The number of bank, credit union and building society branches in the UK has declined by 34% in the space of five years, data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) has shown.

The figure slipped from 10,410 in 2019 to 6,870 in 2024, with last year alone recording a 10.4% fall, as reported by The Financial Times.

Branch closures across some of the largest financial institutions in the UK have continued into 2025, with Lloyds, NatWest, Halifax and the Bank of Scotland set to close a further 113 branches by November.

In March this year, Santander announced it was closing 95 of its 444 branches in the UK, after reporting a “rapid movement” of customers shifting to do their banking online. The Spanish bank said it had seen a 63% increase in digital transactions since 2019, while financial transactions completed in branches reduced by 61% over the same period.

The Financial Times report also cited figures compiled by management consultancy, Kearney, which revealed that the UK ranks among the highest European countries to have closed bank branches in recent years.

Spain and the Netherlands were the only two European countries to close more branches as a proportion than the UK in the last five years, losing 37% and 48% of their branch networks, respectively.

The Kearney figures also showed that there is now one bank branch per 2.5 people in Spain and Portugal, and 4.9 in France, compared to per 10,000 people in the UK.

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