pandemic for groups like key workers who kept travelling, remains 25% down on its February 2020 distribution level with 1.05m. It re-crossed the 1m mark in May and is the most-read newspaper in the UK.

The Evening Standard, which like City AM is only distributed in London, is 44% down on its February 2020 level with a distribution of 439,445 - but chief executive Charles Yardley told Press Gazette this was a "comfortable number that’s working well". It also kept publishing throughout the pandemic, but experimented with free home delivery for the first time.

The only newspapers to record year-on-year growth in November were Metro and the Financial Times, which both grew by 37%. The FT's newsstand sales were down by a quarter but subscriptions and bulk copies distributed for free were both up.

October 2021

The FT has grown its circulation by a third in the past year, and by a quarter between September and October, largely by putting out more free bulk copies.

The newspaper reported a circulation of 138,446 in October, which includes 55,222 bulk copies distributed for free in places like airports and hotels which have more than doubled since October 2020.

The FT's newsstand sales have decreased by 29% from 20,357 to 14,490 in a year although paid subscriptions grew 191% from 3,697 to 10,764. The FT also reports sales in other countries of 57,970 within its total.

It is the FT's highest circulation since the first three weeks of March 2020, when it was on 146,373, while the trend at most paid-for newspapers has been decline throughout 2021. (The i, which is up since January, is the only other national to put out bulks).

Meanwhile Metro has settled its free distribution on 1.05m which is up 35% compared to October 2020 when some workers had begun to return to work but at a slower pace than expected.

Its free rival in London, the Evening Standard, is down 10% compared to last year on 457,542.

The Saturday edition of the Daily Mail remains the most-read newspaper with a weekly circulation of 1.47m. The weekday edition sells 784,439. Both the daily and Sunday editions saw a 9% year-on-year decline.

The biggest year-on-year decline was once again at The Sunday People, which fell by 19% to 101,597. The Daily Star Sunday was down 18% to 118,260.

September 2021

Reach's Sunday People and Sunday Post newspapers recorded the biggest year-on-year declines in circulation in September of the publicly-audited national newspapers.

Both saw their circulations decline by 19% while the Sunday Mirror, Daily Star Sunday and Sunday Mail all fell by 14%. All are owned by Reach.

The Financial Times was the only paid-for newspaper to grow its circulation year-on-year, by 7% to a total of 111,898. However its free bulk copies, distributed in locations such as airports and hotels, increased by 41% to 32,351. Although paid subscriptions grew by 130% to 9,102, newsstand copies were down by a quarter to 15,154. Some 55,291 copies are sold in other countries.

Aside from the free Metro and the FT, every other newspaper remained steady between August and September changing by between 0% and -2%.

August 2021

The i was the only national newspaper to grow its paid circulation from July to August as subscriptions growth offset declining newsstand sales.

The i's print subscriptions grew from 23,199 in July to 25,223 in August. At the same time it put out more paid multiple copies, known as bulks, in locations such as airports and hotels (rising from 4,006 to 4,620).

Its average circulation therefore grew from 143,486 to 144,570. However this was still 5% down on last August.

The August ABC figures are the first in which the Guardian and Observer are absent, having chosen to keep their circulations private as News UK and the Telegraph did last year.

The Guardian's departure from the grid comes after its circulation was overtaken by the Financial Times in June for the first time since before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Previously the audited circulation of the FT had been above that of the Guardian since 2000, the earliest available online ABC records.

The FT was again the only paid-for title to have grown year-on-year as it distributes bulk copies that were missing during the pandemic. It grew 12% year-on-year to 105,213 in August but fell by 2% from July.

The free Metro more than doubled its August 2020 figure following the end of the winter lockdown and the ramping up of its distribution to reach people increasingly venturing out again. It has now distributed an average of more than 1m copies per day for three months in a row.

July 2021

Putting on bulk copies has helped the FT to grow its circulation by nearly a quarter (24%) year-on-year while sales of The i paper have fallen by just 1% over the same period, new ABC figures for July show.

The FT sells more than 107,000 copies, of which more than 32,000 are bulks. The i, which is now part of the Daily Mail group, has a circulation of more than 143,000 copies, with some 4,000 bulks.

The free Metro's distribution was in excess of 1m in July 2021, nearly tripling its print output during the height of the pandemic.

All other newspapers audited by ABC reported a fall in year-on-year circulation. The Telegraph, Sun and Times titles are not included.

The Daily Mail has the largest paid-for circulation among the titles audited by ABC at more than 933,000. Its sister title the Mail on Sunday is behind on a little over 813,000 copies.

June 2021

Reach’s national Sunday titles continued to experienced the biggest year-on-year circulation drops in the industry in June.

The Sunday Post dropped by 16%, Daily Star Sunday was down 15%, Scottish tabloid Sunday Mail was down 14%, the Sunday People was down 13% and the Sunday Mirror by 11%. The Sunday Express was Reach’s best faring Sunday title, falling by 7%.

The best performance among paid-for newspapers was at the Financial Times which grew by 38% year-on-year and 5% month-on-month to 108,014.

As lockdown restrictions have eased the FT has put the number of bulk copies which go to locations like airports and hotels back up by 751% - from 3,534 to 30,093 – putting it on a similar level to June 2019 when 31, 057 bulk copies were distributed. The number of copies it sold in other countries was also up, although this was half 2019 levels.

No other paid-for newspapers grew month-on-month, and the i was the only other to grow year-on-year, although this could mainly be attributed to an increase in bulk distribution similar to the FT.

However the i's bulks remain, by contrast, far below 2019 levels - 50,250 in June 2019 versus 3,699 this year.

The Metro has continued putting its free distribution back up as lockdown restrictions continued to ease. It went up by 10% between May and June and 224% compared to last June, topping 1m on average.

By comparison its rival in London, the free Evening Standard, has decided to maintain its distribution at Covid levels and concentrate on online growth. It was distributing 492,406 copies on average in June.

Scroll down or click here for new graphs charting the ups and downs of the UK national press in the past 20 years – with a spotlight on how Covid-19 affected circulations in the past year.

May 2021

The Financial Times and the i were the only paid UK national newspapers to grow their circulations in May compared to last year – despite the first Covid-19 lockdown's severe impact on spring 2020 newsstand sales.

Both newspapers reported growth even when their bulk copies (those distributed for free at locations such as airports and hotels) are taken into account.

The i grew its circulation by 3% year-on-year excluding bulks to 140,721 or by 5% to 144,192 when bulks are included.

Meanwhile the FT grew by 2% to 77,218, excluding bulks, in May. Including bulks it was up 30% to 102,579.

Every other national newspaper saw an annual decline, with the smallest at the Daily Express, owned by Reach, which fell by 1% to 239,024.

May continued the trend of Reach’s Sunday titles experiencing the biggest year-on-year drops, however (scroll down or click here to see April's report).

Scotland’s Sunday Post and Sunday Mail were down 14% and 11% respectively. Nationally the Daily Star Sunday was down 12% and the Sunday Mirror and Sunday People were both down 7%.

In May last year most national newspapers began to recover after their circulations had been hit hard by the first five weeks of the Covid-19 lockdown.

Month-on-month, the FT (2%), i (1%) and the Guardian (0%) were the only paid-for titles not to see a dip. The biggest decline from April was at the Mail on Sunday (5%).

The ABC figures also demonstrated the impact of loosening Covid-19 restrictions on free newspapers as Metro and the Evening Standard increased their distributions by 190% and 9% respectively compared to May last year.

April 2021

Reach’s four Sunday titles – the Daily Star Sunday, Sunday Express, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People – were the only national titles to have a lower circulation in April than they did during the UK’s strictest Covid-19 lockdown one year earlier.

The rest of the UK’s national newspapers are back above the circulations of their worst Covid slump, which took place amid uncertainties about the future for the industry as the UK was told to stay at home at the start of the pandemic.

Despite its 7% annual decline, the Daily Star Sunday had the biggest month-on-month growth of 3%. Most paid-for titles were able to keep their April circulations similar to March, with a drop of -1% the largest nationally and of -2% at the Sunday Mail the biggest overall.

The Scottish title, which is also owned by Reach, was down year-on-year by 6% to 85,450.

Despite the declines at Reach's Sunday titles, its national dailies the Mirror and Express were up by 2% and 3% respectively compared to April last year.

The Financial Times grew by 13% year-on-year to 100,215 in April. However it has upped its number of free copies distributed at locations such as airports and hotels from 7,042 last April to 22,487 – excluding these, its circulation has decreased 5% to 77,728.

By contrast the i, the only other paper to include bulk free copies in its ABC audited circulation, was up by 7% if they are included (143,380) and 9% if they are not (140,013).

This equals the Observer, which was also up 9% compared to last April to reach 140,894 copies each week.

The i’s DMGT stablemates the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday were also both up by 4% and 5% respectively on last year. DMGT’s free title Metro has been “building back” its distribution, as editor Ted Young told Press Gazette last week, to reach an average of 805,471 per day in April. It then topped 1m on 17 May as lockdown restrictions eased.

The Evening Standard also increased its free distribution compared to last April, by 16% to 492,575. Chief executive Charles Yardley has told Press Gazette he is planning to keep numbers at around half a million going forward.

March 2021

Paid-for national newspaper circulations have fallen by almost a fifth (18%) on average since just before the first Covid-19 lockdown.

The final year-on-year comparison with pre-Covid ABC newspaper circulations shows the biggest declines have been at the i and Financial Times, which are both down by about a third to 143,204 and 100,781 respectively.

They are the only two paid-for ABC-audited titles continuing to distribute bulk copies to public locations such as airports. Excluding bulks, the FT’s circulation fell by 35% year-on-year and the i’s fell by 18%.

The smallest, and only single-digit, declines were at the Mail on Sunday and Observer which both saw their circulation fall by 9% in the past year to 867,077 and 142,277 respectively in March 2021.

ABC’s March 2020 report spanned 2 to 22 March, stopping before the first lockdown came into place – although many people began working from home and curtailing social gatherings from about a week earlier.

The Evening Standard’s free circulation is down by 29% to 494,364 compared to March last year. The newspaper’s chief executive Charles Yardley told Press Gazette this month he remains committed to print but will not raise the distribution back to pre-pandemic levels.

Free rival Metro has dropped its distribution by half to 695,444. It initially dropped by 70% in April last year and rose to a

The biggest-selling issue of a UK national newspaper remains the Daily Mail’s Saturday issue, which sold an average 1,588,164 copies each week last month compared to 1,699,891 in March last year.

February 2021

The Observer reported the smallest drop in print circulation among UK national newspapers in February – but this was still down by 9% on the year before.

The Observer, which had an average circulation of 140,920, was the only newspaper not to see a double-digit drop. The next smallest decline was the Mail on Sunday, which fell by 12% to 848,526.

Sister title the Daily Mail was the only publication to see month-on-month growth from January, up 1% to 964,825. It was 15% behind the 1,134,184 it had in February 2020 before the Covid-19 pandemic hit the UK.

However, the Daily Mail’s digital edition grew its average circulation by 4% from 94,171 in January to 98,107.

[Read more: See latest online audience data published by Pamco here]

In February free titles Metro and Evening Standard distributed 58% and 38% fewer copies respectively compared to the year before. Both are continuing to publish for key worker commuters although most people remain under a “stay at home” order, with the Standard also delivering to doorsteps in certain parts of London.

The biggest paid-for circulation drops in February were at the Financial Times (down 36%) and i (35%), the only two ABC-audited titles continuing to distribute bulk copies to public locations such as airports.

Excluding bulks, the FT was down 40% and the i was down 18% - taking it below the Daily Star’s 20% decline.

January 2021

The UK’s current coronavirus lockdown has not hit national newspaper circulations as hard as last year’s strict April restrictions did, according to new figures from ABC.

However, most titles are now again below the circulation levels to which they had begun to recover in May last year.

The Daily Mail’s print circulation has fallen to its lowest since the peak of the Covid-19 crisis in April.

The UK’s top-selling newspaper sold an average of 960,019 copies each day in January, an 18% drop year-on-year. In April it reported a circulation of 944,981, which grew to 979,836 in May.

The Mail overtook The Sun in May 2020 and Press Gazette understands it has since consolidated its lead.

Digital edition sales add a further 77,736 to the Mail's daily circulation figure, according to ABC - keeping it above 1m.

In March last year, before the first UK lockdown, the Mail was selling in excess of 1.1m copies per day.

Also below their May 2020 circulations were the Mail on Sunday, Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, Daily Express, Daily Star, Sunday Express, Daily Star on Sunday, Sunday People, and the Guardian.

Only the Observer, i and Financial Times were above their May figures from last year in January.

Several national newspapers saw bigger year-on-year drops in January than the Mail: the FT’s circulation fell by 39%, the i by 35%, the Sunday Post by 22%, the Daily Star by 21%, the Daily Express by 19% and the Daily Mirror by 19%.

The smallest year-on-year drop was at the Observer, which saw a decline of 8% to a circulation of 143,764.

The biggest month-on-month fall from December was also at the FT (down by 8% to 97,067) followed by the Daily Star Sunday, i and Guardian which were all down by 5%.

The only title to report any growth was Scottish tabloid the Sunday Mail, which was up 1% month-on-month to 88,819.

Metro and the Evening Standard, which had their free commuter distribution models hit by the Covid-19 lockdowns, were down 58% and 39% respectively year on year in January.

December 2020

The Mail on Sunday reported the smallest drop in print circulation in December – but this was still down by 9% on the year before.

It had an average circulation of 954,497 in December 2019, down to 865,439 last month. It was the only newspaper not to see a double-digit year-on-year decline, with the Observer the second smallest drop (by 10% to 147,296).

The Financial Times saw its print circulation fall by more than a third (35%) year-on-year to 105,358 – the biggest fall among the UK’s paid-for national newspapers.

However, the FT did grow by 1% month-on-month as it continues to recover from the initial Covid-19 lockdown slump common to each of the titles.

The Guardian saw the biggest month-on-month growth of 2% in December.

The biggest fall from November 2020 was at the Sunday People, down 5% to 120,429.

Wales went into lockdown on 20 December while Scotland and Northern Ireland were placed under tight restrictions from Boxing Day and much of London and the south east of England entered strict Tier 4 restrictions days before Christmas.

Metro and the Evening Standard, which had their free commuter distribution models hit by the Covid-19 lockdowns, were still 45% and 38% down respectively on the previous year’s print readership.

November 2020

Several national newsbrands managed a month on month increase in print circulation in November, with The Observer seeing the biggest rise at 4%.

The Observer's print circulation rose from 145,680 to 152,129 having remained steady in the previous month.

The Sunday Express, the Sunday People and the Guardian also saw print sales rise 1%, after seeing declines between September and October

The Observer saw the smallest year-on-year decline at 5%. It was the only title not to report a double-digit year-on-year fall.

The Financial Times had the biggest paid-for decline (36% to 104,024) followed by the i (31% to 151,888).

Metro and the Evening Standard, which had their free commuter distribution models hit by the Covid-19 lockdowns, were still 46% and 40% down on the previous year's print readership.

October 2020

The Observer was the only national print newspaper brand not to see a year on year print circulation decline in October.

The Observer's print readership remained steady on 145,680 as every other title except the Mail on Sunday, which fell by 9%, reported a double-digit year-on-year decline.

The Financial Times had the biggest paid-for decline (39% to 105,592) followed by the i (31% to 151,888).

Metro and the Evening Standard, which had their free commuter distribution models hit by the Covid-19 lockdowns, were still 45% and 39% down on the previous year's print readership - although Metro managed to add a fifth back onto its output in October.

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Circulation at the UK’s regional daily newspapers was down by an average of 17% year-on-year in the first half of 2024.

This was a slower rate of decline than in the same period a year ago, when the regional dailies audited by ABC were down by an average 20%. And it is slightly higher than in the first half of 2022 (the same period two years ago), when we calculated a 16% fall across the daily market.

Excluding digital editions, the average print circulation decline in the first half of this year was 16%.

Digital editions were steady, going from an average of 11,699 (all paid subscriptions) across ten newspapers in the first half of 2023, to 11,659 this year.

These figures compare with an average monthly audience growth of 33% year-on-year among the top 78 regional news websites in the UK in July, according to Ipsos iris data, as well as a 12% growth in monthly audience minutes.

[Update: UK local news websites see audience bounceback in July 2024]

The newspapers at the top of the table all stayed in the same order. The Belfast-based Irish News remained on top with an average daily circulation of 22,782, down 9% compared to H1 2023, after overtaking the Aberdeen Press & Journal in 2023.

All of the 53 regional daily newspapers included in ABC‘s report reported year-on-year decline. But The Irish News was one of just three to report a single-digit drop. The Southampton Southern Daily Echo (5,767) and Dorset Echo (4,045) were also down by 9%.

The Press & Journal in second place reported an average circulation of 21,765 after a 12% year-on-year drop.

The highest newspaper in the table to drop places was the Manchester Evening News, down from 12th place in H1 2023 to 14th place with a circulation of 6,519. The MEN stopped distributing free copies in 2022 so these were not included in last year or this year’s numbers.

The Yorkshire Post fell below a circulation of 10,000 for the first time, to 9,461 (down 11%).

Only one newspaper saw a decline of more than 30% in the period: the smallest title in the list, the Paisley Daily Express in Scotland, was down 35% to an average 1,233 copies per day.

A further 14 of the daily newspapers saw circulation decline of at least a fifth. The second-highest was the Hull Daily Mail, with a drop of 28% to 4,904.

Thirty, or 57%, of the 53 newspapers included in ABC’s regional daily report for the first half of the year had a circulation below 5,000.

Not all regional daily newspapers are included in the ABC figures, for example the Belfast Telegraph is omitted.

In print, newsstand sales among the dailies audited by ABC were down by 16% while paid subscriptions were down by 13%.

This is how the digital circulations (all paid subscriptions) stack up for the ten daily newspapers that also report them to ABC:

Several Scottish daily newspapers report their circulations each month: see their latest numbers here.

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The Daily Mail’s Saturday edition today sells almost double the number of copies than it does on the average weekday.

New Press Gazette analysis of ABC data shows the extent to which Saturday national newspaper sales have widened their gap over Monday to Friday sales over the past decade.

The Daily Mail‘s average Monday to Friday circulation was 1.5 million in February 2014 and its Saturday circulation was 58% higher on 2.4 million.

Nowadays the Mail’s Saturday circulation is 96% higher than its weekday paper, on 1.2 million and 607,914 respectively last month.

The Mail’s is the second widest gap: FT Weekend, published on a Saturday, had an average UK and Ireland circulation of 91,917 last month – 106% higher than the average 44,429 weekday circulation.

In 2014 the FT Weekend’s circulation was on 102,897 – 53% higher than its weekday edition.

The FT's average circulation in Press Gazette's monthly ABC table appears much higher (108,125 in February) because that figure includes global readership.

However ABC only shows the weekday versus weekend split for the UK and Ireland circulation of each newspaper so we have used this total only throughout this analysis.

All newspapers are more widely read on Saturdays than weekdays

In 2014 the Saturday editions at the Daily Star and the i were smaller than their weekday editions.

However today all seven of the national newspapers with publicly available ABC data (also including the Daily Mirror, Daily Express and Daily Record) are more widely read on a Saturday.

The i's Saturday circulation has gone from being 16% lower than its weekday edition in 2014 to being 49% higher. It relaunched as i weekend in 2017 and Saturday became its strongest day of the week a year later.

i weekend now sells 173,607 copies on average versus 116,481 for the weekday edition.

The Daily Star's Saturday edition was 11% lower than its weekday sales in 2014 but is now 3% higher (135,103 on Saturdays versus 130,932).

Sundays versus Saturdays newspaper circulation

The FT and i do not publish a Sunday edition, each instead selling the Saturday paper as one bumper weekend edition.

Similar to its weekday versus Saturday trend, the Daily Mail Saturday circulation is 99% higher than the Mail on Sunday. This gap has increased from 58% in 2014.

The Express has a smaller gap, with the Saturday circulation 55% higher than the Sunday Express. In 2014 the difference was 33%.

Saturday editions see slower rate of circulation decline

At all seven of the newspapers in our dataset, the Saturday editions have seen a slower rate of circulation decline than the weekdays - even if only just.

The narrowest gap was at the Daily Mirror, where the average weekday circulation has dropped by 75% in ten years and the average Saturday circulation is down 74%.

The biggest difference was at the i, where i weekend has declined 33% and the weekday newspaper has dropped by 62%.

The smallest decline on both weekdays and Saturdays was at the Financial Times, down 34% and 10% respectively over the past decade.

Press Gazette has previously reported that between the start of 2023 and 2024, average national newspaper weekday cover prices increased by 15%, compared to 12% rises for Saturday and Sunday editions.

What about the Guardian, Times, Sun and Telegraph?

Up-to-date comparisons are not available for The Guardian, The Times, The Sun and The Telegraph as they no longer make their circulation figures public through ABC.

However, this is how they stood at the point they each last published their data:

The Guardian traditionally skewed more towards Saturdays, with circulation 120% higher than on weekdays in February 2014 and 147% higher in July 2021, the most recent data available.

The Times bucked the trend of decline, with its Saturday circulation increasing by 4% between February 2014 and March 2020 and its weekday circulation falling by just 4%.

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The circulation of UK consumer magazines continued to decline in 2023, falling 12.4% when compared with the same ABC data for 2022.

The combined average monthly circulations of the magazines audited by ABC stood at 26.8 million in 2021, 24 million in 2022 and 21 million in 2023.

[Click here for 2022’s magazine ABCs]

However, more publications saw growth in 2023 than in 2022. In 2022 only 31 print or digital magazines saw circulations rise, compared with 53 in 2023.

Last year saw a huge increase in titles registering paid-for circulation via “all you can read” bundle subscription services such as Readly (see full breakdown of digital magazine ABC figures for 2023).

Two titles also opted into ABC auditing in 2023: Asda Magazine and the Jewish Chronicle.

Some publications report their circulation figures to ABC at the end of each half, rather than each year. In those cases Press Gazette has averaged the circulation figures provided for each half when including them in the charts below.

With an average print circulation of one million per month, Asda Magazine enters the chart as the second highest distribution of any UK mag – behind only Tesco Magazine, another free supermarket publication.

The most-circulated paid publication was the digital edition of The Economist, which distributed an average of 991,887 copies per month globally. Notably, that represents a 2.4% decline on last year, when its digital circulation was above one million.

Several BBC-branded magazines saw growth in the year, including BBC Top Gear Magazine (up 37%), BBC Sky at Night (up 44%), BBC Wildlife (up 70%) and BBC Science Focus, the average monthly circulation of which grew 88% to 132,360. (None of those magazines are run by the BBC itself.)

The Economist’s Espresso daily digital edition also grew notably, up 74% on the second half of 2022 to 21,775 in the same period in 2023. Espresso is one of the titles that reports its circulation to ABC twice a year: its average circulation across the whole of 2023 was 19,059.

Reach’s OK! and New! magazines meanwhile were among the biggest fallers in the year, both shedding more than a quarter of their circulation.

Other faster-than-average declines came at the New Scientist‘s digital edition (down 14% to 30,483), The Week‘s print edition (down 14.6% to 102,463) and Harper’s Bazaar (down 16.7% to 66,607).

Sajeeda Merali, the chief executive of the Professional Publishers Association (PPA), responded to the results with a blog post titled “Reasons to be cheerful: a sector defined by confidence, optimism and opportunity”, in which she argued that subscriptions, events and digital growth offer the way forward for publishers as print circulations dwindle.

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Circulation auditing company ABC is certifying a scheme that ensures publications adhere to high journalistic standards.

The Journalism Trust Initiative (JTI) was launched by press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which is now working with ABC in the UK.

JTI development manager Chloe Fiodiere said the initiative is in response to “an urgent need to find structural solutions to restore trust [in news media] and create favourable conditions for it to recover”.

She added: “Journalism is undergoing direct competition from all sorts of content that proliferates in the digital space… resulting in declining audiences, mistrust of the media, and falling revenues.” The JTI aims to “provide a transparent mechanism and provide tangible rewards for ethical and professional journalism” by assessing compliance with industry standards.

Fiodiere described how the journalistic standards the JTI monitors were set: “RSF gathered 130 experts and organisations – including journalists, institutions, regulatory bodies, publishers, and new technology players – over the course of a year and a half. This process was carried out under the aegis of the European Committee for Standardisation. The JTI integrates guarantees on the basic rules of journalism: on editorial independence, journalistic ethics and methodology.”

The process has three stages: self-assessment, public disclosure – where transparency reports are published – and certification.

Media outlets can create free accounts to answer the 130 questions that make up the criteria for certification.

Based on international standards, the questions include information on ownership transparency, distribution channels, sources of revenue, data collection, editorial guidelines, accuracy and correction policies, responsibility for content provided by the public, internal and external accountability, and staff training.

Upon completion, an outlet can see how far it conforms to the international standard and opt for an external audit to verify that “good practices not only exist on paper but are also implemented in the newsroom”. Outlets that comply with JTI standards then receive certification.

Certification is valid for two years and ABC will act as an independent auditor for platforms looking to certify.

Simon Redlich, ABC’s CEO, described his company as having “for many years provided auditing data to the standards that we set for circulation data, not just in print, but in any of the ways publishers get their content to their consumers”.

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Local daily newspaper sales in the UK fell by an average of 19% year-on-year in the second half of 2022 according to the latest figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC).

Non-dailies audited by ABC meanwhile saw their January to December circulations decline by an average of 13% compared to the same period in 2021, according to Press Gazette’s analysis.

Comment: Regional press ABCs: Print decline is funding digital future]

These overall decline figures are missing some titles, however, so do not give a complete picture. We have calculated these declines on the basis of total average circulation for titles that reported data in both 2021 and 2022.

Newsquest pulled most of its titles from ABC in 2019 but returned several titles to the system last year. It published data for 23 daily titles for 2022, compared to six in 2021. This includes a few titles such as The Ipswich Star and Norwich Eastern Daily Press that came into Newsquest’s fold following its acquisition of Archant in March 2022 which are included in our calculation. Many of the publisher’s titles do not, however, have comparable data for 2021 so have been excluded from our headline totals.

The figures take into account paid print copies, paid print subscriptions and where relevant free copies and digital editions. The small number of digital subscriptions reported are also included as per the ABC headline figures.

Every daily title that submitted comparable data saw a year-on-year decline in circulation in the last six months of 2022 compared to the same period in 2021.

​​The Irish News (average circulation of 25,398) reported the smallest decline at 8%. This made it the only one of the 41 daily titles that reported their circulations to ABC in both 2021 and 2022 not to see a double-digit fall.

It was followed by National World’s The Scotsman (average circulation of 8,762, down 11%) and Aberdeen’s Press & Journal (average circulation of 26,746, down 12%) published by DC Thomson.

Hardest hit was the Manchester Evening News, which had been the only paper to buck the trend of decline in 2021. The title’s circulation fell 44% from 20,993 to 11,726, driven by a large fall in the number of free copies distributed from 9,029 on average in the second half of 2021 to 2,315 in 2022. Reach made the decision to end free copies of the newspaper in August last year.

Also particularly hard-hit were four other Reach titles. The Teesside Gazette’s circulation was down 27% from 9,104 to 6,674. Down by 27% each were Plymouth’s The Herald (circulation of 7,234) and Coventry Telegraph (4,488) while Hull Daily Mail was down 28% from 11,621 to 8,393.

The biggest daily by readership was Aberdeen’s Press & Journal (average circulation of 26,746, down 12%). Second-most read was Irish News, while third was DC Thomson’s The Courier’s (20,682 (down 13%).

While print circulations have been hard hit, some publishers have seen digital traffic boosts and a small number are also starting to see success with online paywalls in local news (scroll down to find out more on digital audience figures).

While the number of print titles reporting their data to ABC has declined in recent years, this year saw an uptick in reports. Fifty-five dailies shared their circulation figures with ABC in this latest round, compared to 41 in 2021, while 415 non-dailies reported, also up on recent years, with Newsquest again driving the bulk of resumed reports this year.

Among non-dailies, Newsquest’s mostly free Hunts Post (down 62% from 35,345 to 21,791) and its Herts Advertiser (down 65% from 28,941 to 17,500) saw the biggest drops. They were among five non-daily papers that saw circulation declines of more than 50%, while a further 97 saw drops of at least 25%.

At the other end of the table, Newsquest free titles Stevenage Comet (circulation up 46% to 37,233) and North London’s Ham and High Express (up 39% to 6,433) saw the biggest circulation gains.

The other titles to make significant gains were also free titles. Love Hackney (published by the London Borough of Hackney) saw circulation up 9% to 100,756, fellow borough-published title Waltham Forest News saw its circulation up 8% to 112,290, and Newsquest’s Newham Recorder was up 4% to 6,025 copies.

Iliffe’s Stratford Herald (up 1% to 5,836) was the only largely paid-for title to see a circulation boost.

The biggest non-dailies by circulation in 2022 were the two London borough-published titles Waltham Forest News and Love Hackney, which knocked last year’s largest title, Chronicle Week (circulation of 93,645), to third position.

Online audience growth

Online audience data from Ipsos iris suggests that while print readership is falling, some brands are seeing growth in their online audiences. Of the 169 UK regional digital brands for which Ipsos iris has data for both January 2022 and January 2023, 91 saw an increase in audience size.

Among the brands with the biggest growth in audience year-on-year were National World’s Sussex World. The site, which launched in March last year bringing together 16 former local news sites, saw its audience increase 874% from 110,869 to 1.1 million visitors. Newsquest’s Northern Echo was up 100% to 1,817,420, while the York Press was up 95% year-on-year to 952,935.

The UK's biggest commercial publisher Reach owns the three UK regional brands with the biggest digital reach. Topping the list is Manchester Evening News (audience of 16.2 million in January 2023). It was followed by Liverpool Echo (10.7 million) and Birmingham Live (10.4 million).

When it comes to online engagement, 83 of the brands with data for both January 2022 and 2023 saw an increase in total minutes spent with their digital content.

Among the better-known gainers were the Yorkshire Evening Post (up 43% year-on-year as users spent 9.2 million minutes with its content), Sheffield Star (up 50% to 8.2 million minutes) and the Belfast Telegraph (up 71% to 7.7 million minutes). Many large names however saw year-on-year falls in engagement, among them Manchester Evening News, Liverpool Echo and Wales Online despite audience gains.

Ipsos’ brand group data for regional news brands is based only on the websites, apps and distributed content considered to be news, so brand group total audience may differ from figures we have shared for these regional titles in other reports as some brands may publish websites Ipsos does not categorise under "newspapers".

While paywalls are still uncommon in UK local news, a number of publishers have opted to put them in place. Newsquest rolled out digital paywalls and subscriptions for 70 of its larger sites in spring 2020, among them Brighton Argus and Oxford Mail. The UK regional publishing giant reported last year that it had surpassed 50,000 paid online readers.

DC Thomson meanwhile counts 25,000 digital subscribers across its local titles, and Mediahuis Ireland and Highland News and Media also recently shared with Press Gazette how they were rolling out digital paywalls for their UK local news coverage.

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Digital consumer magazines saw a circulation increase of 22% in 2022, according to new ABC data.

The combined average circulation of titles reporting digital data separately to ABC increased from 2.5 million in 2021 to 3.1 million in 2022.

Three-quarters (75%) of 2022 digital copies were actively purchased – i.e. excluding free, membership and multiple copies.

In the UK and Irish digital markets, circulation was up 45% from 1.1 million in 2021 to 1.6 million last year.

• Full breakdown of print and digital magazine ABCs for 2022
• Magazine ABCs 2022: Private Eye leads UK news mags with best sales since 2017
• Magazine ABCs 2022: Slimming World only women’s interest title to see print growth

Titles can choose to audit their digital and print editions separately or provide ABC with a combined print and digital number. This analysis includes only titles that report digital data separately. Where there is a separate digital ABC certificate the figures are not de-duped (meaning they include bundled subscriptions where readers have more than one format included in the price).

Of the 138 titles that reported global digital data to ABC in both 2021 and 2022, 46 saw their circulation increase year-on-year, two remained unchanged, while 90 recorded a fall.

The overall increase in digital circulation in 2022 was driven by first time reports in 2022 for 13 titles as well as big growth for some names. Among titles reporting in 2022 for the first time was The Economist’s relaunched daily briefing app Espresso (12,546 global digital sales) and beauty brand Look Fantastic’s digital title The Highlight (146,599).

Among the biggest year-on-year growers were Immediate Media’s BBC Science Focus, which increased digital circulation 131% from 17,686 to 40,892, and Bauer’s Car magazine which grew by 56% from 21,317 to 33,222.

At the other end, titles with the biggest digital falls included Hearst-owned Women’s Health (down 34% to 15,188), Runner’s World (down 30% to 7,381) and Real Homes (down 23% to 10,476).

While most magazines report data once a year for the full calendar year, for titles that report more than once per year we have taken their latest ABC report and made like-for-like comparisons with the same period in 2021.

Overall, the biggest title by digital circulation size by a large margin in 2022 was the Economist which topped the one million mark to sell 1,012,592 digital editions globally (a 2% increase year-on-year). Its UK/ROI sales represent a relatively small proportion of its overall footprint (158,913 copies or 16% of global sales).

Among titles that are mostly actively purchased as opposed to given away for free, the next largest in terms of digital circulation were BBC Science Focus (40,892), Time Magazine’s EMEA edition (40,431) and Hello! (36,142).

Overall, the news and current affairs sector fared well, taking six of the top ten spots among actively purchased digital magazines. New Scientist (worldwide circulation of 35,627 excluding Australasia and US/Canada which are reported separately), The Spectator (34,164 excluding Australia), Time Magazine’s APAC edition (30,088) and Money Week (26,400) were all in the top ten.

Looking at year-on-year changes on a sector-by-sector basis, men’s lifestyle (where combined average circulation was up 17% year-on-year), countryside and country (up 9%) and motoring and motorcycling (up 5%) fared the best.

Magazine digital circulation 2022: Selected sector by sector round-up and full table of all titles below

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Slimming World was the only women’s interest magazine to see its print circulation grow in the UK and Ireland in 2022, according to the latest ABC figures.

The magazine is one of the highest-circulation titles in the sector, having grown its UK/ROI print circulation 10% year-on-year to 305,616.

• Full breakdown of print and digital magazine ABCs for 2022
• Magazine ABCs 2022: Digital edition circulation up by 22%
• Magazine ABCs 2022: Private Eye leads UK news mags with best sales since 2017

The highest-circulation title was Hearst’s Good Housekeeping, which reported an average print circulation per issue of 356,603 worldwide and 349,107 in the UK/ROI.

Across the women's interest segments recorded by ABC - women's weeklies, women's general interest, slimming, health and beauty, lifestyle and fashion and home - six titles recorded year-on-year UK/ROI digital circulation growth. Those were:

• House & Garden (up 449% to 4,096)
• World of Interiors (up 358% to 1,305)
• Vogue (up 92% to 3,772)
• Harper's Bazaar (up 10% to 4,424)
• Hello! (up 7% to 20,130)
• Woman & Home (up 6% to 10,981).

New entrant The Highlight - Lookfantastic, a free digital-only magazine owned by online retailer The Hut, reported an average digital distribution of 146,599 in the second half of the year, up 39% compared to January to June.

Hearst UK titles Harper's Bazaar, Elle and Best recorded some of the biggest UK/ROI print declines across the segment, seeing falls respectively of 27% (to 60,983), 29% (to 66,272) and 27% (to 45,113).

Double-digit print falls were common however, seen also at Women's Health (down 20% to 56,997), Closer (down 17% to 73,117) and Bella (down 15% to 105,225). Less dramatic declines were recorded at Vogue (down 4% to 155,068), House & Garden (down 9% to 81,821) and Good Housekeeping (down 8% to 349,107).

Tatler (64,766), Vanity Fair (44,354) and Hello! (116,847) all held steady with no year-on-year print circulation change at all.

Some 17 titles across the sector recorded 100% actively purchased print copies, although two of those (Closer and The People's Friend) did distribute some free copies. Distributing more free copies were Elle (32% actively purchased), Harper's Bazaar (33%), Tatler (40%) and Vanity Fair (45%).

[Read more: US fashion sector proving resilient so far for Future]

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Private Eye was the biggest-selling and biggest-growing print news and current affairs magazine in the UK and Ireland in 2022 according to new ABC figures.

The satirical magazine, which is available only in print, grew its circulation 5% year-on-year to an average of 238,322 (its highest total since 2017).

Last year Private Eye was the fourth-fastest growing print news magazine in the ABCs, coming in behind The Oldie, London Review of Books and The Spectator.

This year, though, it was one of only two publishers to record print growth, the other being the Alan Rusbridger-helmed Prospect magazine which was up by 2% to 18,510. Former Guardian editor Rusbridger’s first issue as editor was published in December 2021.

• Full breakdown of print and digital magazine ABCs for 2022
• Magazine ABCs 2022: Digital edition circulation up by 22%
• Magazine ABCs 2022: Slimming World only women’s interest title to see print growth

The Spectator saw a 16% increase in its digital UK/ROI circulation, and was the only title on this list to have increased it. Previously the biggest-growing print title on this list, this year it shed 9% of its UK/ROI print subscribers. The title is now the fifth-highest circulation publication on the list in the UK/ROI, with an average weekly readership of 60,298.

The highest print circulation overall remained The Economist, which boasts global circulation of 561,605. In the UK and ROI, that figure stood at 95,452, a 15% year-on-year decline.

Nonetheless, the magazine boasts by far the highest digital circulation of any publication on this list, having risen 2% to above one million for the first time. The publisher said in June last year it had hit 1.2 million subscribers.

The title with the next highest digital circulation, Time magazine, recorded a figure of 40,431.

The Week magazine scored the second highest UK/ROI print circulation, with 115,624 (a 5% year-on-year decline). Its sister title The Week Junior came fourth on the same list, declining 9% year-on-year to 80,197. The fastest decline on the list, meanwhile, was at The Week Junior Science and Nature, which dropped 16% to an average weekly circulation of 23,437.

Press Gazette’s sister title The New Statesman withdrew from ABC last year but did release unaudited figures on Tuesday saying its paid circulation has grown by more than 27% in the past year to 43,230, with a total average circulation (including free distribution) of 47,320 per issue. That circulation, which the publication said was its highest in 40 years, would put it between the New Scientist and The Oldie on the list below.

New Statesman marketing director Sam Fairburn said the title had “created consistent subscription growth” by developing its digital products alongside building up “enterprise subscriptions and the growth of our podcasts and app audiences”.

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The UK’s consumer magazines saw a circulation decline of 11% in 2022, according to the latest ABC data.

Combined average circulation globally fell to 24 million in 2022 across print and digital, compared to 26.8 million in 2021.

In just the UK and Irish markets, taking out wider global sales, the overall picture was slightly better with circulation down by 7% to 21.2 million.

• Magazine ABCs 2022: Digital edition circulation up by 22%
• Magazine ABCs 2022: Private Eye leads UK news mags with best sales since 2017
• Magazine ABCs 2022: Slimming World only women’s interest title to see print growth

Scroll down or click here for full tables of ABC magazine circulation data for 2022.

Most magazines report data once annually for the full calendar year, but for titles that report more regularly – for example every six months – we have taken their latest ABC report and made like-for-like comparisons with the same period in 2021.

Among actively purchased magazines – i.e. when free, membership and multiple copies are excluded – total global circulation was down 15% (13.4 million in 2022 compared to 15.3 million in 2021).

For the approximately 220 UK consumer magazine titles audited by ABC, 183 saw smaller global circulations in 2022 compared to 2021 and 31 print and digital titles grew.

Among the digital winners titles were the online versions of Kelsey Media’s consumer gadgets magazine Stuff (up 22% to reach an average digital circulation of 16,468) and Motor Sport (up 18% to 10,436).

Among the print winners meanwhile were Private Eye which saw UK/ROI sales up 5% to 238,322, Future-owned football magazine Four Four Two (up 6% to 28,043) and National Geographic (up 2% to 48,098).

At the other end, women’s fashion and lifestyle stalwart Elle UK saw one of the biggest falls with a drop of 27% to 72,369 in the UK/ROI. Fashion title Harper’s Bazaar also saw its circulation badly hit – down 25% to 65,407 in UK/ROI sales. Both are owned by Hearst UK.

Overall, global print circulation was down 14% falling to 20.9 million in 2022 compared to 24.3 million in 2021. Circulation of just actively purchased print copies was down by a similar proportion (15%), having fallen to 11.1 million last year.

Bauer’s TV Choice was the top selling print magazine with average sales of 972,869 per issue.

The Economist led the pack on global digital edition sales on one million – almost twice that of its print edition (561,605).

The ABC-audited online magazine market remains smaller than its print sector. Combined global digital circulation in 2022 was 3.1 million.

Titles can choose to audit their digital and print edition separately (as noted in the tables below) or provide ABC with a combined print and digital number. Where there is a separate digital ABC certificate the figures are not de-duped (meaning they include bundled subscriptions where readers have more than one format included in the price).

By sector, women’s weeklies were hard hit with no title gaining on its 2021 sales. Worst-hit was Hearst title Best which saw average UK/ROI sales down 27% year on year to 48,593, while Reach’s celebrity title New! was down 22% to 58,287.

Bauer’s Take a Break was the UK’s best-selling women’s weekly magazine, with 300,390 copies circulated per issue, although it still recorded a year-on-year fall in circulation (down 8%).

Unlike 2021, where some sectors such as gardening were less hard-hit in the UK, sectors generally fared badly across the board in 2022.

Overall, fewer titles submitted data to ABC in 2022 – 240 globally, compared to 261 in 2021. Print and digital certificates are counted separately here where relevant.

There were eight titles that reported for the first time in 2022. Among the new launches was Immediate Media’s new children’s magazine Lego Minecraft which achieved an average circulation of 46,083 in its first year.

Bauer Media, publisher of titles including TV Choice, Take A Break and Empire, said it was the biggest-selling magazine publisher circulating more than 111 million copies in 2022, almost a third of audited magazines sold in the UK during 2022.

Chris Duncan, Bauer Media’s chief executive of UK publishing, said: “These set of results demonstrate the robust performance of our portfolio of brands despite the challenging market conditions that our industry faced in 2022. We’ve seen newsstand sales perform solidly in most areas and this has given us a foundation to strengthen our digital and international offerings.

“We will continue to invest in our content as well as our editorial and membership platforms in 2023 and allow the brilliant talent across our business to shine. We also look forward to working collaboratively with our partners and advertisers to deliver consistent results for their businesses through these challenging times. Finally, thanks as ever to the millions of readers who made these results possible.”

Radio Times, BBC Gardeners’ World and BBC Good Food publisher Immediate Media said it had a combined ABC-audited print and digital circulation of 2.1 million, with its print circulation down 10% year-on-year to two million and its digital circulation, where audited, up 9% to 178,803.

It said it was the leading magazine publisher for subscriptions, with 997,948 across print and digital, although this was down 9% year-on-year.

Chief revenue officer Duncan Tickell said: “Despite the difficult economic climate, Immediate’s trusted, quality brands continue to entertain and engage large audiences and maintain their market leading positions whilst growing reach across more platforms than ever before.

“Our subscriptions business continues to perform strongly across print and digital editions, complemented by a fast growing, premium apps business in our food, gardening and history portfolios.”

UK magazine circulation 2022: Sector by sector round-up

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