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Total UK Government Spending
Headline central, local, and total UK public spending.
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Total Spending Pie Chart for FY 2026
We have central government spending data going back to 1692. Local government spending goes back to 1868.
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Spending data is updated every July from HM Treasury’s PESA report.
UK Public Spending
UK public spending includes both central government and local authority spending.
Last year, FY 2025, total public spending was £1,244.9 billion.
This year, FY 2026, total public spending is budgeted at £1,323.8 billion.
UK Deficits
The “current budget deficit” is the difference between current spending and the sum of current receipts and depreciation.
Last year, FY 2025, the deficit was £74.6 billion.
This year, FY 2026, the deficit is budgeted at £36.1 billion.
UK Public Debt
The UK National Debt is the “public sector net debt” published by ONS.
Last year, FY 2025, the national debt was £2.8139 trillion.
This year, FY 2026, the national debt is budgeted at £2.8972 trillion.
UK Defence Spending
UK defence spending here includes defence, foreign affairs, and foreign aid.
Last year, FY 2025, total defence spending was £71.4 billion.
This year, FY 2026, total defence spending is budgeted at £73.6 billion.
UK Education Spending
Last year, FY 2025, total education spending was £118.7 billion.
This year, FY 2026, total education spending is budgeted at £120.8 billion.
Spending Data Sources
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.
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Data Sources for 2026:
GDP: OBR EFO supp. economy tables
Revenue: OBR March 2018 Economic and fiscal outlook – charts and tables: fiscal
Debt: OBR Public Finances Databank
> revenue data sources for other years
On July 23, 2025, HM Treasury published its Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses (PESA) for 2025. ukpublicspending.co.uk uses the PESA tables of public spending at the "sub-function" level as its major data source for UK public spending.
ukpublicspending.co.uk has now updated its spending tables using data from PESA 2025. The update includes outturn spending data for 2023-24, and plans data for 2024-25. ukpublicspending.co.uk uses PESA's Table 6.4 for Central Government expenditure, Table 7.4 for Local Authority expenditure, and Table 8.3 for Public Corporation capital expenditure.
Since HM Treasury does not provide plans estimates for future Local Authority spending, ukpublicspending.co.uk provides "guesstimates" instead. This is done by extending the percentage increase in spending between 2023-24 and 2024-25 for each sub-function for the plans year. It is assumed that local authority spending reductions will not carry through to plans years.
Country and Region spending has been updated up to 2023-24. These are obtained from Chapters 9 and 10 in the PESA document.
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