•Statistics on the mechanical properties of concrete with and without recycled aggregates.•Full recycled aggregate incorporation has little effect on the variability of the properties tested.•Normal distributions suited all properties of the 12 mixes tested.•Intermediate incorporation ratios increased the concrete’s variability.•Other’s statistics on the properties of natural aggregate concrete agree with our results. Research on the variability of the properties of recycled aggregate concrete is lacking and is necessary for the development of reliability analyses and code calibration procedures. This paper presents an experimental programme on the within-batch variability of the compressive strength, Young’s modulus, and splitting tensile strength of several recycled and natural aggregate concrete mixes. The influence of the recycled concrete aggregates on the mechanical properties and variability of concrete is analysed and discussed and benchmarks with standard predictions for the variability of natural aggregate concrete are made. It was found that full recycled aggregate concrete incorporation did not increase the variability of any of the properties tested, but intermediate ratios of recycled aggregate incorporation did. The properties of high-strength concrete mixes were more variable than that of all other mixes, irrespective of recycled aggregate incorporation. All properties of all compositions were suitably modelled by normal distributions. The coarse recycled aggregates were sourced from concrete waste.