Tick records received annually
Last updated on Thursday, 10 April 2025 at 03:30pm
Summary
- Topic
- ticks
- Category
- counts
- API name
ticks_counts_countByYear
Rationale
Understanding the annual trends of tick records submitted to the Tick Surveillance Scheme informs UKHSA’s risk assessments of the public health impact of ticks in the UK.
Definition
This metric shows count data from the Tick Surveillance Scheme. Each bar represents the total number of records received per year from 2013. Records are reported by the date the tick was found.
Methodology
The Tick Surveillance Scheme was established in 2005 and is a passive citizen science scheme that relies upon members of the public, health practitioners, veterinary practitioners, wildlife groups and others to submit ticks to the scheme.
Each tick submitted by post is accompanied by a recording form and includes the date of tick collection, location of tick exposure and the host from which the tick was removed.
The Tick Surveillance Scheme records from the past 10 years were included in this dataset instead of the entire dataset from 2005, as this timeframe provides a more robust evaluation of annual records.
The annual total of records is calculated by the sum of records received by the Tick Surveillance Scheme in each year.
Caveats
This Tick Surveillance Scheme is a passive dataset meaning that not all tick records are reported and recorded.