In 2024, the three biggest government programs are health care (i.e, the NHS), state pensions, and welfare.
Spending details break down public spending by function and level of government. You can also drill down to view more spending detail by clicking the [+] control on each function line.
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. UK or Country/Region: By default, the table shows values for all spending in the United Kingdom. But you can select individual countries by selecting the country dropdown control in the table heading. Pie Chart: You can select a pie chart. You can create a pie chart for central government, local authority, and overall spending/revenue. | ||
GDP: £96.0 million(1) | United Kingdom Central Government and Local Authority Spending -5yr -1yr Fiscal Year 1720 +1yr +5yr Amounts in £ million | Pop: 9.7 million |
Change View: | default COFOG | Central (2) | Gen. Gov.(2) | Local (2) | Total | charts | ||
[+] 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 | ||||
[+] 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. | 2.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2.1 | ||||
[+] Welfare | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | ||||
[+] Protection | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | ||||
[+] Transport | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | ||||
[+] General Government | 0.9 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.9 | ||||
[+] Other Spending | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | ||||
[+] Interest | 2.8 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2.8 | ||||
[+] Balance | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | ||||
[+] Total Spending: Start chart | 6.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 6.0 | ||||
[+] Public Net Debt | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 54.0 | ||||
[+] Current Budget Deficit | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | ||||
expand / collapse Click for Chart -> | ||||||||
Key: Pie Chart: You can select a pie chart. You can create a pie chart for central government, local authority, and overall spending/revenue. GDP: data from measuringworth.com (but now unsupported) | Switch to revenue |
The table shows overall public spendingcentral government and local authoritiesin 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 2023 are outturn. More recent spending, including future years out to 2026, are estimated outturn, planned, or guesstimated.
Public sector expenditure between 1992 through 2026 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.
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.
Current Budget Deficit: The Office of Budget Responsibility computes the deficit as (current expenditure less current receipts less depreciation). It will not equal the difference between spending and revenue on this site because this site computes total spending by including both current and capital expenditure and ignoring depreciation.
Public Spending Updates: The current numbers are based on HM Treasurys PESA for 2022. The next update will be made after the PESA 2023 is published in late spring or summer 2023.
Click button to download CSV file of data in table
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.
GDP: data from measuringworth.com (but now unsupported)
Spending: B.R. Mitchell, British Historical Statistics
Debt: B.R. Mitchell, British Historical Statistics
> spending data sources for other years
On March 16, 2024 we updated UK revenue forecast data for 2023-24 to 2026-27 from the Office of Budget Responsibility's March 2024 Economic and fiscal outlook report in a zip file labeled "March 2024 Economic and fiscal outlook - charts and tables (zip file)" and a spreadsheet file named "Annex_A_charts_and_tables_March_2024.xlsx" and Table A.5: Current Receipts in tab "TA.5".
2022-23 Forecast | March 2023 £ billion | March 2024 £ billion |
Central Government | £951.9 | £987.4 |
Local Authorities | £68.1 | £670.6 |
Total UK Revenue | £1,020.0 | £1,058.0 |
On March 16, 2024 we updated UK deficit forecast data for 2023-24 to 2028-29 from the Office of Budget Responsibility's March 2024 Economic and fiscal outlook report Table 6.5 Components of Net Borrowing in tab "6.5" in a zip file labeled "March 2024 Economic and fiscal outlook - detailed forecast tables (zip file)" and a spreadsheet file named "Detailed_forecast_tables_Aggregates_March_2024.xlsx".
Get spending chart.
Download spending table.
Download spending data series.
Review data sources.
ukpublicspending.co.uk was designed and executed by:
Christopher Chantrill.
Report bugs here.
Budget 2012: 50p tax rate scrapped and allowance raised
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
> archive