About this data

Source: OBR, Historical public finances database (2023)

• OBR's long-run series, compiled from ONS and historical sources (B. R. Mitchell's British Historical Statistics before 1946). It was last updated in 2023, so it ends in 2022-23, and its categories differ slightly from HM Treasury's PESA figures.
• Social security is shown from 1954-55, health and education from 1919-20. Defence spending reached 50% of GDP during the Second World War.
• Social security is benefits and pensions paid by government; it doesn't include social care.

This chart appears in Public spending.