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Analysis

National
Debt

UK
Deficit

Current
Spending

Spending
Analysis

UK
Taxes

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What is the UK National Debt?

At Budget time in March 2022:
The UK National Debt is estimated to be £2.50 trillion.

UK National Debt Analysis

This page shows the current trends in UK national debt. Click to download debt. Also see charts on UK debt history.

National
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National
Deficit

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Recent UK Total National Debt

Chart D.11t: Recent UK National Debt

Chart D.12t: Recent UK Nat. Debt as Pct GDP

Public Debt in the United Kingdom is principally the debt of the central government.

In 2005 the UK National Debt was less that £0.5 trillion. But then came the worldwide financial crisis of 2008 and subsequent recession. The National Debt increased rapidly and went over £1 trillion in 2011 and over £1.5 trillion in 2016. At the end of March 2021 the National Debt was £2.20 trillion.

In terms of Gross Domestic Product the UK National Debt in 2005 was about 38 percent of GDP.

But in the last ten years, in the wake of the Crash of 2008 and subsequent recession, the National Debt has doubled to over 80 percent GDP, but is leveling out as a percent of GDP. At the end of March 2021 the National Debt was 104.6 percent of GDP.

UK Total Government Debt in the 20th Century

Chart D.13t: UK National Debt since 1900

The National Debt began the 20th century at about 30 percent of GDP. It jerked above 150 percent in World War I and stayed high. Debt breached 200 percent during World War II. Debt declined to 50 percent of GDP by the 1970s and dipped to 25 percent by 1990. The National Debt began a rapid increase in the aftermath of the worldwide financial crisis of 2008, and notched up again in the global COVID crisis of 2020.

UK Total Government Debt since 1692

Chart D.14t: Three Centuries of UK National Debt

The National Debt began when William III engaged a syndicate of City merchants to market an issue of government debt. The syndicate became the Bank of England, and HM government debt began a century-long climb, financing Marlborough’s wars, wars against the French, against the North American colonial rebels, and peaking in 1815 at the end of the Napoleonic Wars at over 200 percent of GDP. After the war the debt entered a century-long decline. Government debt exploded in World War I and again in World War II where it reached the level of 1815 at over 200 percent of GDP. Debt declined below 50 percent of GDP by the 1970s. The financial crisis of 2008 cranked the National Debt up to over 80 percent of GDP.

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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 2017_2027:

Sources for 2017:

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

Sources for 2027:

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

> spending data sources for other years

PESA 2021 Update

On July 20, 2021, HM Treasury published its Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses (PESA) for 2021. 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 2021. The update includes outturn spending data for 2020-21, and plans data for 2021-22. 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 2019-20 and 2020-21 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 2019-20. These are obtained from Chapters 9 and 10 in the PESA document.