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Thursday April 18, 2024 
compiled by Christopher Chantrill

Time Series Chart of UK Public Spending

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Use the table below to change the data series


You can display a maximum of five data series at once.

Spending Units: By default, public spending is displayed in billions of pounds. By using a dropdown control in the table heading you can select £ bln (2018), and percent of GDP.
Chart Title: You can create a title for your chart. Use the title text box to enter a title and click the button to the right of the text field.
UK or Country: By default, the chart shows overall United Kingdom government spending. But you can select spending for individual countries by selecting the country dropdown control in the table heading.
View: There are two ways to view the spending data. The default view breaks down spending into functions. There is also a COFOG view that categorizes spending using the UN standard methodology.
General Help: You can use controls on the table below to change the following variables: spending units—e.g. percent of GDP, etc.— and year. You can select the HM Treasury Budget fiscal year.
Line/Bar: By default, the data series are displayed as line charts. But you can also select a bar chart.
Data Stack: By default, the data series are “stacked” when displayed on the chart. But you can change the setting to “un stack” the data series.
Chart Size: By default, the chart is displayed at medium size. But you can use the dropdown control to change the size.
Color: By default charts are displayed with color data lines and fill. You can change this to grayscale if you want.

Data Range

Start Year: You can select any start year you want using the dropdown control in the table heading. At the top and bottom of the dropdown only years ending in “0” are shown. Select a start year to get close, then select the start year you want.
End Year: You can select any end year you want using the dropdown control in the table heading. At the top and bottom of the dropdown only years ending in “0” are shown. Select an end year to get close, then select the end year you want.
Category (max 7)Sub-categoryCentral 
Gov.
General 
Gov.
Local 
Auth.
Total   
 
Data Series: You can select up to five data series to display on your chart. Click on a checkbox to add or delete a data series from the chart. Once you get to five data series you will have to delete a series before you can add one. Click a [+] expand control to drill down to more detailed data series.
 *
 
 All Categories
* If you add data series at same government level, this item will be shown as Remaining Spending.

If you’d like to create your own custom chart of spending data you should use the table above to make your selections.

  • Select the year range: Select the start year and the end year you want by selecting the years you want in the two year dropdown boxes.
  • Select spending items: Just select the spending item you want from the dropdown control. Then click a radio button to select the level of government: federal, state, or local. If you select from the < select > you will add another data series to your chart. Up to 5 data series are allowed at once. Click the “X” link to remove a data series from the chart.
  • Select units: You can select the display in billions of nominal (i.e. inflated) pounds, billions of real (i.e. year 2018) pounds, or as percent of GDP.
  • Choose chart features: You can select the size of the chart, switch from bar chart to line chart, select color or black and white, stacked or not. You can also blow up the chart to fill the screen with the “fullsize” tab control above the chart display.

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Download Data File

 

Click button to download CSV file of dataset in chart.

Download Tab-delimited Data

Copy and Paste: Here is the dataset you have just charted. The table also includes nominal or chained GDP for each year charted. If you’d like the data for analysis, just copy the tab-delimited text in the textbox below (click cursor in text box, then press ctrl-A then press ctrl-C) and paste it into your spreadsheet.

View Data Series

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Below is a formatted version of the dataset displayed in the chart. Included is a column of nominal or chained GDP for each year charted.

Total Spending
Fiscal Years 1707 to 1727
YearInflationGDP-UK
£ billion nominal
Population-UK
million
Total Spending -total
£ billion nominal
1707-2.5MW gdp9.3060.01a
17083.82MW gdp9.3360.01a
17097.55MW gdp9.3660.01a
17102.91MW gdp9.3960.01a
1711-7.71MW gdp9.4260.02a
1712-2.51MW gdp9.4560.01a
17132.95MW gdp9.4870.01a
17140.81MW gdp9.5170.01a
1715-3.29MW gdp9.5470.01a
17160.11MW gdp9.5780.01a
17171.86MW gdp9.6090.01a
1718-1MW gdp9.6400.01a
1719-1.57MW gdp9.6700.01a
17203.97MW gdp9.7010.01a
1721-4.43MW gdp9.7330.01a
1722-2.21MW gdp9.7640.01a
17232.41MW gdp9.7950.01a
1724-0.15MW gdp9.8260.01a
17252.04MW gdp9.8580.01a
17261.98MW gdp9.8890.01a
1727-1.64MW gdp9.9210.01a

Legend:
a - actual outturn

Data Sources for 1707:
GDP: data from measuringworth.com (but now unsupported)
Spending: B.R. Mitchell, British Historical Statistics
Debt: B.R. Mitchell, British Historical Statistics

Data Sources for 1727:
GDP: data from measuringworth.com (but now unsupported)
Spending: B.R. Mitchell, British Historical Statistics
Debt: B.R. Mitchell, British Historical Statistics

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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.

Site Search

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tablechartspend/gdpdebt/gdpuk gdpuk real gdp2016breakdowncentral+localcentrallocaluk budgethealtheducationdefencetransport2015

Data Sources for 1707_1727:

Sources for 1707:

GDP: data from measuringworth.com (but now unsupported)
Spending: B.R. Mitchell, British Historical Statistics
Debt: B.R. Mitchell, British Historical Statistics

Sources for 1727:

GDP: data from measuringworth.com (but now unsupported)
Spending: B.R. Mitchell, British Historical Statistics
Debt: B.R. Mitchell, British Historical Statistics

> spending data sources for other years

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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