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The true depth of the UK's pothole problem

In one year, potholes caused almost £3 million worth of damage to vehicles in the UK. With over 900,000 potholes reported on our roads, they’re definitely a pain in the axle.

But just how bad is this problem?

This is what would happen if you combined the depth of every single pothole in the UK.

Scroll down to see just how deep the rabbit hole goes and how much has been paid out to cover damage to vehicles.

Has your car been damaged by potholes? Take a look at our guide on how to claim.

Show the total pothole depth for:

The Shard, London
310m
Principality
Stadium, Cardiff
90m
Samson & Goliath
(cranes), Belfast
106m
The Shard
310m
Principality
Stadium
90m
Castle Rock
80m
Samson & Goliath
(cranes)
106m
Double-decker
Bus
4m
Loch Ness, Scotland
230m
Bottom of the
 English Channel
174m
Location of
the The Titanic
3,800m
Bottom of the
Mediterranean Sea
5,270m
Bottom of the
Atlantic Ocean
8,380m
Mariana Trench -
bottom of the
 Bottom of the
 Pacific Ocean
11,000m
UK's deepest cave,
Powys
275m
World's deepest
natural cave,
Eastern Europe
2,197m
World's deepest oil well,
Gulf of Mexico
10,100m
World's deepest
man-made hole,
Russia
12,300m
Boundary between Earth's
crust and upper mantle
30,000m
Nothing but rocks here …
Not much to see right now …
Almost there …
Keep going …
It's getting hot in here …
Total depth of
 England's
potholes
26,667m
Total depth of
 Northern Ireland's
potholes
1,338m
Total depth of
 Scotland's
potholes
4,432m
Total depth of
 Wales's
potholes
985m
Total depth of
 Derbyshire's
potholes
800m
Total depth of
 Leicestershire's
potholes
203m
Total depth of
 Lincolnshire's
potholes
722m
Total depth of
 Northamptonshire's
potholes
610m
Total depth of
 Bedfordshire's
potholes
118m
Total depth of
 Essex's
potholes
901m
Total depth of
 Norfolk's
potholes
355m
Total depth of
 Suffolk's
potholes
446m
Total depth of
 County Durham's
potholes
65m
Total depth of
 Durham's
potholes
542m
Total depth of
 Middlesborough's
potholes
15m
Total depth of
 Northumberland's
potholes
2,330m
Total depth of
 Tyne and Wear's
potholes
978m
Total depth of
 Cheshire's
potholes
986m
Total depth of
 Greater Manchester's
potholes
811m
Total depth of
 Lancashire's
potholes
2,018m
Total depth of
 Merseyside's
potholes
86m
Total depth of
 Berkshire's
potholes
194m
Total depth of
 Buckinghamshire's
potholes
132m
Total depth of
 Hampshire's
potholes
670m
Total depth of
 Isle of Wight's
potholes
21m
Total depth of
 Kent's
potholes
915m
Total depth of
 Oxfordshire's
potholes
806m
Total depth of
 Surrey's
potholes
1,652m
Total depth of
 West Sussex's
potholes
441m
Total depth of
 Bristol's
potholes
124m
Total depth of
 Devon's
potholes
1,743m
Total depth of
 Dorset's
potholes
858m
Total depth of
 Gloucestershire's
potholes
383m
Total depth of
 Somerset's
potholes
303m
Total depth of
 South Gloucestershire's
potholes
374m
Total depth of
 Wiltshire's
potholes
235m
Total depth of
 Birmingham's
potholes
667m
Total depth of
 Shropshire's
potholes
219m
Total depth of
 Staffordshire's
potholes
591m
Total depth of
 Warwickshire's
potholes
233m
Total depth of
 East Yorkshire's
potholes
209m
Total depth of
 North & North East Lincolnshire's
potholes
98m
Total depth of
 North Yorkshire's
potholes
272m
Total depth of
 South Yorkshire's
potholes
431m
Total depth of
 West Yorkshire's
potholes
1,897m
The total depth of potholes in is m.
That’s times the depth of the .
And the same height as cars!

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Methodology:
We asked all UK councils for the number of potholes/road defects recorded, and the minimum depth required for a defect to be considered a pothole. The information we requested was for 2017/2018. 152 local authorities responded with data. This data was aggregated to show the total depth of a combined pothole in each region.

The total pothole depth was taken as the number of potholes multiplied by the minimum pothole depth for that local authority. Where a local authority doesn’t specify a minimum depth, a UK-wide median depth of 40mm was used. Regions that had a total pothole depth of fewer than 50m are not displayed.

We also asked each council to disclose the amount of compensation paid out for pothole damage. Using these figures, we were able to work out the total compensation paid out to each region and country.

Total pothole compensation for £
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