Stories

• A full-time worker on typical pay paid 19.2% of it in income tax and National Insurance in 2025-26, against 26.3% in 1990-91
• Debt interest took 8.8p of every £1 the government raised in 2025-26, more than in any year from 1998-99 to 2021-22
• Pensions cost £155bn in 2025-26, more than all of education (£126bn)
• Fuel, alcohol and other duties made up 5.5p of every £1 the government received in 2025-26, less than half the 11.6p in 1999-00
• The top 1% of income tax payers paid 2.7 times as much income tax as the bottom 50% in 2023-24: 27.2% of the total against 9.9%
• The top 1% of income tax payers received 12.4% of all income before tax in 2023-24, and paid 27.2% of all income tax
• Taxes and other government income came to 40.1% of GDP in 2025-26, the largest share since 1982-83
• After inflation, health spending rose 44% between 2011-12 and 2025-26, and education fell 1%
• Debt interest cost twice as much as defence in 2025-26: £130.3bn against £65.4bn
• Net debt was 93.3% of GDP in 2025-26. Before the pandemic, it was last as high in 1962-63
• A home cost twice as many years of pay in 2025 as in 1984: 6.7 years against 3.3
• After inflation, electricity prices in August 2026 were 35% higher than in 2015, and 30% below their peak in January 2023
• Since 2010 the economy has grown by 1.8% a year on average, leaving out the pandemic. From 1956 to 2007 it grew by 2.7% a year
• GDP per person grew 9% in the 18 years since 2008. In the 18 years before, it grew 43%
• After inflation, household income per person was lower in 2026 than at its peak in 2021, and 0.5% higher than in 2019
• Unemployment rose to 5.2% in the last three months of 2025, its highest since 2015 outside the pandemic
• England's waiting list for planned NHS hospital care was 7.37 million in August 2026, 1.6 times the 4.57 million before the pandemic
• 50,582 patients waited over 12 hours for a bed after a decision to admit in September 2026, against 689 a month before the pandemic
• Ambulances took 31 minutes on average to reach emergencies such as strokes in September 2026, 8 minutes more than before the pandemic
• Fewer than half as many people in the armed forces as in 1989
• A pint of lager cost £4.83 in January 2025, against 92p in February 1987
• After inflation, beer from shops costs 50% less than in 1987
• UK greenhouse gas emissions fell 54% between 1990 and 2025; emissions from domestic transport fell 9%
• Renewables generated more than half of UK electricity in 2025, for the second year running: 52.1%
• 9.6% of adults were victims of crime in the year to March 2026, the lowest since records began in 1981
• 7.8% of adults were victims of fraud in the year to March 2026, against 9.6% who were victims of any other crime
• The homicide rate in the year to March 2025 was the lowest since 1977: 8.6 per million people
• After inflation, the same gas and electricity cost 2.5 times as much in August 2026 as in November 2000, when it was cheapest
• Only three of 27 EU countries had dearer household electricity than the UK in 2025
• 15 of 23 EU countries with a gas price had dearer household gas than the UK in 2025
• The Royal Navy had 7 frigates in 2026, down from 21 in 2000
• The armed forces had 249 helicopters in 2026, down from 372 in 2016
• The number waiting for an asylum decision fell by 75% from 160,919 at the end of December 2022 to 40,168 at the end of June 2026
• 16,021 people seeking asylum were living in hotels at the end of June 2026, 65% fewer than at the end of December 2022
• Men's life expectancy at birth rose by 0.1 years between 2012-14 and 2022-24, against 2.9 years in the ten years before
• 720,000 more people aged 16 to 64 were out of work through long-term sickness in May to July 2026 than in the same months of 2019
• Net migration fell by 82% from its peak of 944,000 in the year to March 2023 to 171,000 in 2025
• A pint of lager costs £1.88 more in London than in Wales
• There was more traffic on Great Britain's roads in 2025 than in any year since comparable figures began in 1993
• Miles driven by vans have more than doubled since 1993, while car miles rose by 25%
• Storm overflows run by South West Water spilled 2.8 times as often on average as those run by Anglian Water in 2025
• More homeless families and single people were in temporary accommodation in March 2026 than at any time since records began in 1998