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 (2019), 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.

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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.

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 2019) 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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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.

Year Inflation GDP-UK £ billion nominal Population-UK million Public Net Debt-total £ billion nominal 1900 4.12 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 41.155 0.57 a 1901 -1.43 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 41.538 0.63 a 1902 -1 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 41.893 0.68 a 1903 -0.28 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 42.247 0.72 a 1904 -1.08 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 42.611 0.71 a 1905 0.46 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 42.981 0.71 a 1906 1.42 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 43.361 0.70 a 1907 1.54 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 43.738 0.68 a 1908 -0.72 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 44.124 0.67 a 1909 -0.35 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 44.520 0.66 a 1910 1.43 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 44.916 0.68 a 1911 0.6 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 42.190 0.65 a 1912 2.6 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 42.374 0.64 a 1913 -0.16 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 42.582 0.63 a 1914 -0.81 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 42.957 0.62 a 1915 14.34 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 41.362 1.08 a 1916 14.79 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 40.536 2.11 a 1917 24.32 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 39.781 3.99 a 1918 16.81 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 39.582 5.85 a 1919 15.24 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 42.944 7.41 a 1920 16.64 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 43.646 7.81 a 1921 -8.17 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 43.904 7.56 a 1922 -14.46 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 44.332 7.64 a 1923 -7.53 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 44.563 7.73 a 1924 -2.09 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 44.886 7.63 a 1925 -0.26 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 45.040 7.58 a 1926 -0.42 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 45.218 7.55 a 1927 -1.94 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 45.432 7.54 a 1928 -0.89 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 45.622 7.52 a 1929 -0.84 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 45.731 7.49 a 1930 -0.84 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 45.889 7.46 a 1931 -1.83 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 46.074 7.40 a 1932 -2.24 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 46.335 7.42 a 1933 -1.39 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 46.520 7.63 a 1934 -0.87 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 46.666 7.81 a 1935 0.79 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 46.869 7.79 a 1936 0.9 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 47.081 7.78 a 1937 3.46 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 47.289 7.79 a 1938 2.36 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 47.494 8.01 a 1939 2.89 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 47.548 8.15 a 1940 11.13 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 46.029 7.90 a 1941 11.46 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 44.870 10.37 a 1942 7.49 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 44.323 13.04 a 1943 4.44 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 48.262 15.82 a 1944 5 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 48.460 18.56 a 1945 1.64 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 48.669 21.37 a 1946 2.81 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 48.988 23.64 a 1947 9.08 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 49.539 25.63 a 1948 6.34 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 50.033 25.62 a 1949 3.19 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 50.331 25.17 a 1950 1.34 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 50.382 25.80 a 1951 8.55 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 50.287 25.92 a 1952 7.11 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 50.429 25.89 a 1953 1.83 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 50.593 26.05 a 1954 1.13 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 50.765 26.58 a 1955 4.91 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 50.946 26.93 a 1956 7.05 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 51.184 27.04 a 1957 4.08 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 51.430 27.01 a 1958 3.7 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 51.653 27.23 a 1959 0.76 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 51.956 27.38 a 1960 1.11 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 52.373 27.73 a 1961 3.88 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 52.807 28.25 a 1962 3.65 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 53.292 28.67 a 1963 1.55 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 53.625 29.85 a 1964 3.77 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 53.991 30.23 a 1965 6.05 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 54.350 30.44 a 1966 5.42 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 54.643 31.34 a 1967 3.03 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 54.959 31.99 a 1968 4.44 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 55.214 34.19 a 1969 6.75 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 55.461 33.98 a 1970 9.92 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 55.632 33.08 a 1971 8.57 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 55.928 33.44 a 1972 7.9 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 56.097 35.84 a 1973 9.39 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 56.223 36.88 a 1974 15.8 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 56.236 40.46 a 1975 25.7 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 56.226 52.10 a 1976 16.02 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 56.216 64.70 a 1977 14.17 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 56.190 73.60 a 1978 12.31 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 56.178 79.50 a 1979 14.98 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 56.240 88.60 a 1980 19.69 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 56.330 98.20 a 1981 12.31 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 56.358 113.80 a 1982 8.16 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 56.291 125.20 a 1983 5.78 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 56.316 132.50 a 1984 5.34 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 56.409 143.60 a 1985 5.63 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 56.554 157.00 a 1986 4.6 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 56.684 162.50 a 1987 5.82 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 56.804 167.80 a 1988 6.47 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 56.916 167.40 a 1989 8.21 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 57.077 153.70 a 1990 8.58 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 57.238 151.90 a 1991 6.64 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 57.439 151.10 a 1992 3.29 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 57.585 165.80 a 1993 3.07 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 57.714 201.90 a 1994 1.91 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 57.862 249.80 a 1995 2.68 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 58.025 290.00 a 1996 4.24 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 58.164 322.10 a 1997 -0.15 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 58.314 347.00 a 1998 1.33 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 58.475 360.40 a 1999 1.42 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 58.684 363.10 a 2000 1.17 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 58.886 353.30 a 2001 1.55 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 59.113 322.00 a 2002 2.16 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 59.366 330.60 a 2003 2.46 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 59.637 369.20 a 2004 2.65 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 59.950 404.50 a 2005 3.02 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 60.413 460.90 a 2006 2.86 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 60.827 499.40 a 2007 2.31 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 61.319 535.20 a 2008 3.42 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 61.824 567.20 a 2009 0.87 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 62.261 787.20 a 2010 1.32 1558.1 62.760 1027.90 a 2011 1.94 1627.2 63.285 1168.70 a 2012 1.78 1672.3 63.705 1261.20 a 2013 1.88 1727.5 64.106 1366.20 a 2014 1.96 1800.8 64.597 1461.10 a 2015 1.25 1879.5 65.110 1551.80 a 2016 0.74 1931.5 65.648 1595.00 a Legend: a - actual outturn Data Sources for 1900: GDP: www.measuringworth.org/ukgdp/ Measuring Worth - UK GDP Spending: <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/British-Historical-Statistics-B-Mitchell/dp/1107402441/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1366835878&sr=8-1 B.R. Mitchell, British Historical Statistics Debt: <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/British-Historical-Statistics-B-Mitchell/dp/1107402441/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1366835878&sr=8-1 B.R. Mitchell, British Historical Statistics Data Sources for 2016: GDP: obr.uk/efo/economic-fiscal-outlook-march-2018/ OBR EFO supp. economy tables Spending: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-treasury/series/public-expenditure-statistical-analyses-pesa HM Treasury PESA Debt: obr.uk/data/ OBR Public Finances Databank

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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.

UK National Debt Since 1900
Fiscal Years 1900 to 2016
Year	Inflation	GDP-UK £ billion nominal	Population-UK million	Public Net Debt -total £ billion nominal
1900	4.12	MW gdp	41.155	0.57	a
1901	-1.43	MW gdp	41.538	0.63	a
1902	-1	MW gdp	41.893	0.68	a
1903	-0.28	MW gdp	42.247	0.72	a
1904	-1.08	MW gdp	42.611	0.71	a
1905	0.46	MW gdp	42.981	0.71	a
1906	1.42	MW gdp	43.361	0.70	a
1907	1.54	MW gdp	43.738	0.68	a
1908	-0.72	MW gdp	44.124	0.67	a
1909	-0.35	MW gdp	44.520	0.66	a
1910	1.43	MW gdp	44.916	0.68	a
1911	0.6	MW gdp	42.190	0.65	a
1912	2.6	MW gdp	42.374	0.64	a
1913	-0.16	MW gdp	42.582	0.63	a
1914	-0.81	MW gdp	42.957	0.62	a
1915	14.34	MW gdp	41.362	1.08	a
1916	14.79	MW gdp	40.536	2.11	a
1917	24.32	MW gdp	39.781	3.99	a
1918	16.81	MW gdp	39.582	5.85	a
1919	15.24	MW gdp	42.944	7.41	a
1920	16.64	MW gdp	43.646	7.81	a
1921	-8.17	MW gdp	43.904	7.56	a
1922	-14.46	MW gdp	44.332	7.64	a
1923	-7.53	MW gdp	44.563	7.73	a
1924	-2.09	MW gdp	44.886	7.63	a
1925	-0.26	MW gdp	45.040	7.58	a
1926	-0.42	MW gdp	45.218	7.55	a
1927	-1.94	MW gdp	45.432	7.54	a
1928	-0.89	MW gdp	45.622	7.52	a
1929	-0.84	MW gdp	45.731	7.49	a
1930	-0.84	MW gdp	45.889	7.46	a
1931	-1.83	MW gdp	46.074	7.40	a
1932	-2.24	MW gdp	46.335	7.42	a
1933	-1.39	MW gdp	46.520	7.63	a
1934	-0.87	MW gdp	46.666	7.81	a
1935	0.79	MW gdp	46.869	7.79	a
1936	0.9	MW gdp	47.081	7.78	a
1937	3.46	MW gdp	47.289	7.79	a
1938	2.36	MW gdp	47.494	8.01	a
1939	2.89	MW gdp	47.548	8.15	a
1940	11.13	MW gdp	46.029	7.90	a
1941	11.46	MW gdp	44.870	10.37	a
1942	7.49	MW gdp	44.323	13.04	a
1943	4.44	MW gdp	48.262	15.82	a
1944	5	MW gdp	48.460	18.56	a
1945	1.64	MW gdp	48.669	21.37	a
1946	2.81	MW gdp	48.988	23.64	a
1947	9.08	MW gdp	49.539	25.63	a
1948	6.34	MW gdp	50.033	25.62	a
1949	3.19	MW gdp	50.331	25.17	a
1950	1.34	MW gdp	50.382	25.80	a
1951	8.55	MW gdp	50.287	25.92	a
1952	7.11	MW gdp	50.429	25.89	a
1953	1.83	MW gdp	50.593	26.05	a
1954	1.13	MW gdp	50.765	26.58	a
1955	4.91	MW gdp	50.946	26.93	a
1956	7.05	MW gdp	51.184	27.04	a
1957	4.08	MW gdp	51.430	27.01	a
1958	3.7	MW gdp	51.653	27.23	a
1959	0.76	MW gdp	51.956	27.38	a
1960	1.11	MW gdp	52.373	27.73	a
1961	3.88	MW gdp	52.807	28.25	a
1962	3.65	MW gdp	53.292	28.67	a
1963	1.55	MW gdp	53.625	29.85	a
1964	3.77	MW gdp	53.991	30.23	a
1965	6.05	MW gdp	54.350	30.44	a
1966	5.42	MW gdp	54.643	31.34	a
1967	3.03	MW gdp	54.959	31.99	a
1968	4.44	MW gdp	55.214	34.19	a
1969	6.75	MW gdp	55.461	33.98	a
1970	9.92	MW gdp	55.632	33.08	a
1971	8.57	MW gdp	55.928	33.44	a
1972	7.9	MW gdp	56.097	35.84	a
1973	9.39	MW gdp	56.223	36.88	a
1974	15.8	MW gdp	56.236	40.46	a
1975	25.7	MW gdp	56.226	52.10	a
1976	16.02	MW gdp	56.216	64.70	a
1977	14.17	MW gdp	56.190	73.60	a
1978	12.31	MW gdp	56.178	79.50	a
1979	14.98	MW gdp	56.240	88.60	a
1980	19.69	MW gdp	56.330	98.20	a
1981	12.31	MW gdp	56.358	113.80	a
1982	8.16	MW gdp	56.291	125.20	a
1983	5.78	MW gdp	56.316	132.50	a
1984	5.34	MW gdp	56.409	143.60	a
1985	5.63	MW gdp	56.554	157.00	a
1986	4.6	MW gdp	56.684	162.50	a
1987	5.82	MW gdp	56.804	167.80	a
1988	6.47	MW gdp	56.916	167.40	a
1989	8.21	MW gdp	57.077	153.70	a
1990	8.58	MW gdp	57.238	151.90	a
1991	6.64	MW gdp	57.439	151.10	a
1992	3.29	MW gdp	57.585	165.80	a
1993	3.07	MW gdp	57.714	201.90	a
1994	1.91	MW gdp	57.862	249.80	a
1995	2.68	MW gdp	58.025	290.00	a
1996	4.24	MW gdp	58.164	322.10	a
1997	-0.15	MW gdp	58.314	347.00	a
1998	1.33	MW gdp	58.475	360.40	a
1999	1.42	MW gdp	58.684	363.10	a
2000	1.17	MW gdp	58.886	353.30	a
2001	1.55	MW gdp	59.113	322.00	a
2002	2.16	MW gdp	59.366	330.60	a
2003	2.46	MW gdp	59.637	369.20	a
2004	2.65	MW gdp	59.950	404.50	a
2005	3.02	MW gdp	60.413	460.90	a
2006	2.86	MW gdp	60.827	499.40	a
2007	2.31	MW gdp	61.319	535.20	a
2008	3.42	MW gdp	61.824	567.20	a
2009	0.87	1582.7	62.261	787.20	a
2010	1.32	1558.1	62.760	1027.90	a
2011	1.94	1627.2	63.285	1168.70	a
2012	1.78	1672.3	63.705	1261.20	a
2013	1.88	1727.5	64.106	1366.20	a
2014	1.96	1800.8	64.597	1461.10	a
2015	1.25	1879.5	65.110	1551.80	a
2016	0.74	1931.5	65.648	1595.00	a
Legend: a - actual outturn Data Sources for 1900: GDP: Measuring Worth - UK GDP Spending: B.R. Mitchell, British Historical Statistics Debt: B.R. Mitchell, British Historical Statistics Data Sources for 2016: GDP: OBR EFO supp. economy tables Spending: HM Treasury PESA Debt: OBR Public Finances Databank

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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 1900_2016:

Sources for 1900:

GDP: Measuring Worth - UK GDP
Spending: B.R. Mitchell, British Historical Statistics
Debt: B.R. Mitchell, British Historical Statistics

Sources for 2016:

GDP: OBR EFO supp. economy tables
Spending: HM Treasury PESA
Debt: OBR Public Finances Databank

> spending data sources for other years

PESA 2025 Update

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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Uk Public Revenue Outturn -- March 2025

On April 23, 2025 the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published its annual Public Sector Fin...

UK GDP and Public Debt Update -- March 2025

On April 30, 2025 ukpublicspending.co.uk updated UK GDP and public debt outturn and forecasts rel...

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Budget News

Budget 2012: 50p tax rate scrapped and allowance raised
Personal allowance now close to £10,000.

Autumn Statement 2011
Chancellor George Osborne introduces six more years of pain.

Budget 2011: George Osborne set for 8bn pound windfall
Treasury revenue up, so no spending cuts in Budget 2011

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