Which UK region has the cheapest petrol?

Northern Ireland has the lowest median petrol price today at £1.65 a litre, against £1.72 in Scotland. That is a gap of 7.0p a litre between the cheapest and dearest regions.

Why are regional fuel prices so close together?

Wholesale fuel costs and fuel duty are the same across the country, so the median price barely moves between regions. The difference that matters to a driver is local: the gap between the cheapest and dearest forecourt inside a single region runs from about 35.0p to 85.0p a litre.

Where does this fuel price map get its data?

Every price comes from the UK Government Fuel Finder scheme, which since February 2026 requires each of the 8,081 UK forecourts to report a price change within thirty minutes. FuelSignal re-reads the feed through the day.

UK fuel price map

Every one of the 8,081 forecourts in the country, grouped into the twelve UK regions and shaded by what they charge. Updated through the day from the government feed.

The median forecourt in each region — what you pay without trying.

Colour ranks the regions — regions on the same figure share a shade. The whole country spans £1.65 to £1.72.

Northern Ireland494 forecourts

Typical£1.65

Cheapest£1.49

Dearest£1.96

Worth shopping47.0p

5.0p below the UK median of £1.70.

Prices across Northern Ireland

What the map actually shows

Fuel is cheapest in Northern Ireland at £1.65 a litre and dearest in Scotland at £1.72 — a gap of 7.0p, or £3.85 on a 55-litre tank. That is the whole national picture, and it is smaller than most drivers expect.

It is small because the two biggest components of the price are identical everywhere. Fuel duty is 52.95p a litre nationwide and VAT is 20% on top, so roughly half of what you hand over is fixed before a retailer sets anything. What is left to vary is the wholesale cost, the site’s rent and how much competition sits within a few minutes’ drive.

Which is why the useful number on this page is not the regional median but the spread. Inside the South West the gap between the cheapest and dearest forecourt is 85.0p a litre — £46.75 a tank — against 35.0p in the North East. Choosing the right forecourt on your own doorstep is worth several times more than choosing the right region, and nobody is going to move house over petrol.

Switch the map to Spread to see that directly, or to Cheapest to see the best price actually reported in each region today. Whether the detour pays is a separate question, and one with an arithmetic answer.

Every region, cheapest first

1Northern Irelandtypical£1.65cheapest£1.49spread47.0p 2North Westtypical£1.70cheapest£1.54spread76.1p 3North Easttypical£1.70cheapest£1.60spread35.0p 4Yorkshire and The Humbertypical£1.70cheapest£1.49spread50.0p 5Walestypical£1.70cheapest£1.57spread38.0p 6East Midlandstypical£1.71cheapest£1.51spread44.0p 7South Westtypical£1.72cheapest£1.55spread85.0p 8Londontypical£1.72cheapest£1.54spread41.0p 9South Easttypical£1.72cheapest£1.56spread44.0p 10East of Englandtypical£1.72cheapest£1.56spread39.1p 11West Midlandstypical£1.72cheapest£1.48spread51.0p 12Scotlandtypical£1.72cheapest£1.43spread67.1p

Go finer than a region

A region is far too big to fill up in. These break the same data down to somewhere you could actually drive.

Prices near youEvery forecourt within your radius By postcode districtSW11, M17, LS6 and 1,400 more By town and cityEvery UK district By brandEvery chain ranked Motorway servicesFilter by road number Price historyEvery week since 2018

Prices come from the UK Government Fuel Finder scheme, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Regions are the twelve ONS statistical regions, matched to each forecourt by postcode. The map is a tile cartogram: every region gets the same size tile so that colour compares price rather than land area.