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Thursday April 18, 2024 
compiled by Christopher Chantrill

Total UK Government Spending

Headline central, local, and total UK public spending.

  Amounts in £ billionMarch 2023March 2024 
Central929.1932.3
Local Authority205212.8
Total UK Spending1,134.11,145.1
Spending: budgeted guesstimated

Total Spending Pie Chart for FY 2024

We have central government spending data going back to 1692. Local government spending goes back to 1868.

  Spending FunctionsMarch 2024 
Pensions£204.4 billion
Health Care£220.5 billion
Education£108.5 billion
Defence£60.3 billion
Welfare£161.8 billion
Protection£44.2 billion
Transportation£45.9 billion
Gen. Government£28.4 billion
Other Spending£194.2 billion
Interest£77.6 billion
Total£1,145.1 billion
Spending: guesstimated

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 2023, total public spending was £1,134.1 billion.

This year, FY 2024, total public spending is budgeted at £1,145.1 billion.

UK Deficits

The “current budget deficit” is the difference between current spending and the sum of current receipts and depreciation.

Last year, FY 2023, the deficit was £87.4 billion.

This year, FY 2024, the deficit is budgeted at £82.7 billion.

UK Public Debt

The UK National Debt is the “public sector net debt” published by ONS.

Last year, FY 2023, the national debt was £2.5464 trillion.

This year, FY 2024, the national debt is budgeted at £2.7020 trillion.

UK Defence Spending

UK defence spending here includes defence, foreign affairs, and foreign aid.

Last year, FY 2023, total defence spending was £60.6 billion.

This year, FY 2024, total defence spending is budgeted at £60.3 billion.

UK Education Spending

Last year, FY 2023, total education spending was £105.5 billion.

This year, FY 2024, total education spending is budgeted at £108.5 billion.

Top Spending Requests:

Find NATIONAL DEBT today and history.

See DEFENCE SPENDING.

Check OVERALL EXPENDITURE.

Check SPENDING breakdown, details and history.

Get WELFARE stats, HEALTH CARE stats, and EDUCATION stats.

DOWNLOAD spending or national debt.

Get BUDGET details and est. vs. actual.

See PIE CHARTS of total spending, central spending.

See CHART GALLERY of spending.

See COUNTRY SPENDING for England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland.

See REGIONAL SPENDING for London etc.

See BAR CHARTS of spending, debt.

See PIE CHARTS here.

Make your own CUSTOM CHART.

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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On March 16, 2024 we updated UK revenue forecast data for 2023-24 to 2026-27 from the Office of Budget Responsibility's March 2024 Economic and fiscal outlook report  in a zip file labeled "March 2024 Economic and fiscal outlook - charts and tables (zip file)" and a spreadsheet file named "Annex_A_charts_and_tables_March_2024.xlsx" and Table A.5: Current Receipts in tab "TA.5".

UK Government Revenue Forecast
2022-23 ForecastMarch 2023
£ billion
March 2024
£ billion
Central Government£951.9£987.4
Local Authorities£68.1£670.6
Total UK Revenue£1,020.0£1,058.0

On March 16, 2024 we updated UK deficit forecast data for 2023-24 to 2028-29 from the Office of Budget Responsibility's March 2024 Economic and fiscal outlook report Table 6.5 Components of Net Borrowing in tab "6.5" in a zip file labeled "March 2024 Economic and fiscal outlook - detailed forecast tables (zip file)" and a spreadsheet file named "Detailed_forecast_tables_Aggregates_March_2024.xlsx".

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