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Saturday May 18, 2024 
compiled by Christopher Chantrill

UK Deficit Since World War II

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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’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.

UK Deficit Since World War II
Fiscal Years 1947 to 2017
YearInflationGDP-UK
£ billion nominal
Population-UK
million
Current Budget Deficit -total
percent GDP
19479.08MW gdp49.5392.08a
19486.3MW gdp50.033-2.56a
19493.18MW gdp50.331-6.55a
19501.34MW gdp50.382-7.47a
19518.55MW gdp50.287-6.61a
19527.1MW gdp50.429-5.45a
19531.83MW gdp50.593-4.13a
19541.13MW gdp50.765-3.37a
19554.92MW gdp50.946-3.22a
19567.04MW gdp51.184-4.23a
19574.08MW gdp51.430-3.70a
19583.71MW gdp51.653-3.82a
19590.76MW gdp51.956-3.61a
19601.11MW gdp52.373-1.74a
19613.88MW gdp52.807-1.45a
19623.65MW gdp53.292-2.15a
19631.55MW gdp53.625-2.32a
19643.79MW gdp53.991-2.66a
19656.06MW gdp54.350-3.92a
19665.42MW gdp54.643-4.26a
19673.05MW gdp54.959-4.17a
19684.44MW gdp55.214-3.82a
19696.76MW gdp55.461-5.95a
19709.9MW gdp55.632-7.15a
19718.57MW gdp55.928-6.28a
19727.9MW gdp56.097-4.02a
19739.37MW gdp56.223-2.11a
197415.8MW gdp56.236-1.04a
197525.7MW gdp56.2260.14a
197616MW gdp56.2160.68a
197714.17MW gdp56.1900.38a
197812.32MW gdp56.1780.64a
197914.97MW gdp56.2401.56a
198019.7MW gdp56.3301.03a
198112.31MW gdp56.3581.90a
19828.16MW gdp56.2910.51a
19835.78MW gdp56.3160.63a
19845.33MW gdp56.4091.05a
19855.62MW gdp56.5541.22a
19864.62MW gdp56.6840.61a
19875.69MW gdp56.8040.91a
19886.25MW gdp56.9160.64a
19898.03MW gdp57.077-0.95a
19908.12MW gdp57.238-0.72a
19916.56MW gdp57.4390.09a
19923.16MW gdp57.5852.01a
19932.79MW gdp57.7145.01a
19941.4MW gdp57.8625.58a
19952.5MW gdp58.0254.38a
19964.22MW gdp58.1643.19a
1997-0.07MW gdp58.3142.69a
19981.07MW gdp58.4750.57a
19990.97MW gdp58.684-0.47a
20001.89MW gdp58.886-1.46a
20011.15MW gdp59.113-1.81a
20022.15MW gdp59.366-0.56a
20032.45MW gdp59.6371.44a
20042.59MW gdp59.9501.72a
20052.78MW gdp60.4131.80a
20062.88MW gdp60.8271.37a
20072.76MW gdp61.3190.97a
20083.07MW gdp61.8241.13a
2009-0.261584.562.2614.43a
20101.321561.962.7607.31a
20111.721630.763.2856.27a
20121.791672.563.7055.41a
20131.761727.564.1065.33a
20142.131803.164.5974.33a
20151.141879.865.1103.35a
20160.811937.665.6482.58a
20172.12021.766.0401.08a

Legend:
a - actual outturn

Data Sources for 1947:
GDP: Measuring Worth - UK GDP
Spending: B.R. Mitchell, British Historical Statistics
Debt: B.R. Mitchell, British Historical Statistics

Data Sources for 2017:
GDP: OBR EFO supp. economy tables
Spending: HM Treasury PESA
Debt: OBR Public Finances Databank

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Top Spending Requests:

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Get BUDGET details and est. vs. actual.

See PIE CHARTS of total spending, central spending.

See CHART GALLERY of spending.

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See REGIONAL SPENDING for London etc.

See BAR CHARTS of spending, debt.

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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 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.

UK Government Revenue
£ billion2023-24
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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