UK Central Government and Local Authority Spending in 1901

General Help: You can use controls on the spending table below to change the following variables: spending units—e.g. percent of GDP, etc.— and year.

FAQ

Help Topics: Use this Help Topic dropdown control to find out how you can use this table of public spending for your own needs.

Spending Units: By default, public spending is displayed in billions of pounds. By using a dropdown control in the table heading you can select millions of pounds, percent of GDP, percent of central government spending, and percent of total spending.

Fiscal Year: The default year displayed is the current HM Treasury fiscal year. But you can select any year you want using the dropdown control in the table heading. You can increase or decrease the year using the “yr” text links in the table heading. At the top and bottom of the dropdown only years ending in “0” are shown. Select a year to get close, then select the year you want.

United Kingdom Central Government
and Local Authority Spending
-5yr -1yr Fiscal Year 1901 +1yr +5yr
Amounts in £ million

GDP: £1,893.0 million(1)

Change View:	default COFOG	Central (2)	General Gov.(2)	Local (2)	Total	clk Bar Chart: Click on a chart icon to display a bar chart. There are chart icons along the base of the table; they create charts to depict the numbers in the chart columns. There are also chart icons along the right edge of the table; they create charts to depict the numbers in the table rows. [+] Drill-down: Click on the [+] to drill down to more detailed numbers on public spending.
[+] Pensions		0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
[+] Health Care		0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
[+] Education		0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
[+] Defence		149.0	0.0	0.0	149.0
[+] Welfare		14.0	0.0	40.0	54.0
[+] Protection		4.0	0.0	6.0	10.0
[+] Transport		0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
[+] General Government		8.0	0.0	9.0	17.0
[+] Other Spending		1.0	0.0	48.0	49.0
[+] Interest		20.0	0.0	0.0	20.0
[+] Balance		0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
[+] Total Spending		196.0	0.0	103.0	299.0
[+] Public Net Debt		0.0	0.0	0.0	629.0
	Click for Bar Chart or Pie Chart ->	Pie Chart: Click on a pie icon to display a pie chart. You can create a pie chart for federal, state and local, and overall spending/revenue.
Key: interpolated outturn HM Treasury PESA Year: By default, the table displays planned and outturn public spending in the current HM Treasury PESA. But you can look at previous planned numbers using the dropdown control at the bottom of the table. — using HM Treasury PESA (1) Measuring Worth - U.K. GDP (2) See: Derivation of UK Public Spending for 1900 - 1950

The table shows overall public spending—central government and local authorities—in the United Kingdom for the specified fiscal year. Government expenditure totals are aggregated for each major government function.

All outlays for British public spending prior to 2007 are outturn. More recent spending, including future years out to 2011, are estimated outturn, planned, or guesstimated.

Public sector expenditure between 1992 through 2011 is based on Public Expenditure Statistical Analysis (PESA) function or subfunction data published by HM Treasury.

You can use controls on the table to change the year or to drill down to view more detailed spending information. You can also view the spending data as percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Click the button at the right of each line of the table to display a bar chart of public spending in Britain. Click a button at the base of each column for a bar chart or pie chart. You can right click on the chart image to copy and paste it into your own content. Click the image to close the chart display.

Notes

Outturn vs. Plan: Public spending data in ukpublicspending.co.uk includes public spending outturns and also future spending in three categories: estimated outturn, planned, and guesstimated. Records of recent spending are more detailed than historical records of earlier times.

Public Spending Updates: The current numbers are based on HM Treasury’s PESA of 2008. The next update will be made after the PESA 2009 is published in early 2009.

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SOURCES

A Century of Change
stats for UK (and sources)

Changes to the Public Expenditure by Function Series Technical Note (10 March 2004)
adjustments to conform to UN COFOG

Info on Historical Public Spending Data in UK
discusses changes in data series

Measuring Worth - GDP Series for US and UK
includes GDP and chained GDP for US; GDP and chained GDP for UK

National Statistics Online - Product - Annual Abstract of Statistics
UK annual statistical report

National Statistics: index
from HM Treasury. Statistics at basis of spending data

PDF file of Production of the Public Expenditure by Function Historical Series
HM Treasury reconciliation of changing data series.

Public Expenditure - Statistical Analyses 1998-99
functions back to 1983, totals back to 1963

UK 1999 Treasury Review of Public Sector and Economic Cycles
'joined-up" stuff

UK Annual Abstract 2006 (pdf)
UK national stats

UK Local Government Finance Statistics
from UK Department for Communities and Local Government

UK Official Documents - Publications by Title
includes PESAs

United Kingdom National Accounts - The Blue Book
contents page - goes back to 1985 in pdf

United Nations Statistics Division - Classifications Registry
UN COFOG Codes

Education

“We have met with families in which for weeks together, not an article of sustenance but potatoes had been used; yet for every child the hard-earned sum was provided to send them to school.”
E. G. West, Education and the State

Click here to display trend charts of public spending. Click here to display chart of UK National Debt.

Notes

Click here to display trend charts of public spending.
Click here to display chart of UK National Debt.