Methodology & Data Policy
Every figure we publish is traceable. This page explains where our data comes from, how averages are calculated, what the numbers do and don't cover, and the terms for using them.
Where the data comes from
Our figures combine two sources, and we say which is which:
- Up to June 2026: the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero weekly road fuel price statistics, the official UK series. This gives our long-run baseline from January 2020.
- From July 2026: our own daily collection, built from prices fuel retailers publish under the CMA open fuel price scheme, introduced after the Competition and Markets Authority's road fuel market study. We track around 8,000 forecourts across all four UK nations.
July 2026 is the crossover month: both methods exist for it, and where we have compared them they differ by around 0.5p a litre. If you compare a 2021 figure with a 2026 one, that footnote is worth carrying.
How the averages are calculated
Averages are the unweighted mean of the price at each forecourt. A site is one observation regardless of how much fuel it sells, so our figures describe the market a driver faces, not the volume actually sold.
Weekly editions are a snapshot of the week, built from that week's collected prices across the forecourts reporting a usable figure. Monthly editions before July 2026 are the mean of the official weekly readings in the month (four or five readings); from July 2026 they are the mean of one reading per day. Each edition states its reading count and sampling.
Months with fewer than three readings are omitted rather than published as a thin average. A month still in progress is published marked provisional and is final when the month closes.
Regional figures
Regional averages come from our own weekly regional snapshots, which begin in late July 2026. A month's regional figure is the mean of its weekly snapshots, and we require at least two snapshots before publishing one at all - a single snapshot taken in the last days of a month does not describe that month. Months before late July 2026 are national only, and we say so rather than estimating.
Limitations we carry
- Unweighted means describe the market, not sales volumes - a small rural site counts as much as a busy motorway forecourt.
- Coverage depends on retailers publishing under the CMA scheme; the count of reporting forecourts is stated on every edition.
- The long-run baseline before July 2026 is the official series, not our own collection - stated on every chart and download that mixes the two.
Using and citing our data
All figures are free to use in articles, research and reporting. We ask only that you credit findpetrol.co.uk and link to the edition you quote, so readers can see the current figures and the method behind them.
Suggested citation
UK Fuel Price Index, [month year] - findpetrol.co.uk Research. findpetrol.co.uk/uk-fuel-price-index
Underlying price data is published under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Every edition is downloadable as PDF, CSV and chart (SVG).
Data enquiries
If you need a figure we don't publish, a regional or time-series cut for an article or a study, contact the team. We can usually turn data requests around quickly, and everything we can share, we share.