UK radio licences
at 31 March each year

Wireless receiving licences were introduced on 1 November 1922. The figure for that year is thus not strictly comparable with the following years' data.
From 1946 a combined sound and television receiving licence was required by television viewers and the number of sound-only licences begins to fall. The two figures for each year should be combined for a complete number of licences for radio reception. The wireless receiving licence was abolished on 1 February 1971.

	total			total			total			total
1922	35,755		1937	8,479,600		1952	11,244,141		1967	2,476,272
1923	595,496		1938	8,908,800		1953	10,688,684		1968	2,529,750
1924	1,129,578		1939			1954	10,125,512		1969
1925	1,645,207		1940			1955	9,414,224		1970
1926	2,178,259		1941			1956	8,459,213		abolished 1 Feb 1971
1927	2,263,894		1942			1957	7,496,390
1928	2,470,639		1943			1958	6,494,960
1929	2,717,367		1944			1959	5,423,207
1930	3,075,828		1945			1960	4,480,300
1931	4,330,735		1946	10,347,831		1961	3,858,132
1932	5,263,017		1947	10,713,298		1962	3,491,725
1933	5,973,758		1948	11,081,977		1963	3,212,814
1934	6,780,569		1949	11,567,227		1964	2,959,011
1935	7,403,109		1950	11,819,190		1965	2,759,203
1936	7,960,573		1951	11,546,925		1966	2,579,567

 

Radio statistics index