About this data
Source: Welsh Government (StatsWales), Budgeted revenue expenditure by authority and service, 2026-27
- Budgets for April 2026 to March 2027, set by councils in spring 2026. All 22 councils sent their budgets.
- Figures are councils' day-to-day (revenue) spending on services, after income from sales, fees and charges; spending funded by specific government grants is included. Capital spending, debt financing, council housing (the Housing Revenue Account), housing benefit payments, levies, community council precepts and contingencies are not included.
- Police, and fire and rescue, are run in Wales by separate police and crime commissioners and fire authorities, which aren't included. Councils' spending is net of the levies they pay to fire and national park authorities.
- Central services are central administration (corporate management, democratic costs) and council tax collection. Coroners' courts are counted in central services, and coast protection and flood defence in environmental services, as in England's statistics.
- Figures are put on as similar a basis as possible to England's, but each nation's councils provide different services and are funded differently, and the statistics are collected in different ways, so comparisons between the nations are only rough. In particular, Scottish and Welsh councils fund almost all state schools, while in England most schools are academies, funded directly by central government.
This chart appears in Public spending.