Spending on debt interest rose by £79bn after inflation between 2020-21 and 2025-26, more than any other area
UK government spending on each area at the start of the period, and how much it changed by the end. £ billion in 2025-26 prices, so all years allow for inflation.
Latest figures
| Series | Period | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Pensions, benefits and social care | 2025-26 | £407.3bn |
| Health | 2025-26 | £257.5bn |
| Education | 2025-26 | £125.7bn |
| Debt interest | 2025-26 | £130.3bn |
| Transport, business and research | 2025-26 | £94.0bn |
| Defence | 2025-26 | £65.4bn |
| Police, courts and prisons | 2025-26 | £55.7bn |
| Everything else | 2025-26 | £91.8bn |
Notes
- Each bar shows an area's spending at the start of the period (grey) and how much it rose or fell by the end (colour). Every figure is in 2025-26 prices, so a pound means the same in every year and rising prices don't count as extra spending. Bars are sorted by the change in pounds.
- Periods are five years, about the length of a parliament, or one year.
- Spending in 2020-21 and 2021-22 includes the response to COVID-19, such as support for jobs and businesses and extra health spending, so periods that start or end in those years show it as a rise or a fall.
- Pensions, benefits and social care is what the Treasury calls social protection. Transport, business and research is what it calls economic affairs.
- "Everything else" includes the running of government, the environment, housing, culture and sport, and payments to and from the EU. Debt interest is shown on its own.
- Some areas were counted differently before a certain year, so they are only compared over periods starting then or later: education from 2011-12, when the cost of student loans was taken out, and transport, business and research from 2015-16, when Network Rail was added.
- The Treasury revises earlier years in each edition, so figures can differ from past editions.
Sources
More on 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