Materially reviewed: 16 September 2026
Reliable UK catering statistics need careful labels. Official datasets measure household spending, business turnover or the wider hospitality economy; they do not publish a single comparable revenue figure for every corporate, wedding, healthcare and event-catering segment.
Headline UK figures
| Measure | Figure | Period | Scope |
|---|---|---|---|
| UK household spending on restaurants and cafés | £137.7 billion | 2024 | ONS household final consumption expenditure, current prices |
| UK household spending on restaurants and cafés | £146.9 billion | 2025 | ONS household final consumption expenditure, current prices |
| Hospitality’s economic contribution | £93 billion | 2022 report | Whole UK hospitality sector, not catering alone |
Sources: ONS Consumer Trends series ADXO and UKHospitality’s economic-contribution report.
What the ONS spending figures mean
The ONS Consumer Trends series records UK household final consumption expenditure on restaurants and cafés. It is a useful national demand indicator, but it is not the turnover of event caterers and it does not isolate corporate lunches, weddings or contract catering.
The broader ONS catering-services series is available as series ZAXT. Readers should use the precise series definition and period when quoting it.
Business turnover by official industry category
For enterprise counts and turnover, the closest official source is the ONS Inter-Departmental Business Register. Its categories follow Standard Industrial Classification codes, including restaurants and mobile food service, event catering and other food service activities. These categories do not map cleanly onto marketing labels such as “corporate catering” or “wedding catering”.
See the ONS releases covering enterprise counts and turnover, 2021–2025 and food and accommodation services, 2009–2022.
Why published market sizes differ
Commercial reports may measure foodservice, contract catering, eating out or hospitality. Their values are estimates with different definitions and should not be combined with official household-spending or enterprise-turnover figures. We therefore removed earlier unsupported corporate, wedding and healthcare revenue estimates from this page.
Methodology
- Primary UK sources are preferred.
- Every figure is labelled by geography, period and scope.
- Household spending, turnover, gross value added and market estimates are kept separate.
- No unsupported projection is presented as an official statistic.
For wider context, see the House of Commons Library’s Hospitality: Statistics and Policy briefing. Explore related research at the UK Catering Data and Trends hub, or use our London catering cost report for Pearl Lemon Catering’s own guide pricing.
