How Many Newspapers Are Read in the UK Each Day? [Updated for 2025]

We looked at information from the Audit Bureau Circulation, Press Gazette and Ahrefs to find out how many newspapers are sold and read in the UK, as well as what the most popular newspapers are in the UK.

Cite this research: JournoFinder. (2025, March 14). How many newspapers are read in the UK each day? JournoFinder. https://journofinder.com/blog/uk-newspaper-circulation-figures

Key Findings:

- 6,260,814 newspapers are read each day in the UK

- The most read newspaper in the UK is the Metro, with 952,438 copies circulating each day.

- UK newspaper sales have fallen by 24.8% from 2020-2025.

Contents:

- How many newspapers are sold daily in the UK?

- What are the most popular newspapers in the UK?

- UK national newspapers by circulation

- Which online UK newspapers have the most readers?

- Which UK regional newspapers have the biggest circulation?

- Which UK online regional newspapers get the most visitors?

How Many Newspapers Are Sold Daily in the UK in 2025?

6,260,814 newspapers are sold every day in the UK, according to January 2025 Audit Bureau Circulation newspaper circulation figures.

Breaking this down by national and regional papers. We found that:

- 5,345,014 national newspapers are sold every day in the UK.
- 925,800 regional newspapers are sold every day in the UK.

This is down 24.8% from 2020, where 8.8 million newspapers were sold every day in the UK.

What Are the Most Popular Newspapers in the UK?

The most popular newspaper in the UK is the Metro which sells 952,000 copies every day.

This is followed by the Daily Mail (687,000 copies sold every day) and the Sun (630,000 copies sold each day day.

The table below shows newspaper circulation in the UK in 2025:

*Newspapers with an asterisk are Sunday papers, and their figures represent how many copies are sold throughout the week.

What is The Metro’s Circulation?

Metro has an average 2025 daily circulation of 952,438 in 2025.

This is down by 35.2% from the paper’s peak readership of 1,426,000 in early 2020.

The Metro’s readership tanked over the Covid lockdowns, as the newspaper is given away for free in public places. The Metro’s circulation bottomed out at 350,000 readers a day at the end of 2020.

The Metro’s website receives 55,000 online visitors from the UK every day.

The Metro’s circulation has decreased by 30.4% in the last 10 years:

What is The Sun’s Circulation?

The Sun’s 2025 circulation is around 630,000. 

The paper does not actually release its exact circulation figures to the Audit Bureau Circulation, so this is just an estimate based on their most recent figures released in 2020 and their year on year growth since then.

The Sun’s website has 336,000 UK visitors a day.

What is The Times’s Circulation?

The Times’s 2025 daily circulation is 160,000.

The Times stopped releasing their circulation figures to the Audit Bureau Circulation in March 2020. Its last released figure was 365,880.

The current circulation is based on the paper’s most recent circulation figures and the industry average change in sales for broadsheet papers.

The Times’s website gets 63,000 UK visitors a day.

What is The Daily Mail’s Circulation?

The Daily Mail’s 2025 circulation is 687,703.

This is 7.9% down from 2024 where their circulation was 735,842.

The Daily Mail’s circulation has fallen by 59.3% in the last 10 years

The table below shows the Daily Mail’s circulation for the last 10 years:

What is The Daily Mirror’s Circulation?

The Daily Mirror’s 2025 circulation is 205,332.

This is 14.7% down from their 2024 circulation of 240,799.

The Daily Mirror’s website gets 190,000 UK visitors each day.

The Daily Mirror’s circulation has fallen by 77.7% in the last 10 years:

What is The Daily Express’s Circulation?

The Daily Express’s circulation is 128,551 copies per day.

This is down 15.8% from their 2024 average circulation of 240,799 copies.

The Daily Express’s website gets 197,000 UK visitors every day.

The Daily Express’s circulation has fallen by 71.9% in the last 10 years.

The table below shows the Express’s circulation for the last 10 years:

What is the Daily Telegraph’s Circulation?

The Daily Telegraph’s circulation is 170,000 copies per day.

The Daily Telegraph stopped releasing their circulation figures to the Audit Bureau Circulation in December 2019.

The current circulation is based on the paper’s most recent circulation figures and the year on year industry average change in sales for broadsheet papers in the UK.

The Daily Telegraph’s website gets 154,000 UK visitors every day.

What is the Daily Star’s Circulation?

The Daily Star’s current circulation is 111,082 copies per day.

That’s a 16.5% decrease from their 2024 circulation of 152,699 copies per day.

The Daily Star’s website gets 30,500 UK visitors every day.

The Daily Star’s Circulation has fallen by 73.9% in the last 10 years

The table below shows how the Daily Star’s circulation has changed over the last 10 years:

What is the Guardian’s Circulation?

The Guardian’s current circulation is 55,000 copies each day.

The Guardian stopped releasing their circulation figures to the Audit Bureau Circulation in July 2021.

Their current circulation figures are an estimate based on their most recent figures and the industry average change in sales for broadsheet papers.

The Guardian’s website gets 656,667 UK visitors every day.

What is the Financial Times’s Circulation?

The Financial Times’s current circulation is 109,995 copies per day.

That’s a 4.7% decrease from their 2023 circulation of 115,118 copies sold per day.

The Financial Times’s website gets 44,000 UK visitors per day.

The Financial Times’ Circulation has fallen by 49.9% in the last 10 years.

The table below shows the Financial Times’s circulation numbers over the last 10 years:

What is the I Paper’s Circulation?

The I Paper’s current circulation is 111,082 copies sold each day.

That's a 16.5% decrease from their 2024 circulation of 132,979.

The I Paper’s circulation has fallen by 56.3% in the last 10 years.

You can see the I Paper’s circulation in the last 10 years below:

What is the Daily Record’s Circulation?

The Daily Record’s current circulation is 44,207 copies each day.

That’s down 16.6% from 2024 where their circulation was 52,978 copies per day.

The Daily Record’s website gets 40,000 UK visitors a day.

The Daily Record’s circulation has fallen by 73.9% in the last 10 years.

You can see the Daily Record’s circulation figures for the last 10 years in the table below:

Which UK Online Newspapers Have the Most Readers?

The Guardian has the largest UK online readership, with 656,667 UK readers a month.

This is followed by The Daily Mail (410,000 UK readers a month) and The Sun (336,000 UK readers a month.)

You can see the thirteen biggest UK online newspapers by monthly readership below:

Please note that these numbers take into account just UK visitors, rather than the website’s total number of visitors.

Which UK Regional Newspapers Have the Biggest Circulation?

The UK regional newspaper that has the biggest circulation is the Oxford Mail which sells 229,281  copies a day.

The second biggest UK regional newspaper by circulation is the Irish News, which sells 20,495 copies a day and the Aberdeen Press & Journal which sells 16,957 copies a day.

You can see the 50 biggest selling regional newspapers in the UK in the table below:

As you can see from the table above, regional newspaper circulation fell by 19% from 2023-2024.

What UK Online Regional Papers Get the Most Visitors?

The UK online regional newspapers that get the most visitors are the Manchester Evening News and the Scottish Daily Record. Both these newspapers get 76,667 visitors each day, according to Ahrefs.

You can see all the UK online regional newspapers ordered by number of daily visitors below:

Methodology

All newspaper circulation figures (both past and present) were taken from reports by the  Audit Bureau Circulation. 

Estimated figures were taken from a 2025 report from Press Gazette.

Online traffic figures were taken from Ahrefs on 7th March 2025. We counted just UK online visitors for this study.