NISRA TO PUBLISH NORTHERN IRELAND MATERIAL FOOTPRINT DATA

The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) and the Department for the Economy in Northern Ireland have announced they will publish new estimates of Northern Ireland's material footprint. The two bodies describe the measure as raw material consumption. The statistics will cover the period from 2001 to 2023. According to the release notice, they are scheduled for publication on 21 October 2026 at 9:30am. The announcement appears on the UK government's official statistics release calendar, and no figures have yet been made public.

NISRA and the Department for the Economy are named jointly as the producers of the statistics. The release notice offers no further definition of material footprint beyond describing it as raw material consumption. The 23-year span, from 2001 to 2023, means the estimates will track changes across more than two decades. The calendar entry sets a precise release time of 9:30am on 21 October 2026, over a year after the notice was published. No provisional data or methodology document accompanies the current listing.

Once released, the figures will stand as NISRA and the Department for the Economy's official estimate of Northern Ireland's material footprint across the 2001-to-2023 period. The release notice does not state whether the publication will include comparisons with other UK nations or regions. It also does not specify which formats the data will take. Neither body has published interim or preliminary figures ahead of the confirmed date. The October 2026 release, still more than a year away, remains the only confirmed detail about the forthcoming statistics.