RPI inflation, 1949 to August 2026

£1.00 in 1949 is £51.99 today

That £1.00 bought 5.6 dozen eggs in 1949. Today it buys 0.42.

Prices up 5,099%5.2% a year on averageMultiply by 51.99

Measured with the Retail Prices Index, the only official series that runs back to 1948. Use CPI instead.

It takes 52.0 of today's pounds to match one from 1949

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What £1.00 buys

Official average shop prices, not a basket. Things marked as outrunning inflation got dearer faster than everything else; things that lagged got relatively cheaper.

Item	1949	Today
dozen eggslagged inflation18p then, about £2.39 today	5.6	0.42
pints of milklagged inflation2p then, about 70p today	48	1.4
Same money, adjusted for inflation	£1.00	£51.99

The ONS stopped publishing these average prices in January 2025. Today's figures are that last reading moved on with inflation, so treat them as close rather than exact.