About this data

Source: Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), Public finances databank, October 2026; HM Treasury, GDP deflators; ONS, mid-year population estimates

• Public spending is total managed expenditure (TME): all spending by central government, local government and public corporations, including investment, benefits and debt interest.
• Adjusted for inflation with HM Treasury's GDP deflator (October 2026), in 2025-26 prices. The deflator starts in 1955-56, so inflation-adjusted figures start then.
• Per person figures divide spending by the UK's population in the middle of the year (mid-2025 for 2025-26).
• OBR's figure for 2025-26 (£1,365.6 billion) uses ONS data from September 2026; HM Treasury's PESA 2026, published in July, has £1,360.1 billion.

This chart appears in Public spending.