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.

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.

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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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.

Year Inflation GDP-UK £ billion nominal Population-UK million Total Spending-fed percent GDP 1900 4.09 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 41.155 7.62 a 1901 -1.38 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 41.538 10.17 a 1902 -1.04 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 41.893 10.74 a 1903 -0.25 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 42.247 10.30 a 1904 -1.1 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 42.611 8.23 a 1905 0.48 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 42.981 7.64 a 1906 1.4 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 43.361 7.17 a 1907 1.58 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 43.738 6.76 a 1908 -0.74 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 44.124 6.58 a 1909 -0.35 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 44.520 6.58 a 1910 1.44 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 44.916 6.90 a 1911 0.58 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 42.190 7.10 a 1912 2.61 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 42.374 7.09 a 1913 -0.17 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 42.582 7.21 a 1914 -0.8 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 42.957 7.47 a 1915 14.36 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 41.362 18.78 a 1916 14.76 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 40.536 45.66 a 1917 24.35 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 39.781 52.14 a 1918 16.79 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 39.582 53.93 a 1919 15.24 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 42.944 48.06 a 1920 16.64 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 43.646 27.94 a 1921 -8.17 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 43.904 24.20 a 1922 -14.46 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 44.332 23.94 a 1923 -7.53 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 44.563 18.94 a 1924 -2.09 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 44.886 16.89 a 1925 -0.26 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 45.040 16.40 a 1926 -0.42 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 45.218 17.55 a 1927 -1.94 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 45.432 16.72 a 1928 -0.89 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 45.622 16.51 a 1929 -0.84 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 45.731 15.91 a 1930 -0.84 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 45.889 16.34 a 1931 -1.83 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 46.074 17.84 a 1932 -2.24 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 46.335 18.33 a 1933 -1.39 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 46.520 18.33 a 1934 -0.87 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 46.666 16.05 a 1935 0.79 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 46.869 15.66 a 1936 0.89 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 47.081 15.71 a 1937 3.46 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 47.289 15.81 a 1938 2.36 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 47.494 15.52 a 1939 2.88 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 47.548 16.10 a 1940 11.13 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 46.029 18.89 a 1941 11.47 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 44.870 45.71 a 1942 7.49 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 44.323 51.76 a 1943 4.44 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 48.262 57.35 a 1944 5.01 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 48.460 58.75 a 1945 1.63 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 48.669 63.38 a 1946 2.81 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 48.988 57.01 a 1947 9.08 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 49.539 39.36 a 1948 6.3 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 50.033 28.56 a 1949 3.18 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 50.331 26.42 a 1950 1.34 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 50.382 26.89 a 1951 8.55 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 50.287 0.00 1952 7.1 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 50.429 0.00 1953 1.83 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 50.593 0.00 1954 1.13 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 50.765 0.00 1955 4.92 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 50.946 0.00 1956 7.04 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 51.184 0.00 1957 4.08 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 51.430 0.00 1958 3.71 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 51.653 0.00 1959 0.76 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 51.956 0.00 1960 1.11 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 52.373 0.00 1961 3.88 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 52.807 0.00 1962 3.65 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 53.292 0.00 1963 1.55 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 53.625 0.00 1964 3.79 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 53.991 0.00 1965 6.06 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 54.350 0.00 1966 5.42 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 54.643 0.00 1967 3.05 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 54.959 0.00 1968 4.44 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 55.214 0.00 1969 6.76 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 55.461 0.00 1970 9.9 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 55.632 0.00 1971 8.57 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 55.928 0.00 1972 7.9 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 56.097 0.00 1973 9.37 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 56.223 0.00 1974 15.8 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 56.236 0.00 1975 25.7 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 56.226 0.00 1976 16 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 56.216 0.00 1977 14.17 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 56.190 0.00 1978 12.32 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 56.178 0.00 1979 14.97 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 56.240 0.00 1980 19.7 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 56.330 0.00 1981 12.31 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 56.358 0.00 1982 8.16 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 56.291 0.00 1983 5.78 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 56.316 0.00 1984 5.33 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 56.409 0.00 1985 5.62 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 56.554 0.00 1986 4.62 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 56.684 0.00 1987 5.69 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 56.804 0.00 1988 6.25 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 56.916 0.00 1989 8.03 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 57.077 0.00 1990 8.12 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 57.238 0.00 1991 6.56 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 57.439 0.00 1992 3.16 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 57.585 0.00 1993 2.79 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 57.714 24.91 a 1994 1.4 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 57.862 25.69 a 1995 2.5 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 58.025 25.49 a 1996 4.22 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 58.164 25.09 a 1997 -0.07 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 58.314 24.78 a 1998 1.07 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 58.475 24.11 a 1999 0.97 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 58.684 24.13 a 2000 1.89 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 58.886 23.22 a 2001 1.15 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 59.113 23.67 a 2002 2.15 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 59.366 24.31 a 2003 2.45 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 59.637 24.65 a 2004 2.59 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 59.950 25.47 a 2005 2.78 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 60.413 25.81 a 2006 2.88 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 60.827 26.02 a 2007 2.76 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 61.319 26.08 a 2008 3.07 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 61.824 26.87 a 2009 -11.63 measuringworth.com/ukgdp 62.261 29.44 a 2010 1.32 1558.1 62.760 32.02 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 2010: 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

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 Public Spending As Percent Of GDP
Fiscal Years 1900 to 2010
Year	Inflation	GDP-UK £ billion nominal	Population-UK million	Total Spending -fed percent GDP
1900	4.09	MW gdp	41.155	7.62	a
1901	-1.38	MW gdp	41.538	10.17	a
1902	-1.04	MW gdp	41.893	10.74	a
1903	-0.25	MW gdp	42.247	10.30	a
1904	-1.1	MW gdp	42.611	8.23	a
1905	0.48	MW gdp	42.981	7.64	a
1906	1.4	MW gdp	43.361	7.17	a
1907	1.58	MW gdp	43.738	6.76	a
1908	-0.74	MW gdp	44.124	6.58	a
1909	-0.35	MW gdp	44.520	6.58	a
1910	1.44	MW gdp	44.916	6.90	a
1911	0.58	MW gdp	42.190	7.10	a
1912	2.61	MW gdp	42.374	7.09	a
1913	-0.17	MW gdp	42.582	7.21	a
1914	-0.8	MW gdp	42.957	7.47	a
1915	14.36	MW gdp	41.362	18.78	a
1916	14.76	MW gdp	40.536	45.66	a
1917	24.35	MW gdp	39.781	52.14	a
1918	16.79	MW gdp	39.582	53.93	a
1919	15.24	MW gdp	42.944	48.06	a
1920	16.64	MW gdp	43.646	27.94	a
1921	-8.17	MW gdp	43.904	24.20	a
1922	-14.46	MW gdp	44.332	23.94	a
1923	-7.53	MW gdp	44.563	18.94	a
1924	-2.09	MW gdp	44.886	16.89	a
1925	-0.26	MW gdp	45.040	16.40	a
1926	-0.42	MW gdp	45.218	17.55	a
1927	-1.94	MW gdp	45.432	16.72	a
1928	-0.89	MW gdp	45.622	16.51	a
1929	-0.84	MW gdp	45.731	15.91	a
1930	-0.84	MW gdp	45.889	16.34	a
1931	-1.83	MW gdp	46.074	17.84	a
1932	-2.24	MW gdp	46.335	18.33	a
1933	-1.39	MW gdp	46.520	18.33	a
1934	-0.87	MW gdp	46.666	16.05	a
1935	0.79	MW gdp	46.869	15.66	a
1936	0.89	MW gdp	47.081	15.71	a
1937	3.46	MW gdp	47.289	15.81	a
1938	2.36	MW gdp	47.494	15.52	a
1939	2.88	MW gdp	47.548	16.10	a
1940	11.13	MW gdp	46.029	18.89	a
1941	11.47	MW gdp	44.870	45.71	a
1942	7.49	MW gdp	44.323	51.76	a
1943	4.44	MW gdp	48.262	57.35	a
1944	5.01	MW gdp	48.460	58.75	a
1945	1.63	MW gdp	48.669	63.38	a
1946	2.81	MW gdp	48.988	57.01	a
1947	9.08	MW gdp	49.539	39.36	a
1948	6.3	MW gdp	50.033	28.56	a
1949	3.18	MW gdp	50.331	26.42	a
1950	1.34	MW gdp	50.382	26.89	a
1951	8.55	MW gdp	50.287	0.00
1952	7.1	MW gdp	50.429	0.00
1953	1.83	MW gdp	50.593	0.00
1954	1.13	MW gdp	50.765	0.00
1955	4.92	MW gdp	50.946	0.00
1956	7.04	MW gdp	51.184	0.00
1957	4.08	MW gdp	51.430	0.00
1958	3.71	MW gdp	51.653	0.00
1959	0.76	MW gdp	51.956	0.00
1960	1.11	MW gdp	52.373	0.00
1961	3.88	MW gdp	52.807	0.00
1962	3.65	MW gdp	53.292	0.00
1963	1.55	MW gdp	53.625	0.00
1964	3.79	MW gdp	53.991	0.00
1965	6.06	MW gdp	54.350	0.00
1966	5.42	MW gdp	54.643	0.00
1967	3.05	MW gdp	54.959	0.00
1968	4.44	MW gdp	55.214	0.00
1969	6.76	MW gdp	55.461	0.00
1970	9.9	MW gdp	55.632	0.00
1971	8.57	MW gdp	55.928	0.00
1972	7.9	MW gdp	56.097	0.00
1973	9.37	MW gdp	56.223	0.00
1974	15.8	MW gdp	56.236	0.00
1975	25.7	MW gdp	56.226	0.00
1976	16	MW gdp	56.216	0.00
1977	14.17	MW gdp	56.190	0.00
1978	12.32	MW gdp	56.178	0.00
1979	14.97	MW gdp	56.240	0.00
1980	19.7	MW gdp	56.330	0.00
1981	12.31	MW gdp	56.358	0.00
1982	8.16	MW gdp	56.291	0.00
1983	5.78	MW gdp	56.316	0.00
1984	5.33	MW gdp	56.409	0.00
1985	5.62	MW gdp	56.554	0.00
1986	4.62	MW gdp	56.684	0.00
1987	5.69	MW gdp	56.804	0.00
1988	6.25	MW gdp	56.916	0.00
1989	8.03	MW gdp	57.077	0.00
1990	8.12	MW gdp	57.238	0.00
1991	6.56	MW gdp	57.439	0.00
1992	3.16	MW gdp	57.585	0.00
1993	2.79	MW gdp	57.714	24.91	a
1994	1.4	MW gdp	57.862	25.69	a
1995	2.5	MW gdp	58.025	25.49	a
1996	4.22	MW gdp	58.164	25.09	a
1997	-0.07	MW gdp	58.314	24.78	a
1998	1.07	MW gdp	58.475	24.11	a
1999	0.97	MW gdp	58.684	24.13	a
2000	1.89	MW gdp	58.886	23.22	a
2001	1.15	MW gdp	59.113	23.67	a
2002	2.15	MW gdp	59.366	24.31	a
2003	2.45	MW gdp	59.637	24.65	a
2004	2.59	MW gdp	59.950	25.47	a
2005	2.78	MW gdp	60.413	25.81	a
2006	2.88	MW gdp	60.827	26.02	a
2007	2.76	MW gdp	61.319	26.08	a
2008	3.07	MW gdp	61.824	26.87	a
2009	-11.63	1582.7	62.261	29.44	a
2010	1.32	1558.1	62.760	32.02	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 2010: 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_2010:

Sources for 1900:

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

Sources for 2010:

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

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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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