Did you know that urinary tract infections and cystitis are so common that they account for 3% of all GP visits in England? That’s over 10 million appointments every year.
At Click2Pharmacy, we’ve looked at the latest data to give you a clear picture of just how common UTIs are, who gets them most, and what’s happening with treatment across the country.
Around half of all women in the UK will experience at least one UTI in their lifetime. For men, that figure drops to about 13-14%.
To put those numbers into context, roughly 15 million women across the UK will deal with a urinary tract infection at some point. In any given year, about 11% of women report having had at least one UTI in the previous 12 months.
UTIs don’t just affect one group of people either. While women are much more likely to get them, they can strike at any age and affect people from all backgrounds. The infections range from mild discomfort that clears up quickly to more serious cases that need hospital treatment.
About 3% of women report having three or more UTIs in a year, which doctors classify as a recurrent urinary tract infection. While that might sound like a small percentage, it represents hundreds of thousands of women across the UK who are dealing with repeated infections.
Research shows that 18% of women who have had a culture-confirmed UTI will go on to develop recurrent UTIs over a six-year period. Once you’ve had recurrent cystitis, there’s a 29% chance you’ll get another one within six months.
Some people find they get urinary tract infections after specific triggers like sex or periods, while others seem to get them randomly. This unpredictability is part of what makes recurrent UTIs so challenging to live with.
E. coli is the most common cause of UTIs in women, responsible for about 80% of all bacterial cystitis cases and shows up in 65% of positive urine cultures in the UK.
The reason E. coli causes so many UTIs comes down to anatomy and opportunity. It usually lives harmlessly in your bowel, but problems start when it travels to your lower urinary tract.
Other main risk factors that make urinary tract infections more likely are:
Cystitis, a type of UTI, is much more common in women. It affects 15% of adult women every year, and by age 24, nearly one-third of women will have had at least one episode of cystitis. For men, UTIs before age 50 are genuinely uncommon unless there’s an underlying health problem.
This huge difference comes down to basic anatomy. Women have a much shorter urethra, the tube that carries urine from the bladder out of the body. For bacteria, this means a much shorter journey to reach the bladder, where they can multiply and cause infection. Men’s longer urethra acts as a natural barrier that makes it much harder for bacteria to travel upwards.
Hormonal changes also matter, particularly around menopause, when changes in the urinary tract environment can make women more susceptible to infections. This is why some women who never had urinary tract problems suddenly start getting them later in life.
The gender split becomes even more obvious when looking at hospital admissions. Women under 50 are nearly five times more likely than men to need hospital treatment for a urinary tract infection. Overall, women account for about 62% of all UTI-related hospital admissions.
After age 50, the difference becomes much smaller as 37% of admissions are women compared to 33% men. This happens because older men are at higher risk of things like prostate problems, which makes it harder to empty the bladder completely.
Studies have found that UTIs peak in younger adults rather than older people. The 25-34 age group has the highest rate of UTIs, with 23% of people in this age bracket reporting at least one UTI in the past year. This is followed by the 45-54 age group at 18.5%, and 35-44 year olds at 16.9%.
Interestingly, UTI rates then drop in older age groups – only 11.8% of 55-64 year olds and 11.5% of 65-74 year olds report having a UTI in the previous year. This might seem surprising, but it likely reflects the difference between mild UTIs that people manage at home and more serious infections that need medical attention.
The higher rates in younger adults probably reflect lifestyle factors like sexual activity, which is a major UTI trigger. As people get older, while they may get fewer UTIs overall, the infections they do get are more likely to be serious enough to require hospital treatment, which is why 56% of UTI-related hospital admissions involve people over 65.
There’s also something called asymptomatic bacteriuria, where bacteria are present in the urine but don’t cause symptoms. This affects up to 20% of women and 10% of men over 65, and while it doesn’t always need treatment, it can sometimes develop into a full UTI.
Using data from OpenPrescribing, we can see some big differences in urinary tract infection prescribing patterns across England. In the 12 months from May 2024 to April 2025, UTI medications cost NHS England £36.7 million, with over 4.2 million prescriptions issued.
NHS Gloucestershire tops the list for UTI prescriptions, with 82.3 prescriptions per 10,000 people per month. That’s significantly higher than areas like North East London, which has just 43.9 prescriptions per 10,000 people – almost half the rate.
Rural and South West areas tend to have much higher prescribing rates. Somerset, Dorset, Cornwall, and Devon all feature in the top half of the table. Meanwhile, London areas consistently appear at the bottom – North Central London, North East London, North West London, and South East London all have some of the lowest prescribing rates in England.
Rural areas often have older populations, and while younger adults get UTIs more frequently, older adults face higher risk factors that make UTIs more serious when they do happen – things like weakened immune systems, menopause, dehydration, and other health conditions that can lead to complications needing prescription treatment.
There might also be differences in healthcare access, with rural patients possibly getting more antibiotic treatment as a precaution when they can’t easily return for follow-up appointments.
What’s particularly interesting is how consistent the pattern is. If you look at the top 10 areas, eight of them are rural or semi-rural regions. The bottom 10 are dominated by London boroughs and major urban centres like Birmingham, Manchester, and Bristol.
Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, despite being more urban, still rank 7th highest. Meanwhile, traditionally rural areas like Shropshire sit much lower in the rankings than expected. This suggests that factors beyond just rural versus urban location are influencing prescribing patterns – possibly including local prescribing guidelines, population health differences, or access to alternative treatments online.
We wanted to find out which UTI treatment is the most popular in the UK: to do this, we used SERanking to analyse average monthly Google search rates for the treatments ‘nitrofurantoin’, ‘trimethoprim’ and ‘cystitis relief sachets’ across the UK in 2025:
This search pattern mirrors real prescribing habits – nitrofurantoin and trimethoprim together make up 84% of UTI antibiotic prescriptions dispensed annually in the UK.
Since 2016, nitrofurantoin has become the first-line treatment for uncomplicated cystitis in women, largely replacing trimethoprim. This change happened because trimethoprim resistance was becoming a problem, and the switch has been successful – trimethoprim use has halved since 2014, and trimethoprim resistance rates have improved as a result.
With suspected UTIs costing the NHS about £316 million in GP time, it’s no surprise that more people are turning to online solutions first. Using Google Trends, we’ve found a notable increase in searches for terms like ‘UTI home treatment’, ‘UTI antibiotics’, ‘UTI treatment over the counter’, and ‘UTI treatment pharmacy’.
People are increasingly looking for online solutions because getting a GP appointment can be difficult, especially when you’re dealing with the urgent, uncomfortable symptoms of cystitis. Many people want immediate answers about what they can do to get relief while they wait for medical care, which is why they often turn to online pharmacies.
Searches for ‘symptoms of cystitis’ remain high, suggesting people aren’t always sure what they’re dealing with. UTI symptoms can get confused with conditions like thrush, sexually transmitted infections, or even just irritation from products like soaps or detergents.
This uncertainty, combined with the pressure on GP services, suggests there’s real value in developing better diagnostic tools. Rapid diagnostic tests could significantly reduce unnecessary antibiotic prescribing and prevent costly hospital admissions for complications like kidney infections or sepsis – potentially saving the NHS millions while giving patients faster, more accurate treatment.
Get 10% Off Your First Order
Sign up to receive special offers via email and get 10% off your first order*
By opting in to marketing, you agree to our terms & conditions and privacy policy.
