2026 Roundabout Capitals of the UK

Roundabouts – a helpful piece of road infrastructure that makes it easier to get from A to B, or just another stress to encounter on your morning commute? However you feel about them, there certainly are a lot in the UK. This is where the modern roundabout was standardised, which is why it’s not surprising that there are quite so many of these intersections in the country.

Here at DiscoverCars.com, as a global car rental comparison and booking site, we love researching all things driving, roads and cars. We’ve built on our body of research with our new ranking: which UK cities have the most roundabouts? We ranked them by number overall, as well as compared against population and land area of each city. We’ve also worked out which countries have the most roundabouts, so you can check that out here on our blog.

Key takeaways

• English and Scottish cities appear the most frequently in the ranking, with one Northern Irish city. Three out of the five cities with the highest number of roundabouts per capita are Scottish: Stirling, Perth, and Inverness.
• Milton Keynes’ appearance in our ranking will not be surprising to many UK readers – famous for its roundabouts, the city’s unique layout as a “New Town” is in part due to its carefully laid out roads featuring many of these intersections.
• As you might expect, the cities with the highest number of roundabouts per thousand people tend to be smaller – although they don’t necessarily have as many in total, there are fewer people sharing the roads.

Methodology

We downloaded OpenStreetMap extract data for each city, which were then filtered to show only elements matching a set of tags identifying them as roads or roundabouts.

Roundabouts on OpenStreetMap may be comprised of separate road sections. Therefore, roundabout elements (marked as roundabouts, traffic circles, or mini-roundabouts) were then matched so that any element within 10 meters was marked as part of the same roundabout. Then, any element within 10 meters of those matching elements was marked as such until there were no roundabout elements within 10 meters.

The cities were then ranked according to the total number of roundabouts, total roundabouts per square kilometre, and total roundabouts per capita (1 thousand people). Roundabouts per square kilometre have been rounded to two decimal places.

Most roundabouts per city

Birmingham

In first place – with the highest number of roundabouts overall – is Birmingham with a total of 479 roundabouts. That equals 1.79 roundabouts per square km, which may sound like a lot, but the city actually doesn’t place in the top 5 on that metric. Birmingham has 0.42 of the intersections per thousand people.

In the UK’s second city, the roundabout, Spitfire Island, is home to the sculpture Sentinel by the artist Tim Tolkien. This 52 foot sculpture shows three Supermarine Spitfires taking flight, in honour of the nearby Castle Bromwich factory, which built most of the Spitfires used in WWII.

Milton Keynes

Next up is Milton Keynes, with the second highest number of roundabouts – 476, counting mini roundabouts and traffic circles. That’s only just behind Birmingham, but it’s a smaller city, both in terms of population and land area. Milton Keynes has 5.35 roundabouts per square km and 1.80 roundabouts per thousand inhabitants.

Built in the 1960s, Milton Keynes has an unusual layout compared to most UK towns, with roads built on a system of grids, connected by all those roundabouts. While this may make it a frustrating place to drive if you don’t like them, a 2020 study conducted by the Universities of Birmingham and Lancaster found that this layout really helps disperse pollution.

The Leaping Man roundabout in Milton Keynes pays tribute to local athlete, Greg Rutherford. He won a Gold Medal at the 2012 Olympics for long jump – Britain’s first gold medal in this sport since 1964.

Glasgow

Glasgow has 327 roundabouts, putting the Scottish city in third place. However, despite appearing in the list of cities with the highest number of these intersections overall, it doesn’t rank among those with the most when measured against population or land area. Glasgow has 0.52 roundabouts per thousand people, and 1.87 per square km.

The huge Thornwood intersection in Glasgow is one of the city’s most notorious roundabouts. A consultation revealed that local primary school children were frightened to cross it. In what must be a big relief for people who live nearby, it’s set to get up to seven new pedestrian crossings before the end of 2027.

Leeds

In fourth place for the most roundabouts, only just behind Glasgow, is Leeds, with 325. This works out as 0.61 per thousand people, and 0.67 per square km.

One of the biggest roundabouts in Leeds is the Armley Gyratory, which locals and visitors describe on Reddit as “chaotic”, with one poster even saying entering it makes them feel like they’re in Mad Max – although they put this down in part to the intersection’s dramatic name! However, drivers seem to agree that the roundabout has improved since 2025’s road works, which included adding new footbridges.

Sunderland

Next up, we have Sunderland, the first city in the ranking with fewer than 300 roundabouts, mini roundabouts and traffic circles, at 228 in total. That’s still more than the vast majority of UK cities and works out as 1.34 roundabouts per thousand people, and 3.26 per square kilometre.

This city in the North East of England is notorious for its spiral roundabouts, where road markings indicate that drivers should move from an inner lane towards an outer lane as they make their way around – unlike traditional roundabouts where you stay in the same lane. Anyone taking their driving test in Sunderland is very likely to encounter one of these, and they can be very confusing if you’re not used to them.

Roundabouts per square kilometre

St Albans

First up with the highest number of roundabouts compared to the city’s land area, is St Albans, where there are 6.5 of the intersections per square kilometre. In this Hertfordshire cathedral city, there are 117 roundabouts compared to a land area of only 18 km². There are 1.33 roundabouts per thousand people.

St Albans has some tricky roundabouts, such as the Hatfield double mini roundabout. These kinds of intersections are built when two roads don’t quite converge, meaning that drivers have to navigate first one roundabout and then another in quick succession to get where they need to be.

Honourable mention: just outside St Albans in the nearby town of Hemel Hempstead, only about a 15-minute drive away, you can find the “Magic Roundabout” nicknamed after the classic children's TV show. Six mini roundabouts combine to form a giant one. This divisive intersection has appeared in polls as one of the UK’s either best or worst roundabouts – the worst in the whole of the UK in 2005 and the best in the UK in 2011!

Derry/Londonderry

Next up, Derry/Londonderry has 6.25 roundabouts per square km, only just behind St Albans. It’s quite a close call as the size of the city itself isn’t too different either. There are 75 roundabouts, mini roundabouts and traffic circles overall, across a 12 km² area, which works out as 0.88 per thousand people.

The Caw roundabout is frequently named as one of the most dangerous in Northern Ireland, with a significantly higher than average rate of collisions according to PSNI statistics. In May 2026, it was announced that plans to introduce traffic lights had been approved, with improvements set to be made by the end of 2026.

Wakefield

In third place is Wakefield, with 6.23 roundabouts per square km. That’s a total of 187 roundabouts overall, in a city of 30 km², which equals 1.72 roundabouts per thousand people.

Newton Hill and Ings Road Roundabouts attract a lot of discussion online from people who find these intersections very stressful to navigate, along with the multi-lane Marshway roundabout.

Perth

Next up, Perth has 5.67 roundabouts per square km. The Scottish city has a total of 102 roundabouts, mini roundabouts and traffic circles, which works out as 2.17 per thousand people. If that sounds rather high to you, you won’t be surprised to also see Perth ranking in our top 5 cities measuring roundabouts per capita.

One of the most notable roundabouts in Perth is the Broxden roundabout on the outskirts of the city – at its centre sits a 20 ft high metal sculpture of a grouse, nicknamed “The Grouse of the North”. Built as part of Perth’s 800th anniversary celebrations, the sculpture was paid for by drinks company Edrington Group, owner of the Famous Grouse whisky brand.

Winchester

Finally, in our ranking of roundabouts measured against the city’s size in land area, is Winchester, where there are 5.47 roundabouts per square km. Although the city is only small at 15 km², it has 82 of these intersections. Winchester has 1.82 roundabouts for every thousand people that live there.

Susan Simmonds, community ecologist of Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, shared in 2025 that Winchester’s roundabouts are in fact home to some amazing local species. With the city’s St Catherine’s Hill Nature Reserve being a very important habitat for all kinds of plants and creatures, wild orchids can be found growing on the nearby roundabouts. You might even spot a rare glow-worm!

Roundabouts per capita