This guidance is for writing numbers in written text, as well as images and tables.
Use these rules alongside guidance on:
Writing about numbers
You should:
- write all numbers in numerals – including 1 to 9 and 0
- for numbers over 999, insert a comma for clarity – 9,000
- consider whether it would be clearer to write numbers as words; always write very large numbers (1 million or more) in words – 6 million not 6,000,000
- use a % sign for percentages – 50%
- use a 0 where there's no digit before the decimal point – 0.5
- use a £ symbol when writing an amount of money (or applicable currency)
- use 'to' in numerical ranges – '16 to 24' not '16-24'
- where you do not need exact numbers, round them up or down – £148.6 million instead of £148,646,000, 63% instead of 62.98% (round up for numbers ending in 5 or above)
- remove decimals where they're not needed – £10 is easier to read than £10.00 but £10.56 is okay if it needs to be an exact number
- write years as '2024 to 2025' – not '2024-2025' or '2024/2025'
Last reviewed