January is always a reset month. After the Christmas rush, household budgets tighten and footfall tends to shift back towards routine-led visits – errands, lunch breaks, appointments and planned trips into the city.
With that in mind, Wakefield city centre started 2026 in a strong position. Footfall was up on last year, and most activity was classed as “visiting” rather than simply passing through – which is a positive sign for businesses looking to convert footfall into sales.
Note on spend data: our spend reporting runs around a month behind, so this update includes January 2026 footfall and the latest available December 2025 spend.
January 2026 – the key headlines
- Total footfall: 3,731,520 (average 120,372 per day)
- Year-on-year: +6.1% vs January 2025 (+215,217 more visits)
- Month-on-month: -9.0% vs December 2025 (a typical post-Christmas dip)
- Visitor mix: 83.3% visiting vs 16.7% passing through
- Busiest day: Wednesday 21 January (200,094 visits)
What this means for Wakefield businesses
A stronger January baseline than last year
A 6.1% uplift compared to last January is a positive signal. Even in a traditionally tougher trading month, more people were in the city centre – supporting retail, hospitality and services.
The opportunity is conversion
With over 83% of footfall classed as visiting, January wasn’t just about movement through the city – it reflected people spending time here. That’s where businesses can win trade through simple, consistent visibility: clear windows, strong first impressions, and giving customers a reason to step inside.
Midweek continues to matter
Across January, midweek remained the strongest period, reinforcing the value of midweek hooks such as lunchtime specials, limited-time offers, and regular social updates that prompt an extra visit.
Spend snapshot (latest available) – December 2025
- Total spend: £10,132,899
- Average transaction value: £18.34
- Average transactions per day: 17,822 (around 552,475 transactions across the month)
Change:
- +22.7% vs November 2025
- -7.1% vs December 2024
Top spend categories (December 2025)
- Un-categorised spend: £3,833,095 (37.8%)
- Fashion: £2,781,600 (27.5%)
- Health and beauty: £968,516 (9.6%)
- Grocery: £777,404 (7.7%)
- General retail: £739,872 (7.3%)
- Food and drink: £509,764 (5.0%)
“Un-categorised” means some card transactions can’t be matched cleanly to a category, but they are still included in the overall total.
Next month
Our February update will follow the same format: February footfall, plus January spend once it lands in the data.
If you’re a Wakefield BID member and you’ve got news to share – a launch, event, new range, menu update, or something you want more people to know about – send it over and tag us in your posts so we can help amplify it.
