UK Parking Statistics
8,009 car parks · 1,314 towns · data compiled 31 August 2026
CarparkShark models busyness for 8,009 car parks across 1,314 UK towns and cities, built on car park data from OpenStreetMap contributors. This page is the national summary of that dataset: how many car parks there are, how big they are, what share charge for parking, and when they are busiest. Every figure below is generated from the same data the individual car park pages use, so it changes when the dataset does.
When are UK car parks busiest?
The busiest hour of the week is 12pm on Saturday, when the average car park in CarparkShark's model is about 62% full. The busy window runs roughly 10am–3pm. Taken across all 24 hours, though, Friday is the busiest day (23.1% average occupancy) and Sunday the quietest (9.3%).
Those two answers differ because the country's car parks are not one thing. Town-centre and supermarket car parks spike sharply at Saturday lunchtime and are close to empty by early evening. Station, park-and-ride and hospital car parks fill on weekday mornings and stay full all day, which is why a Friday out-averages a Saturday even though no single Friday hour is as busy as Saturday midday.
Average modelled occupancy by day
| Day | Average across 24 hours | Busiest hour | Occupancy at that hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | 21.5% | 12pm | 56% |
| Tuesday | 21.5% | 12pm | 56% |
| Wednesday | 21.5% | 12pm | 56% |
| Thursday | 21.5% | 12pm | 56% |
| Friday | 23.1% | 12pm | 60% |
| Saturday | 20.4% | 12pm | 62% |
| Sunday | 9.3% | 12pm | 34% |
Monday to Thursday are identical in the table above, and that is a property of the model rather than a finding: it does not distinguish between those four days. Read the weekday rows as one weekday figure, and only Friday, Saturday and Sunday as genuinely different.
Busiest times by type of car park
Car park type is the single strongest divider in the data. A commuter car park and a shopping car park have almost opposite weeks.
| Type | Car parks | Busiest hour | Peak occupancy | Busiest day | Median size | Free |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General / unspecified | 3,584 | 11am Saturday | 55% | Saturday | 86 | 38% |
| Town centre | 2,691 | 12pm Saturday | 88% | Saturday | 87 | 20% |
| Railway station | 1,297 | 9am Monday | 76% | Friday | 120 | 15% |
| Supermarket | 204 | 11am Saturday | 79% | Saturday | 100 | 36% |
| Park & ride | 188 | 9am Monday | 70% | Monday | 402 | 65% |
| Hospital | 45 | 11am Monday | 76% | Monday | 280 | 4% |
Median size counts only car parks whose capacity is recorded in OpenStreetMap, not the ones where we estimate it. “Free” is the share of car parks with a fee tag that are tagged as free; car parks with no fee tag are excluded from that column rather than assumed.
How big is a UK car park?
OpenStreetMap records a real capacity for 2,764 of the 8,009 car parks here, totalling 544,557 parking spaces. The median is 97 spaces — car parks are mostly small, and a handful of very large ones pull the average up. The largest with a recorded capacity is Terminal 2 & 3 Park & Ride in Hounslow, at 4,000 spaces.
A further 4,867 car parks have an estimated capacity, and 378 have none at all. Estimates are deliberately kept out of the totals above: adding them would roughly double the space count on numbers nobody measured.
Structure
| Structure | Car parks |
|---|---|
| Surface | 5,172 |
| Multi-storey | 839 |
| Underground | 158 |
| Street-side | 94 |
| Lane | 11 |
| Rooftop | 7 |
| Lay-by | 2 |
| Garage | 1 |
Structure is only tagged on some car parks; the rest are unrecorded rather than surface.
How many UK car parks are free?
Of the 5,003 car parks where OpenStreetMap records whether there is a charge, 1,347 (27%) are free and 3,656 are paid. The other 3,006 carry no fee tag, and we count them as unknown rather than guessing. The share varies sharply by type — see the free column in the table above.
Where the car parks are
The towns with the most car parks in the dataset:
| Town or city | Car parks covered |
|---|---|
| Oldbury | 72 |
| Birmingham | 71 |
| Manchester | 56 |
| York | 46 |
| Newcastle upon Tyne | 45 |
| Derby | 44 |
| Swindon | 42 |
| Blackpool | 41 |
| Belfast | 40 |
| Bristol | 40 |
This ranks OpenStreetMap coverage, not the size of a town's parking supply: a well-mapped town outranks a larger, less-mapped one. Browse all 1,314 towns.
Method, sources and limits
- Source. Car parks, locations, capacities, fee tags and types come from OpenStreetMap contributors, refreshed on a roughly weekly cadence.
- Busyness is modelled. Occupancy figures are averages of CarparkShark's per-car-park busyness curves, which are derived from each car park's type and capacity. They are not sensor readings, ticket sales or traffic counts, and no figure on this page describes a specific date.
- The model does not separate Monday to Thursday. Those four days share one curve, so any difference between them here would be spurious.
- Coverage is not a census. 8,009 car parks is what the OpenStreetMap community has mapped in these 1,314 towns, not the UK total.
- Estimates are never mixed with records. Space totals and median sizes use only capacities recorded in OpenStreetMap; the 4,867 estimated ones are reported separately and excluded from every total.
Compiled by CarparkShark on 31 August 2026. Figures may be quoted with attribution to CarparkShark; the underlying car park data is © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database Licence.
Frequently asked questions
When are UK car parks busiest?
Across the 8,009 car parks CarparkShark models, the busiest hour of the week is 12pm on Saturday, when the average car park is about 62% full. Taken over all 24 hours Friday is the busiest day, because station and park-and-ride car parks stay occupied all day while town-centre car parks spike at midday.
When are UK car parks quietest?
Sunday is the quietest day in CarparkShark's model, averaging 9.3% occupancy against 23.1% on Friday. Before 7am is the quietest window on every day of the week.
How many car parks are there in the UK?
CarparkShark lists 8,009 car parks across 1,314 UK towns and cities, compiled from OpenStreetMap contributors' data. That is not a national census: it is what the OpenStreetMap community has mapped and tagged as a car park in those places.
How big is the average UK car park?
Among the 2,764 car parks with a capacity recorded in OpenStreetMap, CarparkShark puts the median size at 97 spaces, totalling 544,557 spaces. Most car parks are small; a few very large ones pull the mean well above the median. Park-and-ride sites are the outlier, with a median of 402 spaces.
How many UK car parks are free?
Of the 5,003 car parks where OpenStreetMap records whether there is a charge, CarparkShark finds 1,347 (27%) free and 3,656 paid. A further 3,006 carry no fee tag at all and are counted as unknown rather than assumed free.
Are these busyness figures measured or estimated?
They are modelled estimates, not sensor readings. Each car park has a busyness curve derived from its type and capacity, and every occupancy figure here is an average of those curves. They describe typical patterns rather than any particular day, and the model does not distinguish Monday from Thursday.