What the United Kingdom buys, and from whom.
The United Kingdom imported USD 506bn of manufactured and processed goods in 2024, down 2 per cent on 2022. These are its twenty largest source countries. 44 of them ship enough, across enough product lines, to have a lane page of their own.
Trade year 2024, compared with 2022.
The twenty countries the United Kingdom imports most from.
A lane page is written where the source ships USD 1bn or more a year across at least 50 product lines worth USD 1m each. For what the United Kingdom is best placed to make itself, see Made here: United Kingdom.
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1
China
Share of the United Kingdom's imports18 per centChangedown 14 per cent on 2022USD 89bnin 2024 -
2
Germany
Share of the United Kingdom's imports13 per centChangelevel with 2022USD 65bnin 2024 -
3
United States
Share of the United Kingdom's imports8 per centChangedown 11 per cent on 2022USD 38bnin 2024 -
4
France
Share of the United Kingdom's imports6 per centChangeup 11 per cent on 2022USD 31bnin 2024 -
5
Italy
Share of the United Kingdom's imports5 per centChangelevel with 2022USD 27bnin 2024 -
6
Spain
Share of the United Kingdom's imports4 per centChangeup 13 per cent on 2022USD 19bnin 2024 -
7
Poland
Share of the United Kingdom's imports3 per centChangeup 13 per cent on 2022USD 17bnin 2024 -
8
Netherlands
Share of the United Kingdom's imports3 per centChangedown 12 per cent on 2022USD 16bnin 2024 -
9
Ireland
Share of the United Kingdom's imports3 per centChangeup 16 per cent on 2022USD 15bnin 2024 -
10
Belgium
Share of the United Kingdom's imports3 per centChangedown 2 per cent on 2022USD 14bnin 2024 -
11
Turkey
Share of the United Kingdom's imports3 per centChangeup 2 per cent on 2022USD 14bnin 2024 -
12
India
Share of the United Kingdom's imports2 per centChangeup 14 per cent on 2022USD 11bnin 2024 -
13
Japan
Share of the United Kingdom's imports2 per centChangeup 3 per cent on 2022USD 11bnin 2024 -
14
Czech Republic
Share of the United Kingdom's imports2 per centChangeup 19 per cent on 2022USD 11bnin 2024 -
15
Vietnam
Share of the United Kingdom's imports2 per centChangeup 24 per cent on 2022USD 10bnin 2024 -
16
Switzerland
Share of the United Kingdom's imports2 per centChangedown 10 per cent on 2022USD 8.0bnin 2024 -
17
Sweden
Share of the United Kingdom's imports1 per centChangeup 4 per cent on 2022USD 7.2bnin 2024 -
18
South Korea
Share of the United Kingdom's imports1 per centChangedown 4 per cent on 2022USD 6.8bnin 2024 -
19
Hungary
Share of the United Kingdom's imports1 per centChangeup 15 per cent on 2022USD 6.3bnin 2024 -
20
Slovakia
Share of the United Kingdom's imports1 per centChangeup 20 per cent on 2022USD 5.9bnin 2024
What crossed the border, what it was worth, and what it weighed.
Every figure on this page is from CEPII's BACI file, which reconciles what each pair of countries reports to the UN about the same shipment. Trade year 2024, compared with 2022. A line is one six-digit customs heading (HS 2022). Values are in US dollars at the border; growth is in current dollars, so part of any change is price, not volume.
Unit value. Unit values are customs values per tonne, declared at the border, not product prices. It is the value of a line divided by its declared weight, so it mixes grades, models and qualities under one heading. It is shown only where the weight is recorded, at least three source countries of USD 100k or more ship the line to the United Kingdom with a weight, and the figure sits within a factor of five of the middle of those sources. Outside that band it is treated as a recording problem and left out.
Share is China's part of everything the United Kingdom imported in that line, from every source. Sources counts the countries that shipped any of it.
Scope. Manufactured and processed goods, customs chapters 16 to 96, without ores, fuels, precious metals, scrap, raw farm output and one-off capital and defence purchases: the same rule as the Made here pages.
A record of trade, not a shopping list.
What this record does not say: what sells at retail, what margin a trade leaves, how crowded the marketplaces are, or how much of a flow is re-exported through entrepots such as Hong Kong and Singapore.
A large line is not proof of an opening, and a lower unit value from another country is not proof the goods are the same. Tariffs, standards, freight, payment terms, lead times and the plain fact that a supplier is good at it are all invisible here. Nothing on this page is a forecast, a recommendation or a promise. No supplier company is named, because the record holds none.
Source: CEPII BACI, HS22, version 202601. Edition of 2026-11-03.