RPI inflation, 1951 to July 2026

£100 in 1951 is £4,590 today

That £100 bought 435 dozen eggs in 1951. Today it buys 42.

Prices up 4,490%5.2% a year on averageMultiply by 45.90

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

It takes 45.9 of today's pounds to match one from 1951

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What £100 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	1951	Today
dozen eggslagged inflation23p then, about £2.38 today	435	42
pints of milklagged inflation2p then, about 70p today	4,348	144
Same money, adjusted for inflation	£100	£4,590

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.