In 2025, the three biggest government programs are health care (i.e, the NHS), state pensions, and welfare.
Spending details break down public spending by function and level of government. You can also drill down to view more spending detail by clicking the [+] control on each function line.
Spending Units: By default, public spending is displayed in billions of pounds. By using a dropdown control in the table heading you can select millions of pounds, percent of GDP, percent of central government spending, and percent of total spending. Fiscal Year: The default year displayed is the current HM Treasury fiscal year. But you can select any year you want using the dropdown control in the table heading. You can increase or decrease the year using the yr text links in the table heading. At the top and bottom of the dropdown only years ending in 0 are shown. Select a year to get close, then select the year you want. UK or Country/Region: By default, the table shows values for all spending in the United Kingdom. But you can select individual countries by selecting the country dropdown control in the table heading. Pie Chart: You can select a pie chart. You can create a pie chart for central government, local authority, and overall spending/revenue. | ||
GDP: £2,668.7 billion | United Kingdom Central Government and Local Authority Spending -5yr -1yr Fiscal Year 2025 Amounts in £ billion | Pop: 68.3 million |
Change View: | default COFOG | Central (2) | Gen. Gov.(2) | Local (2) | Total | charts | ||
[+] Pensions | 217.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 217.2 | ||||
[+] Health Care | 220.3 | 0.0 | 3.7 | 224.0 | ||||
[+] Education | 56.5 | 0.0 | 52.1 | 108.5 | ||||
[+] Bar Chart: Click on a chart icon to display a bar chart. There are chart icons along the base of the table; they create charts to depict the numbers in the chart columns. There are also chart icons along the right edge of the table; they create charts to depict the numbers in the table rows. [+] Drill-down: Click on the [+] to drill down to more detailed numbers on public spending. | 61.5 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 61.6 | ||||
[+] Welfare | 100.5 | 0.0 | 57.3 | 157.8 | ||||
[+] Protection | 23.1 | 0.0 | 21.1 | 44.2 | ||||
[+] Transport | 30.3 | 0.0 | 13.1 | 43.4 | ||||
[+] General Government | 18.5 | 0.0 | 5.9 | 24.4 | ||||
[+] Other Spending | 138.6 | 0.0 | 68.4 | 207.0 | ||||
[+] Interest | 66.6 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 67.3 | ||||
[+] Balance | 2.0 | 0.0 | -1.6 | 0.4 | ||||
[+] Total Spending: Start chart | 935.0 | 0.0 | 220.9 | 1,155.9 | ||||
[+] Public Net Debt | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2,782.3 | ||||
[+] Current Budget Deficit | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 46.9 | ||||
expand / collapse Click for Chart -> | ||||||||
Key: Pie Chart: You can select a pie chart. You can create a pie chart for central government, local authority, and overall spending/revenue. GDP: OBR EFO supp. economy tables | Switch to revenue |
The table shows overall public spendingcentral government and local authoritiesin the United Kingdom for the specified fiscal year. Government expenditure totals are aggregated for each major government function.
All outlays for British public spending prior to 2025 are outturn. More recent spending, including future years out to 2028, are estimated outturn, planned, or guesstimated.
Public sector expenditure between 1992 through 2028 is based on Public Expenditure Statistical Analysis (PESA) function or subfunction data published by HM Treasury.
You can use controls on the table to change the year or to drill down to view more detailed spending information. You can also view the spending data as percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Click the button at the right of each line of the table to display a bar chart of public spending in Britain. Click a button at the base of each column for a bar chart or pie chart. You can right click on the chart image to copy and paste it into your own content. Click the image to close the chart display.
Outturn vs. Plan: Public spending data in ukpublicspending.co.uk includes public spending outturns and also future spending in three categories: estimated outturn, planned, and guesstimated. Records of recent spending are more detailed than historical records of earlier times.
Current Budget Deficit: The Office of Budget Responsibility computes the deficit as (current expenditure less current receipts less depreciation). It will not equal the difference between spending and revenue on this site because this site computes total spending by including both current and capital expenditure and ignoring depreciation.
Public Spending Updates: The current numbers are based on HM Treasurys PESA for 2024. The next update will be made after the PESA 2025 is published in late spring or summer 2025.
Click button to download CSV file of data in table
Expenditure data since 1983 comes from HM Treasury’s Public Expenditure Statistical Analysis reports.
Detailed table of spending data sources here.
Gross Domestic Product data comes from measuringworth.com.
Central government spending data begins in 1692.
Local authority spending data begins in 1868.
GDP: OBR EFO supp. economy tables
Spending: HM Treasury PESA
Debt: OBR Public Finances Databank
> spending data sources for other years
On April 23, 2024 the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published its annual Public Sector Finances report. On May 6, 2024 we updated ukpublicrevenue.co.uk with the new public finance data.
£ billion | 2023-24 forecast | 2023-24 actual |
Central Government | £1,035.1 | £1,101.0 |
Local Authorities | £66.9 | £63.3 |
Total UK Revenue | £1,102.0 | £1,073.3 |
Revenue outturn data comes from the Office for National Statistics' March 2024 Public Sector Finances report using a spreadsheet file labeled "Public sector finances time series". Outturn revenue data for ukpublicrevenue.co.uk now extends from 1692 to 2023-24.
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