UK in Data

Clear, sourced charts of the UK, rebuilt automatically from official releases.

Public finances

• A salary of £32,100 pays £5,468 in income tax and National Insurance in 2026-27
• A full-time worker on typical pay of £39,863 paid 19.2% of it in income tax and National Insurance in 2025-26
• Debt interest cost 8.8p for every £1 the government raised in 2025-26
• Public spending on services was £1,228bn in 2025-26
• Income tax made up 26.7p of every £1 the public sector raised in 2025-26
• The top 1% of income tax payers paid 27.2% of all income tax in 2023-24
• The government spent 44.5% of GDP and raised 40.1% in 2025-26
• Social protection and health were the largest areas of public spending in 2025-26
• Public sector net debt was 93.3% of GDP in 2025-26
• Spending on debt interest rose by £79bn after inflation between 2020-21 and 2025-26, more than any other area

Cost of living

• The average home cost 6.7 years of a typical full-time worker's pay in 2025
• After inflation, household electricity prices were 35% higher and gas prices 12% higher than in 2015, in August 2026
• After inflation, beer in pubs and bars cost 17% more in August 2026 than in January 1987
• Gas and electricity for a typical household cost £1,658 a year in August 2026
• UK households paid 29.7p per unit of electricity and 7.0p per unit of gas in 2025, including taxes
• Petrol cost 175.3p a litre and diesel 200.0p at UK filling stations in the week of 12 October 2026
• A pint of lager cost an average of £5.15 in the UK in the 12 months to August 2026

Economy

• The UK economy was 1.4% larger in April to June 2026 than a year earlier
• GDP per person was £42,493 in the year to June 2026, in 2024 prices
• Real household disposable income was £26,154 per person in the year to June 2026, in 2024 prices
• Consumer prices rose 3.1% in the year to August 2026
• The unemployment rate was 4.9% in May to July 2026
• 75.1% of people aged 16 to 64 were in work in May to July 2026
• 6.4% of people aged 16 to 64 in the UK were economically inactive because of long-term sickness in May to July 2026: 2.78 million people
• 13.0% of people aged 16 to 24 in the UK were not in education, employment or training in April to June 2026: 981,000 young people
• Average weekly pay after inflation was 0.9% higher in May to July 2026 than a year earlier
• There were 702,000 job vacancies in the UK in June to August 2026

Public services

• 7.37 million cases were waiting for planned hospital treatment in England in August 2026, 65.2% of them for 18 weeks or less
• 74.4% of A&E attendances in England were admitted, transferred or discharged within 4 hours of arrival in September 2026, and 50,582 patients waited over 12 hours from a decision to admit them
• Ambulances in England took a mean of 31 minutes 18 seconds to reach Category 2 calls, such as strokes and heart attacks, in September 2026

Housing

• England had 439 homes for every 1,000 people on 31 March 2025, and added 208,600 homes in 2024-25
• Homes per 1,000 people ranged from 422 in London to 465 in the North East on 31 March 2025
• Households in the UK had 2.36 people on average in 2025, compared with 2.42 in 1996
• Private rents in the UK rose 3.8% in the 12 months to August 2026, and the average rent was £1,400 a month
• 135,580 homeless families and single people in England were living in temporary accommodation at the end of March 2026, with 177,530 children

Climate

• Fine particles (PM2.5) averaged 8.0 µg/m³ at urban background sites in the UK in 2025, and nitrogen dioxide 20.4 µg/m³ at roadside sites in 2025
• UK greenhouse gas emissions were 367 million tonnes in 2025, 54% lower than in 1990
• Low-carbon sources generated 64.3% of UK electricity in 2025, renewables 52.1% and fossil fuels 32.3%
• England's recycling rate for waste from households was 43.8% in 2024
• Monitored storm overflows in England spilled sewage 20.5 times each on average in 2025: 292,119 spills from 14,239 overflows
• Storm overflows run by South West Water spilled 34.0 times each on average in 2025, and those run by Anglian Water 12.0 times

Defence

• 149,000 people served full time in the UK armed forces in June 2026
• The armed forces had 7 frigates, 171 combat jets and 285 tanks on 1 April 2026

Population

• There were 585,396 live births in England and Wales in 2025, and the total fertility rate was 1.39 children per woman
• 33,374 people crossed the Channel to the UK in small boats in the year to June 2026
• 40,168 people in the UK were waiting for a first decision on their asylum claim at the end of June 2026, and 16,021 people seeking asylum were living in hotels
• Life expectancy at birth in the UK was 79.1 years for males and 83.0 years for females in 2022 to 2024
• Net migration to the UK was 171,000 in the year to December 2025: 813,000 people moved to the UK and 642,000 moved away
• Life satisfaction in the UK averaged 7.45 out of 10 in 2022-23; worthwhile 7.73, happiness 7.39 and anxiety 3.23

Crime

• The Crime Survey found 17.1% of adults in England and Wales were victims of crime in the year to March 2026, or 9.6% excluding fraud and computer misuse
• Police recorded crime in England and Wales had a Crime Severity Score of 16.3 in the year to March 2025, from 87 offences per 1,000 people
• England and Wales had 8.6 homicides per million people in the year to March 2025, and 54 hospital admissions for assault with a sharp object per million in the year to March 2026

Transport

• 84.7% of passenger trains in Great Britain arrived within 5 or 10 minutes of the timetable in April to June 2026
• Passengers made 461 million rail journeys in Great Britain in April to June 2026
• Trains in Great Britain arrived on time at 68.1% of station stops in April to June 2026
• 4.1% of passenger trains planned in Great Britain were cancelled in April to June 2026, counting part cancellations as half
• After inflation, rail fares in Great Britain were 38% higher on average in 2026 than in 1995
• 16% of minor roads, 6% of B and C roads and 4% of A roads run by councils in England were in poor condition in 2025-26
• Motor vehicles were driven 342.6 billion miles on Great Britain's roads in 2025
• Traffic on England's motorways and major A roads averaged 56.7 mph in the year to June 2026