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Time Series Public Spending
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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 (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. |
| Category (max 7) | Sub-category | Central 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. | X | ||||||
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| 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 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.
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.
| Year | Inflation | GDP-UK £ billion nominal | Population-UK million | Remaining Spending -total -total percent GDP | Welfare -total -total percent GDP | Pensions -total -total percent GDP | |||
| 1980 | 19.69 | MW gdp | 56.330 | 29.92 | a | 5.83 | a | 4.20 | a |
| 1981 | 12.31 | MW gdp | 56.358 | 29.41 | a | 6.17 | a | 4.42 | a |
| 1982 | 8.16 | MW gdp | 56.291 | 29.52 | a | 6.11 | a | 4.44 | a |
| 1983 | 5.78 | MW gdp | 56.316 | 26.88 | a | 6.50 | a | 4.39 | a |
| 1984 | 5.34 | MW gdp | 56.409 | 26.45 | a | 6.49 | a | 4.24 | a |
| 1985 | 5.63 | MW gdp | 56.554 | 25.91 | a | 6.35 | a | 4.13 | a |
| 1986 | 4.6 | MW gdp | 56.684 | 24.82 | a | 6.46 | a | 4.23 | a |
| 1987 | 5.82 | MW gdp | 56.804 | 22.95 | a | 6.14 | a | 4.04 | a |
| 1988 | 6.47 | MW gdp | 56.916 | 21.83 | a | 5.68 | a | 3.73 | a |
| 1989 | 8.21 | MW gdp | 57.077 | 20.19 | a | 5.47 | a | 3.61 | a |
| 1990 | 8.58 | MW gdp | 57.238 | 20.92 | a | 5.46 | a | 3.57 | a |
| 1991 | 6.64 | MW gdp | 57.439 | 21 | a | 6.09 | a | 3.82 | a |
| 1992 | 3.29 | MW gdp | 57.585 | 21.99 | a | 6.49 | a | 3.84 | a |
| 1993 | 3.07 | MW gdp | 57.714 | 22.24 | a | 7.01 | i | 4.49 | a |
| 1994 | 1.91 | MW gdp | 57.862 | 21.09 | a | 7.31 | i | 5.09 | a |
| 1995 | 2.68 | MW gdp | 58.025 | 22.01 | a | 7.06 | i | 4.86 | a |
| 1996 | 4.24 | MW gdp | 58.164 | 21.46 | a | 6.99 | i | 4.99 | a |
| 1997 | -0.15 | MW gdp | 58.314 | 20.39 | a | 6.76 | i | 5.19 | a |
| 1998 | 1.33 | MW gdp | 58.475 | 20.45 | a | 6.22 | i | 5.22 | a |
| 1999 | 1.42 | MW gdp | 58.684 | 20.7 | a | 5.26 | a | 5.93 | a |
| 2000 | 1.17 | MW gdp | 58.886 | 19.62 | a | 5.37 | a | 5.97 | a |
| 2001 | 1.55 | MW gdp | 59.113 | 20.5 | a | 5.04 | a | 6.40 | a |
| 2002 | 2.16 | MW gdp | 59.366 | 21.12 | a | 4.97 | a | 6.57 | a |
| 2003 | 2.46 | MW gdp | 59.637 | 21.86 | a | 5.21 | a | 6.35 | a |
| 2004 | 2.65 | MW gdp | 59.950 | 22.64 | a | 5.59 | a | 6.18 | a |
| 2005 | 3.02 | MW gdp | 60.413 | 23.41 | a | 5.58 | a | 6.17 | a |
| 2006 | 2.86 | MW gdp | 60.827 | 23.91 | a | 5.54 | a | 6.11 | a |
| 2007 | 2.31 | MW gdp | 61.319 | 24.09 | a | 5.40 | a | 6.08 | a |
| 2008 | 3.42 | MW gdp | 61.824 | 24.67 | a | 5.67 | a | 6.20 | a |
| 2009 | -6.42 | 1592.3 | 62.261 | 26.73 | a | 6.25 | a | 6.82 | a |
| 2010 | 1.28 | 1567.8 | 62.760 | 28.45 | a | 7.06 | a | 7.42 | a |
| 2011 | 1.74 | 1634.2 | 63.285 | 29.38 | a | 6.87 | a | 7.46 | a |
| 2012 | 2.15 | 1680.1 | 63.705 | 28.16 | a | 7.03 | a | 7.72 | a |
| 2013 | 1.76 | 1735.1 | 64.106 | 27.93 | a | 6.74 | a | 8.02 | a |
| 2014 | 2.13 | 1809.7 | 64.597 | 26.88 | a | 6.29 | a | 7.89 | a |
| 2015 | 1.46 | 1892.4 | 65.110 | 26.15 | a | 6.04 | a | 7.92 | a |
| 2016 | 0.71 | 1942.6 | 65.648 | 26.63 | a | 5.85 | a | 7.96 | a |
| 2017 | 2.06 | 2029.4 | 66.040 | 26.58 | a | 5.55 | a | 7.69 | a |
| 2018 | 1.3 | 2115.1 | 66.436 | 26.46 | a | 5.33 | a | 7.54 | a |
| 2019 | 2.31 | 2190.4 | 66.797 | 26.19 | a | 5.20 | a | 7.52 | a |
| 2020 | 2.64 | 2258.3 | 67.844 | 26.71 | a | 5.30 | a | 7.11 | a |
| 2021 | 4.54 | 2110.5 | 68.138 | 38.03 | a | 6.66 | a | 7.73 | a |
| 2022 | 0.44 | 2400.6 | 68.414 | 30.56 | a | 5.79 | a | 6.94 | a |
| 2023 | 7.19 | 2637.1 | 68.671 | 30.73 | a | 5.70 | a | 6.75 | a |
| 2024 | 5.28 | 2779 | 68.921 | 29.28 | a | 6.13 | a | 7.31 | a |
| 2025 | 4.09 | 2933.2 | 68.339 | 29.09 | a | 6.11 | a | 7.36 | a |
| 2026 | 3.26 | 3062.6 | 68.765 | 29.72 | e | 6.28 | e | 7.30 | a |
Legend: Data Sources for 1980: Data Sources for 2026: | |||||||||
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.
Site Search
Data Sources for 1980_2026:
Sources for 1980:
GDP: Measuring Worth - UK GDP
Spending: National Income and Expenditure 1983, CSO
Debt: OBR Public Finances Databank
Sources for 2026:
GDP: OBR EFO supp. economy tables
Spending: HM Treasury PESA
Debt: OBR Public Finances Databank
> spending data sources for other years
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